Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven all walk into a room… sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, right? The modern equivalent is happening right now at USM in the Composer’s Ensemble, a class offered every semester through the USM School of Music.
Daniel Sonenberg, the ensemble director, conceived the idea for the ensemble when he started teaching at USM four years ago.
Students start the semester with a concert date and no music. Over several months, they work on their own compositions.
Sonenberg prefers if the pieces utilize the entire ensemble and asks composers to write for the instruments available, but there are no strict requirements. Some compositions are long, some are short, others are loud, and still others are hauntingly beautiful.
They are all new, modern, and nothing like any other ensemble performance on campus.
Most symphonic music is written for strings, but the only string instrument in this semester’s ensemble is a cello, and it’s not used at all in several of the pieces.
Concerto for ‘Percussionists,’ composed by Tim Burns, involves percussion, as its name implies, but only percussion — from a regular drum set to a Chinese gong to tiny finger cymbals.
Other compositions utilize horns, traditional wind and brass instruments, piano and electric bass and guitar.
Sarah Montalvo’s Study in A Minor and Paul Thomas’ Vacation Music are somewhat more traditional than Burns’ percussion piece, but even their pieces are notably different from “normal” ensemble music.
Compositions are supposed to be turned in about three weeks before the concert, but there are always stragglers: one student hadn’t yet finished writing his on April 2, the “official” due date, and the concert is April 25.
“It can be terrifying,” Sonenberg says, “but because the class is a work in progress, the ensemble has generally seen most of what they’ll eventually perform (by the due date).”
Sonenberg credits the class for an increased interest in composition at USM.
“I have nine students in my composition class this semester. There weren’t that many when I started teaching here,” he says.
He also thinks it is incredibly valuable experience for fledgling composers. Since most concerts and universities focus on the classical repertoire, few opportunities are available for new composers to have their music heard, let alone holding their own concert, which can be costly.
The Composer’s Ensemble also offers room for learning and mistakes.
“They have immediate feedback. If something doesn’t work, they can hear it and fix it,” Sonenberg says.
For instance, the composer might think a series of notes on the oboe is perfect for their piece, but it could be impossible for the oboe player to actually play it without becoming a contortionist. The composer would then work with the instrumentalist to figure out how to get the same sound or feeling in a way playable.
Last semester, one student wrote a flute section of low notes that were playable but came out as more of a grumble and were not particularly loud, he said.
The clarinet would have served those specific notes better, and because it was written in a classroom, the composer had the opportunity to change instrumentation.
In its third year now, the ensemble has evolved.
At the start, says student Nick Boland, “it was sort of a group for composers who played instruments. It has grown to include a wide instrumentation in addition to members who exclusively perform or compose.”
Boland is a composer and has been part of the ensemble since its inception. He is currently planning on going to graduate school for music composition and says that the ensemble has given him a huge advantage.
“It’s the nature of the class to have a pretty unorthodox instrumentation which forced me to write different pieces that I might not have done otherwise,” he says. “I think it was important for the schools I applied to to see that I had experience dealing with and writing for specific musicians and that I was taking part in a contemporary music scene.”
Marshunda Smith has played with the ensemble for several semesters.
Unlike Boland, Smith is emphatically not a composer. She plays cello, helps with percussion on occasion, and is the assistant conductor.
“(Professor) Robert Lehmann suggested that I join so I could have practice conducting new works,” she says. “I’ve stayed because it’s fun.”
Several others have also been part of the ensemble for more than a year, but there are also new students each semester.
Sonenberg thinks it keeps the music and ensemble fresh, and even those like Boland who compose music frequently find it a new challenge since the instrumentation is different each time.
In addition to Burns’, Montalvo’s and Thomas’ compositions, there are at least seven other student-composed works that range from a “funk-driven piece” to a “wild crossover between downtown minimalism and progressive rock,” according to Sonenberg.
This is a concert that can’t be missed, much like a collaboration between Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart would have been if that much genius could have been contained in one room 200 years ago.
The Composer’s Ensemble gives the rest of us mere mortals a taste.
Go see them play Friday April 25 at 8 p.m. at the concert hall in Corthell Hall.