Connecting the dots on the page

The work of composition is trickier than it looks. As I think about writing some instrumental settings of the psalms, it helps to have some significant teachers to guide my thoughts.

As a Christmas gift this year, family members signed me up for a new program called "Artist Share." The idea behind this new record label is intriguing. Rather than merely pay for a CD (the artist's product), supporters can subscribe to support the process of the artist. How does the music get composed, performed, recorded? That's what Artist Share tries to reveal. The more you support the artist, the more resources are shared with you.

That's the short answer of how I have begun to take a few composition lessons from Bob Brookmeyer, the great jazz writer and trombonist. Through his Artist Share web site (www.bobbrookmeyer.com), he has secured some of us to support a new writing/arranging project, which will result in an album called "Spirit Music." One of the benefits is a series of PDF files of his recent work, along with a number of audio files to explain them. This allows me to look over his shoulder as he writes for his new album.

A few friends know how influential Bob has been in my music, even though I'm sure he has long forgotten me. In the summer of 1982, Al Hamme contracted Brookmeyer to lead a week-long jazz workshop at SUNY Binghamton. The cast of musicians that he brought with him are now a who's who in the jazz world: saxophonists Joe Lovano and Dick Oatts, pianist Jim McNeely, drummer Adam Nussbaum, and bassist Michael Moore (now with Brubeck). Every day we played music, got some coaching, and listened to the masters create.

On three of those afternoons, Bob and I spent some time talking about music - how it's made, how to write for specific players and circumstances, how to develop a brief tune into something bigger. I've never forgotten some of his lessons, and now I'm learning from him all over again.

In the past twenty-plus years, I've written almost a hundred musical compositions, many of them since I put together Presbybop in 1993. And I've always enjoyed "connecting the dots" on manuscript paper as a way of touching the magic of moving sound. The tunes seem to come on their own timetable. It helps, of course, to have such wonderful musicians to bring the black dots to life. In that way, I am blessed beyond measure.

Brookmeyer has suggested a number of recordings for my studies. I've picked up a number of them, and they are (predictably) opening my ears. Included are the collected string quartets of Bartok, the chamber music of Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time." I'm finding this music to be deeply moving, even though all of it is quite different from the usual ear candy in my CD player.

Musically, what does a psalm sound like? How can ancient words be brought to life through a sequence of tones? Those are the compositional questions, and the quick answer to both: "it's too early to tell."