Dr. Benjamin Brooks, assistant professor of music, had his composition, Cadence- Fantasy on Rhythms of Nick Angelis, chosen to be performed at the International Society of Contemporary Music’s (ISCM) World New Music Days. The annual festival will be held from April 7-17 in Zegreb, Croatia.
World New Music Days is an international event put on by ISCM to display performances of the best works of contemporary music from around the world. Brooks’ composition is one of 68 chosen from more than 400 submissions.
The cadence was written after assistant music professor, Don Lefevre commissioned Brooks to write a piece for WTAMU’s symphonic band.
“When I wrote that piece I never had that competition [ISCM] in mind,” Brooks said. “I had the WT symphonic band in mind.”
The composition was inspired by Nick Angelis, a snare drummer, who Brooks met while marching for the Blue Knights and Bugle Corps in Denver, Colorado.
“[Angelis] was the best in the world, at the time, as far as these drum corps were concerned,” Brooks said.
Before beginning, Brooks contacted Angelis to incorporate aspects of the percussionist’s rhythm and was inspired by his piece “Paw.”
“He[Angelis] teaches at the inner city of Cincinnati, and this is one of their cadences to get the people in the stands going,” he said. “So to move it onto the notes, is going to make it that much more vibrant and energetic.”
The adaptation from a percussion style piece to fit a symphonic band made the composition unique. The composition premiered on December 2009, when the WT symphonic band performed it with Angelis who was able to fly in for the show. Angelis took a one minute turn playing from his piece followed directly with a one minute turn of the symphonic band’s piece.
“It was a good thing for the audience because the original percussion piece was a drum line cadence so it’s a toe tapping thing, and it’s designed to get people stirred up,” Brooks said, “The audience liked it a lot.”
Brooks originally entered his composition into the Texas Composers Competition opened up by Stephen Lias and hosted by Stephen F. Austin. There is a monetary prize of $200, and due to Lias’ affiliation with ISCM, the contest also gives applicants the chance to be considered for inclusion in World New Music Days. Brooks as well as professors from the University of Texas, University of North Texas and Rice University were selected to have their compositions sent in to ISCM.
Along with delegation submissions, ISCM has an open forum for composers to submit works to be performed by a range of groups: from large ensembles, to small ones, to solo performances. The final deciding committee is an international committee of composers and distinguished artists who denote winners by listening to recordings and looking at the actual compositions.
There is no monetary winning for ISCM but rather it gives composers prestige and honor.
“[It] is just an honor to be in the [festival] rather than to get money for it,” Brooks said.
The competition has different categories for performance and Brooks’ piece was chosen to be performed by the Croatian Army Wind Ensemble. He said about four different pieces were chosen for the wind ensemble.
“It’s nice to be in such a diverse group,” Brooks said.
Brooks did have to make some changes to his composition in order to have parts for the variety of unique instruments not originally written in.
“It will be very interesting to hear the differences in the piece,” Brooks, who has yet to hear the music with its newly added parts, said. He has to wait until April to hear it when, thanks to the WT Fine Arts and Humanities department support, he will travel to Croatia to participate in rehearsals and contribute in any way he can.
“Dean Rennier has been very supportive and is providing the means for me to be able to go and help out,” Brooks said.
The winning composition is about 10 minutes long. Brooks said it took three weeks to write but around six months to plan out.
“Once you get the concept and the planning then the notes are just scribbling,” Brooks said, “It’s easy to do after that.”
Brooks is working on getting Cadence published which he will finish after World New Music Days.
“I do the competitions first because, usually in a competition they don’t want a published work,” Brooks said.
Brooks said that the WT symphonic band intends on playing the cadence next time they visit the Texas Music Educators association in February 2012, to get more exposure for the piece.
