A short blurb on my musical ancestry
After my graduate recital at the SFCM, David Conte remarked to me that there was a distinct lineage he heard in my music and encouraged me to map it out as an exercise to help myself further identify my compositional voice and style. Using an example he showed me of Ned Rorem describing Poulenc's style, as well as David's own example, I came up with a blueprint of myself and thought it might be worthwhile to post online.
People often ask and share the moment when they made their “vows” to music. My earliest musical memories go back to when I was introduced to the piano at the age of five or six by my older sisters and cousin, who were all also studying piano. When I was in ninth grade, however, I attended a trumpet masterclass that happened to overlap with my band period (I was primarily a clarinetist). In that class is where I discovered Miles Davis and Lee Morgan, and eventually came across John Coltrane’s recording of Giant Steps. That’s when I knew I wanted to play the saxophone and learn jazz.
Of course, playing jazz never became a realistic career for me and I studied mechanical engineering at Lehigh University. In my junior year, I discovered the Mahler symphonies and hearing the Adagietto from the Fifth revitalized my interest in classical music. That coincided with me taking my first composition class and later hearing Copland’s Appalachian Spring. From a jazz musician’s perspective, Copland’s use of harmony combined with his emotional awareness (something I felt was missing from most jazz) blew me away, and I sought to make everything I wrote sound like him.
As I eventually matured out of being a Copland clone, I continued to find my voice to be distinctly American-sounding, occasionally reverting back to my favorite sounds of Copland and Barber, while slowly finding ways to draw more from my jazz playing. I discovered pretty quickly that I didn't want to write classical music for jazz instruments or jazz music for classical instruments, or as I liked to call it, “shitty Kapustin.”
In discussions with my teacher David Garner, I’ve actively tried to steer myself away from any clear influences, as I’ve embraced the current American trend of composers in a “post-style” aesthetic. Nonetheless, there are always techniques of certain composers, old and new, that I admire and attempt to add to my toolbox. Following Rorem’s example, here is a brief list of my influences:
People often ask and share the moment when they made their “vows” to music. My earliest musical memories go back to when I was introduced to the piano at the age of five or six by my older sisters and cousin, who were all also studying piano. When I was in ninth grade, however, I attended a trumpet masterclass that happened to overlap with my band period (I was primarily a clarinetist). In that class is where I discovered Miles Davis and Lee Morgan, and eventually came across John Coltrane’s recording of Giant Steps. That’s when I knew I wanted to play the saxophone and learn jazz.
Of course, playing jazz never became a realistic career for me and I studied mechanical engineering at Lehigh University. In my junior year, I discovered the Mahler symphonies and hearing the Adagietto from the Fifth revitalized my interest in classical music. That coincided with me taking my first composition class and later hearing Copland’s Appalachian Spring. From a jazz musician’s perspective, Copland’s use of harmony combined with his emotional awareness (something I felt was missing from most jazz) blew me away, and I sought to make everything I wrote sound like him.
As I eventually matured out of being a Copland clone, I continued to find my voice to be distinctly American-sounding, occasionally reverting back to my favorite sounds of Copland and Barber, while slowly finding ways to draw more from my jazz playing. I discovered pretty quickly that I didn't want to write classical music for jazz instruments or jazz music for classical instruments, or as I liked to call it, “shitty Kapustin.”
In discussions with my teacher David Garner, I’ve actively tried to steer myself away from any clear influences, as I’ve embraced the current American trend of composers in a “post-style” aesthetic. Nonetheless, there are always techniques of certain composers, old and new, that I admire and attempt to add to my toolbox. Following Rorem’s example, here is a brief list of my influences:
- Modal harmonies and synthetic modes by Miles Davis, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock
- Harmonic shifts by chromatic mediants and “playing outside” by John Coltrane
- Counterpoint and use of 9ths and 13ths in Copland’s pre-modernist music and Barber’s vocal music; more so from my jazz piano training
- Additive rhythms and meters of Stravinsky, filtered through Copland and post-minimal Reich
- Economy of harmonic material by Glass
- Rhythmic counterpoint and independence of voices seen in Palestrina and Bach
- My dislike for most contemporary choral music
- Fluid vocal phrasing and rhythmic counterpoint taught to me by Steven Sametz
- Pointillist phrasing and economy of material by my teacher Paul Salerni, and his teacher Earl Kim
- Octatonic/diminished-scale based harmony from Messiaen and Kim, filtered through my jazz playing
- Shostakovich’s frenetic energy that is so carefully chaotic
