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April 15, 2022 26 mins

Indie composer Ben Costello breaks down "Light of My World" (https://youtu.be/6mv6EZ5NxsM) by Patrick Smith in a way that all composers can learn from! #Composer #Reddit #IndieComposer

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[AUTO-GENERATED CAPTIONS]Mixed media music.
All right.
Welcome to mixed media music.
Today, we will be talking about this piece
I found on Reddit called Light of My Worldby Patrick Smith.
And I hope Patrick is able

(00:21):
to join us in the comments.
If you're here, definitely,you know, write something.
Let us know that you're here.
If not, that's okay.
We'll just go ahead and review this work.
If you are new to our podcast.
We have one review a week
and we tend to take thingswe find on Reddit

(00:45):
or other parts of the Internet, you know,works from people who are sharing
stuff there and give our thoughts on them.
So I, I found this piece on my,
my usual spot for, for finding music
for this segment, our composer

(01:07):
and this is a bit of a different piece
for a lot of reasons than theanything we've talked about so far.
But I think it's definitelyworth getting into and
looking at it.
So I havepermission to play the whole thing.
I do that, so I don't know.
Patrick Yeah, if you are in the chatand you like to say yes,

(01:31):
you can play the whole thing.
If not, you can listen to,I don't know, maybe the first like to two
and a half minutes of it.
I want to play the wholebecause without permission.
So give you a second and see if
if you had the chat to respond
then we'll now we'll just play
maybe we'll say to two and a half minuteswe'll find.

(01:52):
I trust your judgment, Irving and I.
Good spot to stop, since
I don't have that.
The way this thing worksis that I don't exactly have control
or really much ability to even hearwhat is played with our current set up.
So, yeah, I'll.

(02:13):
I'll leave that to your judgment.All right.
If if it's too soft in the chator something, if anyone's
got a problem with that, just let me know
we go.

(04:50):
Gracious
part to stop,but I don't want to overplay it.
Too much of it.
So there you are.
Okay.
So let's let's startwith what the composer said about this.
So Patrick explainedthat he's a middle school band director
and that this pieceis kind of inspired by a

(05:16):
staple of the concert band
literature, and that it is
a piececomposed for the birth of his first son .
Their first child son. Yeah. Okay.
So that's a that's a pretty,
pretty,you know, dramatic inspiration for this.

(05:38):
Pretty heavy, pretty heavy stuff.
Not, you know, like sad heavy,but obviously flat.
Yeah.
So we got some kindof emotional weight to this.
And of course,
the most immediate thing, if youif you've been following these reviews.
Most immediate difference, I would say,between this and anything else we've done
is that this is obviously writtenfor a wind band, you know, contraband

(06:02):
wind ensemble, whateveryou want to call that, not an orchestra.
So no strings.
And I would also say so I know Patrick is
askingyou to read it, you know, for feedback
and, you know, potential avenuesfor performance for this.
And this is somethingwhich I think is largely like geared for,

(06:23):
you know, a real.
Ensemble to play this
and it is pretty much
ready for a performancewith maybe one or two things I would would
add, you know, or to add some,some things I would think about maybe
before putting it on someone stand.
Yeah.
So, you know.

(06:44):
In a lot of waysthis is and I don't want to say
like it's a particular kind of work.
It's written for a particularkind of ensemble and it is quite mature
and what it is doingreally good handle on a lot of things.
So I would say first, you know, overallit's just a very professional presentation
and I think, you know, you, Patrick, you

(07:04):
know what you are
doing from your work actually,
you know, directing middle school bands,although I'm not sure you're going
to get too many middle schoolsto play this, you know, high school,
maybe some like, you know,community level,
good community level band.
I'm sure a lot of universitieswould also look at this.

(07:28):
I would say I will say that I personally,
although I mostly an orchestral fan,
you know, as a composer and a listener
and but I've doneactually much more of my performance
with good reason.
But most of my performing is actually been

(07:48):
in when ensembles of all sorts of caliber.
So I'm quite familiar with the Wind,Wind Band
World and
yeah, so first off, you were really like
I said, you know, it looks like,you know, what you're doing.
It sounds like you know what you're doingin terms of a whole bunch of standards.

(08:09):
So your score looks fantastic.
The only thing I would mention of thatis that you have the interesting choice
of a pairing country, I think contrabass,clarinet and contra bassoon together.
And your arrangement of, you know,
layout of the instruments which slides mebecause your bassoon way up high,
even though I know

(08:29):
those two instruments are like pretty muchdoing the same thing in your score.
I think it's more conventionalto have the least.
My experience to have paired instruments
like the same family rates of bassoon,a controversy together.
I think them might make it easierfor you to know what's going on.
But that's the only thing I would sayabout layout and notation.

