The Invisible Magic Soccer Phone

for band

duration app. 6 min.

 

Program Notes:

This work was commissioned by Tim Fisher and the Memorial Middle School Band. It was written with their help and inspiration.

North Korea sent a soccer team to the 2010 World Cup. During the tournament I read a newspaper article in which the North Korean coach told the media that their leader, Kim Jong Il, had invented an invisible cell phone that allowed him to be in constant contact with the coach, calling plays, devising stratagems, etc...Around the same time, I was talking with Tim about writing something for his ensemble. As I was writing the work I found that the programmatic elements really defined the piece. The glockenspiel constantly chirps its “cell phone” ring as the rest of the instruments go about their business, and eventually the music builds into a military-like quality as if depicting a practice for the squad. Then, the music breaks down and the “game” begins. The vuvuzelas are present as are random cheers and even refs handing out yellow cards. The music and the game grows to a fever-pitch, then there’s a goal. The piece ends shortly thereafter, because, as we know, one goal is generally good enough for a soccer match.

So the piece was nearly finished when Tim brought me an interesting piece of news. The principal of his school had read an article in the paper where Kim Jong Il, the notorious cell phone inventor, publicly claimed that North Korea in fact did not send a team to the World Cup, and the team that finished in last place in the tournament were imposters from the West.

Enjoy the piece, unless of course Kim Jong Il has invented invisible ear muffs and placed them over your ears, in which case we should all be worried...

Ryan Jesperson
1/22/2011

The Invisible Magic Soccer Phone will be premiered by Memorial Middle School in the spring of 2011.

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