A Study of Long-Form Works for the Jazz Ensemble

<p>Reflections (In Mosaic) is a long-form work written for a modern jazz orchestra. While made up of seven smaller parts, it is intended to be listened to as a single continuous performance. Reflections (In Mosaic) serves as an exploration into formal structures more complex than the standard blues and cyclical AABA forms. This is achieved through the use of inter-related musical themes, transitional material that develops musical themes and propels the story of the piece forward, programmatic themes, and a consideration towards a more integrative approach to improvised sections in a modern jazz composition context. This exegesis features a comprehensive musical and topical analysis of four case studies: Duke Ellington’s Harlem (1951), Charles Mingus’s Fables of Faubus (1959), Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959), and Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays’s The Way Up (2005). In my analysis I examine the features of long-form works from a range of different angles through discussions on: (1) the formal features of the symphonic jazz genre and the integration of concert-style gestures into the jazz big band tradition, (2) the role performance and improvisation can have in communicating an idea within a composed structure, (3) the use of programmatic themes, and (4) a model for a structural design which draws on comparisons to narrative structure. Of particular importance to my compositional project is the use of a programmatic theme. Reflections is directly inspired by the film Magnolia (1999), written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. I do not attempt to mirror the narrative or structure of the film in Reflections but, instead, loosely base the composition on the film’s characters and topical themes. The culmination of this exegesis is a discussion of how the four case studies informed my own compositional processes.</p>

A Study of Long-Form Works for the Jazz Ensemble

<p>Reflections (In Mosaic) is a long-form work written for a modern jazz orchestra. While made up of seven smaller parts, it is intended to be listened to as a single continuous performance. Reflections (In Mosaic) serves as an exploration into formal structures more complex than the standard blues and cyclical AABA forms. This is achieved through the use of inter-related musical themes, transitional material that develops musical themes and propels the story of the piece forward, programmatic themes, and a consideration towards a more integrative approach to improvised sections in a modern jazz composition context. This exegesis features a comprehensive musical and topical analysis of four case studies: Duke Ellington’s Harlem (1951), Charles Mingus’s Fables of Faubus (1959), Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959), and Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays’s The Way Up (2005). In my analysis I examine the features of long-form works from a range of different angles through discussions on: (1) the formal features of the symphonic jazz genre and the integration of concert-style gestures into the jazz big band tradition, (2) the role performance and improvisation can have in communicating an idea within a composed structure, (3) the use of programmatic themes, and (4) a model for a structural design which draws on comparisons to narrative structure. Of particular importance to my compositional project is the use of a programmatic theme. Reflections is directly inspired by the film Magnolia (1999), written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. I do not attempt to mirror the narrative or structure of the film in Reflections but, instead, loosely base the composition on the film’s characters and topical themes. The culmination of this exegesis is a discussion of how the four case studies informed my own compositional processes.</p>

The Requiem Mass and Sacred Jazz: A Study of catholic Liturgical Forms in the Genre of Sacred Jazz

<p>This exegesis examines the role of religious and spiritual influence on works by jazz composers as related to my composition, Requiem: a Suite of Jazz Orchestra, a jazz suite based on the Requiem Mass. The exegesis details the Catholic origins of the Requiem and the Mass as musical forms and traces their lineages into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as concert works and memorials not bound by liturgical function. These forms and their lineages frame the development of both religious and religion-inspired musical works in the cultural climate of 1960s America. In particular, I focus on two composers, Mary Lou Williams and Duke Ellington, both of whom composed large-scale sacred works related to the jazz idiom. This project situates religion, primarily Catholicism, and spirituality in the context of jazz composition, and discusses music composed in this vein, including my own work influenced by the Catholic liturgical tradition.</p>

The Requiem Mass and Sacred Jazz: A Study of catholic Liturgical Forms in the Genre of Sacred Jazz

<p>This exegesis examines the role of religious and spiritual influence on works by jazz composers as related to my composition, Requiem: a Suite of Jazz Orchestra, a jazz suite based on the Requiem Mass. The exegesis details the Catholic origins of the Requiem and the Mass as musical forms and traces their lineages into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as concert works and memorials not bound by liturgical function. These forms and their lineages frame the development of both religious and religion-inspired musical works in the cultural climate of 1960s America. In particular, I focus on two composers, Mary Lou Williams and Duke Ellington, both of whom composed large-scale sacred works related to the jazz idiom. This project situates religion, primarily Catholicism, and spirituality in the context of jazz composition, and discusses music composed in this vein, including my own work influenced by the Catholic liturgical tradition.</p>

The Effect of Outside Genres on Techniques and Devices in Modern Jazz Composition (1988-2008)

<p>This is a study involving research, analysis and performance of music composed by jazz artists in the last twenty years. The focus of this discussion will be on the influence of several outside genres on the music of these jazz composers. In particular it will examine transcriptions of works by composers including Dave Holland, John Scofield, Hiromi Uehara, Nils Wogram, Christian McBride, Bill Frisell, Kenny Garrett and Pat Metheny. The analysis of these transcriptions will examine the devices the composers have used such as counterpoint, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, melody, time signatures, form et al. and assess how any outside genres may have affected these devices. Furthermore the analysed compositions will be performed in a recital setting, as well as a portfolio of compositions written by myself using the techniques gathered from my analysis.</p>

