Corpus Callosum
(1999)
Commissioned to commemorate the retirement of Colonel Jack Grogan, US Army Field Band.
This piece was written to commemorate the retirement of Colonel Jack Grogan. Col. Grogan had told me that he was of two minds about the military, and held his patriotism and love of country on one side, and more militaristic aspects of service on the other. He was a man who held two possibility conflicting aesthetics in one body. This piece presents music from the patriotic/ love of country aesthetic simultaneously with the music from the military. Simultaneously means that music in three-quarter time (or 15-8 time) is presented at the same time as music in 12 -8 or 4-4 time. The conductor offers one meter in the right hand and another in the left hand, with both meters sharing downbeats.
This bilateral conducting represents a conductor who has had her corpus callosum (nerve system that connects the two halves of the brain) severed. Left hand is in one meter; right hand in another.
To emphasize the effect, the conductor is visually split down the middle, with one half of the body white and the other black. Musicians are instructed to follow one half or the other.
(1999)
Commissioned to commemorate the retirement of Colonel Jack Grogan, US Army Field Band.
This piece was written to commemorate the retirement of Colonel Jack Grogan. Col. Grogan had told me that he was of two minds about the military, and held his patriotism and love of country on one side, and more militaristic aspects of service on the other. He was a man who held two possibility conflicting aesthetics in one body. This piece presents music from the patriotic/ love of country aesthetic simultaneously with the music from the military. Simultaneously means that music in three-quarter time (or 15-8 time) is presented at the same time as music in 12 -8 or 4-4 time. The conductor offers one meter in the right hand and another in the left hand, with both meters sharing downbeats.
This bilateral conducting represents a conductor who has had her corpus callosum (nerve system that connects the two halves of the brain) severed. Left hand is in one meter; right hand in another.
To emphasize the effect, the conductor is visually split down the middle, with one half of the body white and the other black. Musicians are instructed to follow one half or the other.
I was challenged to remove this picture by someone who associated it with the reprehensible practice of blackface. But as there is a clear distinction between the intent and history of blackface, and the presentation of a conductor visually split entirely down the middle, including the face, I am leaving it here. I am wide open to considering arguments against my position, and if a cogent argument is presented, I will respond. August 11, 2020.