Pretentious [Title]

for a sx, tpt, tbn, cl, vln, vc, pno, bs, and d.s.

Duration - approx. 9 min.

Program Notes:

This piece was written for a mixture of jazz and classical players at UMKC. The title is meant to evoke a mocking tone toward many of the other pieces written in the 21st century that try and encompass many varied and enormous philosophical and poetic meanings in a single piece. Often, I think, composers forget that the most important aspect of their composition is the music (this critique can occasionally be applied to my own pretentious titles), and try and make programmatic elements take the “form” of the piece. This is an existential question that must be asked about all music, and whether titles create a simplistic symbolist syllogism that defines a piece before it is performed. And if the piece is predefined, then can it really be new? To posit that the finite combinations of the English alphabet and the chromatic scale inhibit the possibility of creating a truly original composition creates the latent meaning of this piece. This train of thought obviously brings us to the universal language “Esperanto” and the possibility of discovering a link between different cultures and different tone combinations and…I’m just kidding. It’s exactly that sort of academic dribble that I wanted to avoid in this piece. Just relax and have a good swinging time.

 

-Ryan Jesperson
Jan. 4th, 2008

This piece was premiered March 6th at UMKC. It was a finalist in the 2008 UMKC Chamber Composition Competition.

Fall, 2012: Joseph Abad will premiere a new Saxophone Sonata.

Fall, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

Spring-Summer, 2012: Jeux pour Jumeaux will be performed in San Francisco, CA.

Spring, 2012: Bobby Watson and the UMKC Big Band will premiere Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty in Kansas City, MO.

Spring, 2012: Ashly Evans will premiere Birdsongs in Houston, TX.

Spring, 2012: BA(da)SS will be performed by Ryan Ford in West Hartford, CT.

Spring, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

Spring, 2012: Not Death, but Love will be premiered by Ineo Saxophone Quartet.

Spring, 2012: David Tayloe will perform A Page Out of Zen in CT.

May, 2012: The Invisible, Magic, Soccer Phone will be premiered in Middlefield, CT.

April, 2012: The UMKC Opera Dept. will perform portions of Songs from Behind the Curtain.

April, 2012: David Tayloe will premiere A Page Out of Zen in NY.

Feb. 17th, 2012: The 016 Ensemble will be perform Romanza for Alto Saxophone and Violin in Manchester, CT.

Dec. 3rd, 2011: Ryan defends his dessertation, Songs from Behind the Curtain at UMKC.

July 17th, 21st, 24th, 2011: Music Faculty from the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will perform ...and those seven dwarfs in a series of concerts in Western Maine.

June 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, 2011:Orphée Redux will be performed by Rhymes With Opera on their East Coast Tour (NYC, Baltimore, Hartford, Boston).

June 12th, 2011:Selection from Songs from Behind the Curtain will be performed at the John Duffy Composers Institute in Norfolk, VA.

May 13th, 2011: The Ineo Quartet will perform the 1st movement of Not Death, but Love on their Fischoff Competition program in South Bend, Indiana.

March 19th, 2011: The Ineo Saxophone Quartet will perform ...and love is fire... from Not Death, but Love at the NASA conference in West Point, NY.

Feb. 25th, 2011: I. Jest will be premiered by Robert Olson and the UMKC Orchestra in Kansas City, MO.

Feb. 14th, 2011: Hebdomas Squatinae will be performed at the Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival.

EVENT HISTORY