The Effect of Outside Genres on Techniques and Devices in Modern Jazz Composition (1988-2008)

<p>This is a study involving research, analysis and performance of music composed by jazz artists in the last twenty years. The focus of this discussion will be on the influence of several outside genres on the music of these jazz composers. In particular it will examine transcriptions of works by composers including Dave Holland, John Scofield, Hiromi Uehara, Nils Wogram, Christian McBride, Bill Frisell, Kenny Garrett and Pat Metheny. The analysis of these transcriptions will examine the devices the composers have used such as counterpoint, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, melody, time signatures, form et al. and assess how any outside genres may have affected these devices. Furthermore the analysed compositions will be performed in a recital setting, as well as a portfolio of compositions written by myself using the techniques gathered from my analysis.</p>

TEACHING JAZZ IMPROVISATION TO A FUTURE VOCAL ARTIST: ITS ESSENCE AND SPECIFICS

The issues of teaching jazz improvisation to future vocal artists, especially theoretical and methodological aspects of their professional development in institutions of higher art education, have not been sufficiently studied. The matters of the essence and specifics of pop and jazz art, expressive means of improvisational mastery in vocal performance, the special nature of the relation between a composer and a performer, and the relationship with the audience become especially relevant. Vocal performance is one of the most important parts of jazz music. Both the first blues performers and many performers of the following decades – the period of New Orleans jazz, the era of swing, bebop and modern jazz – spark our interest. In addition to pronouncing the basic musical text, talented improvising vocalists have been using and continue to use scat singing till this day. The peculiarity of teaching jazz improvisation is also that it is a specific way of spiritual communication by musical means that can «say» more than words. It is a special concert genre that simulates a situation of direct spiritual communication, which occurs when two or more people related by a previously friendly relationship meet or during a meeting of people who have a sense of empathy between them. The specific features of a future vocal artist include combinatorial memory, imagination, fantasy, technical capabilities, and musical thinking, since the musician implements their spiritual and emotional potential in improvisation, operating with blocks of musical and artistic information during the jazz composition performance, combining them in different patterns, and thus finds the most complete, voluminous artistic embodiment of the improvisational idea. Vocal and jazz art is special in its manner, harmony, performance techniques, sound production, and orthoepy. Each style has its own professional performers whose artistic work presents the standard of the way the music sounds. Expressive means of improvisational technique in jazz are various, which is due to the specific features of variable jazz styles, individual performance style of vocal artists and the specifics of musical forms and genres typical of such technique.

Jazz composition in the modern educational process

The teaching system is periodically updated and improved. The article outlines the perspective of using jazz composition in the system of musical education. Its expediency is emphasized, and its conditionality is shown by several interacting factors that contribute to the formation of professional skills of a musician-performer and teacher. In addition, the characteristic features that distinguish it from other musical disciplines are identified. At the same time, jazz composition as a technique for creating works is the basis for the formation and development of a musical style that involves the search for an individual performing style. Jazz composition is considered as a sphere of modern musical culture that meets the needs of musicians and listeners. The article shows the importance of jazz composition in the realities of the development of musical styles, emphasizes its importance in the system of values of musical culture, the objective meaning of which is determined by its inherent nature in several components of the modern creative process.

“L'ecume des jours”: From the Novel to the Opera Libretto

Статья посвящена сравнительному анализу либретто оперы Эдисона Денисова «Пена дней» и одноименного романа Бориса Виана. Автор предпринимает попытку восстановить процесс создания оперного текста и проследить, как эпическое произведение, исполненное гротескно-фантастических элементов, трансформировалось в лирическую драму. На материале двух вариантов либретто и трех режиссерских постановок показано, что главной героиней оперы является джазовая композиция Дюка Эллингтона «Хлоя», а центральной проблемой - взаимоотношение художника и искусства в мире, где человеческая жизнь обесценена. Отказываясь в последних картинах от псевдокарнавальной поэтики романа, композитор противопоставляет виановской насмешке над инфантильными обитателями своей вселенной идею вечной светоносной красоты. The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the libretto of Edison Denisov's opera “Froth on the Daydream” and the novel of the same name by Boris Vian. The author makes an attempt to restore the process of creating an opera text and to trace how an epic work full of grotesque-fantastic elements was transformed into a lyrical drama. Based on the material of two versions of the libretto and three directorial productions, it is shown in the study that Duke Ellington's jazz composition “Chloe” is the main character of the opera, and the central problem is the relationship between the artist and art in a world where human life is worthless. Refusing in the last pictures from the pseudo-carnival poetics of the novel, the composer contrasts the Vianian mockery of the infantile inhabitants of his universe with the idea of eternal luminous beauty that is unable to die.

Introduction

The introduction begins with a discussion of the nature of jazz composition, advancing the view that improvisations can sometimes become compositions. The concept of an authoritative recording is discussed, that is, that a recording with sufficient properties may instantiate a composition in lieu of an officially notated version. The book’s method of listing and categorizing Parker compositions then follows. For the latter, Parker’s compositions are divided into seven groups, which proceed from fully composed 32-bar pieces to those works with minimal music. This final group also includes improvised pieces. The introduction ends by citing significant prior studies and explaining the book’s analytical approaches.