A+: A "Precise" Prelude and An "Excellent" March
(1998) 2:30 or so
(212 acl bcl 1, 2atb sx/121 euph, 1, elec. Bass, 5 perc)
Commissioned by the American Composers Forum
Level: 2nd year band through college/ professional
There is much debate about the value of the performing arts in the pre-college curriculum. This debate rages most furiously when budget considerations make cut-backs inevitable, and the academic money-managers propose to snip away at the non-core curricular "activities" such as art and music performance and, in some cases, athletics. This short piece makes the case for the unique importance of music performance curricular or non-curricular in every academic program.
Grades allege to represent achievement. There is a quantitative correlation between grades and performance, with grades often being assigned to reflect the percentage of correct or appropriate responses or behaviors. Average grading scales include the grades A, B, C, D, and F, with gradations of these levels being subdivided by pluses and minuses. Roughly, F corresponds to grades of 59% and lower; D corresponds to 60 to 69%; C corresponds to 70 to 79%; B corresponds to 80 to 89%; and A corresponds to 90 to 100%. The higher and lower areas of the grading ranges are reflected by + and -. The unique grade of A+ is awarded for achievement in the area of 97 to 100%. This means that, in the sciences and humanities for example, the highest possible grade can be awarded to work or achievement that contains up to 3% error! A+ = 97%; 3% short of perfection! Can you imagine a musical performance with even 1% error, never mind 3%? Most musical performances are flawless in execution in certain domains (pitch, rhythm, dynamics). Think how greatly one wrong note sticks out of an orchestral or band or choral performance! Music performance routinely demands one hundred percent accuracy in execution. Music performance is unique in that regard. Is there another discipline in the academic curriculum that makes such high demands on students?
A+: A "Precise" Prelude and An "Excellent" March makes a case for the high quality of music performance. The Prelude, if performed well, is precisely imprecise, with tendrils of harmonic material floating around at the whim and fancy of the woodwinds. The March is a simple little Commencement-like processional (feel free to use it as a real march!) which is repeated. The ensemble players are instructed to make one mistake in the repetition a mistake of pitch or dynamic or rhythm or articulation; it's their choice. There are 8665 notes in this piece. If the ensemble consists of 60 players, all of whom make one pitch mistake, the percent of error is .69 of 1 %, that is not even 1%! If one considers that each note has a dynamic, articulation and rhythm component (all of which can be mutilated!), the possible execution opportunities become 8665 pitches x 3 (dynamics, rhythm, articulation) for a total of 25,995! One mistake by each member of a sixty-piece ensemble now represents only .023 of 1%! In fact, 3 % error in this case would equal 779 mistakesa rate of performance that would qualify for an A+ in the academic world but would probably result in the conductor of the ensemble receiving a pink slip or the request for career counseling before the last notes' reverberations ceased!
Nevertheless, by all academic standards, the performance of this march, with anything less than 779 mistakes, will be "excellent."
(Available from American Composers Forum)
(1998) 2:30 or so
(212 acl bcl 1, 2atb sx/121 euph, 1, elec. Bass, 5 perc)
Commissioned by the American Composers Forum
Level: 2nd year band through college/ professional
There is much debate about the value of the performing arts in the pre-college curriculum. This debate rages most furiously when budget considerations make cut-backs inevitable, and the academic money-managers propose to snip away at the non-core curricular "activities" such as art and music performance and, in some cases, athletics. This short piece makes the case for the unique importance of music performance curricular or non-curricular in every academic program.
Grades allege to represent achievement. There is a quantitative correlation between grades and performance, with grades often being assigned to reflect the percentage of correct or appropriate responses or behaviors. Average grading scales include the grades A, B, C, D, and F, with gradations of these levels being subdivided by pluses and minuses. Roughly, F corresponds to grades of 59% and lower; D corresponds to 60 to 69%; C corresponds to 70 to 79%; B corresponds to 80 to 89%; and A corresponds to 90 to 100%. The higher and lower areas of the grading ranges are reflected by + and -. The unique grade of A+ is awarded for achievement in the area of 97 to 100%. This means that, in the sciences and humanities for example, the highest possible grade can be awarded to work or achievement that contains up to 3% error! A+ = 97%; 3% short of perfection! Can you imagine a musical performance with even 1% error, never mind 3%? Most musical performances are flawless in execution in certain domains (pitch, rhythm, dynamics). Think how greatly one wrong note sticks out of an orchestral or band or choral performance! Music performance routinely demands one hundred percent accuracy in execution. Music performance is unique in that regard. Is there another discipline in the academic curriculum that makes such high demands on students?
A+: A "Precise" Prelude and An "Excellent" March makes a case for the high quality of music performance. The Prelude, if performed well, is precisely imprecise, with tendrils of harmonic material floating around at the whim and fancy of the woodwinds. The March is a simple little Commencement-like processional (feel free to use it as a real march!) which is repeated. The ensemble players are instructed to make one mistake in the repetition a mistake of pitch or dynamic or rhythm or articulation; it's their choice. There are 8665 notes in this piece. If the ensemble consists of 60 players, all of whom make one pitch mistake, the percent of error is .69 of 1 %, that is not even 1%! If one considers that each note has a dynamic, articulation and rhythm component (all of which can be mutilated!), the possible execution opportunities become 8665 pitches x 3 (dynamics, rhythm, articulation) for a total of 25,995! One mistake by each member of a sixty-piece ensemble now represents only .023 of 1%! In fact, 3 % error in this case would equal 779 mistakesa rate of performance that would qualify for an A+ in the academic world but would probably result in the conductor of the ensemble receiving a pink slip or the request for career counseling before the last notes' reverberations ceased!
Nevertheless, by all academic standards, the performance of this march, with anything less than 779 mistakes, will be "excellent."
(Available from American Composers Forum)