Late in the afternoon on Sept. 14, music composition majors met in room 124 of the Crowell Music Hall to attend “Taking Steps,” the second music composition seminar of the year. Dr. Robert Denham, associate professor of Music Theory and Composition, led the students in beginning their journey of what it means to be a composer in today’s world.
ACTIVITIES OF THE SEMINAR
The music composition seminars aim to bring together the composition majors and teach them important skills for composing and making a career out of their degree. The seminars occur each week on Tuesdays from 4:30-5:20 p.m.
“[It’s] an opportunity for us to bring in special guests, maybe film composers, or established concert music composers,” Denham said.
The guests would discuss their business experiences, such as promoting their works and potential composition practices.
In “Taking Steps,” Denham presented a recording of his woodwind quintet composition and allowed time for students to ask questions about his compositional choices and advice.
“They asked questions like, ‘Why did you do this metric?’ … Or, because it’s a four-movement work, one composer asked, ‘How do you create some kind of a unifying factor throughout the four movements and bind it all together?’” Denham said.
Denham greatly enjoys the variety of topics the seminars tackle in each meeting. Every week, students get to explore a different part of music composition.
This year, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), a performing rights organization, will come to inform students on the legal and business side of composition. Another seminar will feature a guest to discuss composing music for the organ.
“All our composers are going to write for the organ, and then that same guest [will] come back two months later and play our pieces on the organ,” Denham said. “And he’ll be able to tell us what worked and what didn’t work. So we learn from our successes and also from our failures.”
A DESIRE FOR COMPOSITION MAJORS TO COLLABORATE
While attending Biola in the 90s, Denham had noted how composition students often did not recognize others in their major for weeks or even months.
“One composition major might meet another in the hallway, and then they would say to each other, ‘What’s your major?’ because they didn’t even know that they were fellow composition majors,” Denham said. “And so I created this seminar to kind of get rid of that siloed mentality [and turn it into] ‘let’s use each other as a resource.”
Denham organized the composition seminars in 2007.
The seminars invite composition students to share their works, both finished and unfinished, with one another, using this time to help each other with parts they may be struggling with.
“One composer will say, ‘Here’s what I’m working on, I’m not sure what to do here in measure 42. Does anybody have any idea?’ And then the class makes suggestions, like, ‘You could do this, you could use a triplet there,’” Denham said.
PREPARING FOR THE COMPOSITION WORLD BEYOND BIOLA
Beginning as a trumpet performance major, Denham grew to love composition when he was 19. He points out that composition can be a time-consuming process, more so than students may initially realize.
“[Most] likely you’re going to be putting in 60 or even 70-hour weeks,” he said. “And a lot of times, students [thought] it was all just gonna be fun and games … Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun and rewarding, but it’s also a lot of work.”
With these seminars, Denham hopes that students will not only expand their compositional skills, but will be equipped with the tools needed for life as a professional composer.