(08:52):
You obviously know what standards are from
having to conduct all the time.
And you know, I think, like I said,you could put this on someone's stand
and they'd play itand it would look very professional.
You have really great command again,for good reason,
because I'm sure it'swhat you're doing all day,
but you have really goodcommand of the wind ensemble idiom,

(09:17):
even though this might be a bit higher
technical level than what you probably dowith your middle school students.
You understand how wind ensembles work
and you knowwhat kind of pairings are standard,
what kinds of lines
work and that kind of thing.

(09:39):
And that's, you know,so you have a very evident mastery
of the wind ensemble idiom, which is,
you know, a lot more than I see from
from the composersI tend to find on on Reddit.
So, you know, you're someone who'sin a definite command of what you're

(10:00):
doing for your ensemble.
And also, again, probablybecause you spend so much time, you know,
with real music
and also teaching kids to performthat kind of stuff.
You have a really great sense of idiomaticwriting for each instrument.
Maybe a few things I can look throughevery note of every instrument,

(10:21):
but I think in generalevery line looks quite,
we say, idiomatic, great, quite playable.
It plays to the instrument's strengths,many different parts of the register
and it just overall orchestratedvery well, you know, not just on the
horizontal aspect of each instrumentfor itself,
but balance of each instrumentagainst each other, that sort of thing.

(10:44):
There's some really small details in here.
I'm going to get through all of them,
but some one detailthat really stood out to me immediately
just seemed like the first thingto measure for
in your score.
It really shows methat you have a fantastic grasp
on orchestrationand exactly what you're doing,
and even these small detailsthat really enhance things

(11:07):
where we have all the woodwinds playing
this kind of 16th note line
in Measure three and then Measure four,they all land on a whole nother
except for the piccolo,which has an eighth note.
And to me that's a really fantastic detail
kind of thing that I thinka lot of young composers, actually,

(11:30):
a lot of people on our music,
there are a composercan can look on and learn from.
I think you have a very clearunderstanding of
you have an ideaof why you have to only play.
They're
just that really into an extra octave
and then immediatelycut it out and sort of sustain that.

(11:51):
So you have a, you know,what sound you want,
you know how that sound is goingto how it's going to work.
Now, it's a really brilliant
little detail like that,and your piece is full of those things.
I would say, you know, overall,you have your two melodies
or your two themes are,I think, very effective

(12:14):
and they play off of each othervery nicely.
You have you know, overall, it'sa pretty pleasant, I would say, on the ear
there are some definite tensionsand dissonances,
but they are tastefully doneso that they're not going to stand out.
Right. This kind of addsyou color to what you're doing.

(12:36):
I really love how you use
your auxiliary instruments like, you know,contrabass, clarinet contribution.
They're not acting like, well,this is just another bassoon
or another clarinet or piccoloas much as another flute,
which is somethingI see pretty frequently from composers.
They don't think about the fact that theseauxiliary instruments exist separate.

(13:01):
They're related to the primary instrument,but they have their own
things that they can do.
Well, yeah. And I don't know.
I think that you did a really nice jobof capturing
some of the expectation and joy.
Not that I know what it's like to have my,you know,
my first child being born today,I imagine.

(13:23):
But I can imagine that feel likeI think you do a really nice job
of capturing that.
So, you know,again, really overall, a very
mature, refined composition here.
And, you know, it's pretty condensed, too.
We've got all this stuff going on inlike what, four and a half minutes.
So you are definitely in controlof what you are doing.

(13:46):
So it's a few a few questions I would haveI have for you
some things that maybe you canyou can think about to incorporate or not.
My my first question is you're callingfor a pretty large
wind set or an ensemble here.
You've got not only, you know, bassoon,which is probably not going to be present

(14:08):
in a ton of schools, especially especially
anything less than high school, probablynot in a lot of high schools either.
We've got contribution and not only bass
clarinet, which is standard,but contrabass clarinet.
So a question I would ask is,
do you think that the forcesthat you're calling for,

(14:31):
you're going to make it harderfor this piece to be performed,
whether in an academic setting or in a,you know,
I guess community band settingor professional wind ensemble setting.
Professional wind ensemble over the issue.
But yeah, you know, I would just considerthat, you know, maybe that may, may make
it more difficult for these thingsto be performed as piece, to be performed

(14:55):
on the same, you know, line of thought.
You obviously you have piccolo,
but you're auxiliary instrumentstend to be on the lower end, right?
Contrabass, clarinet, contro, bassoon.
And I'm just wondering where it'sobviously pretty bright work,
whether that kind of darknessheaviness in the low end is going to kind

(15:18):
of cut down on some of the brightnessthat you're going for.
It may not. You know,
I think that's it's
also might depend on the playersthat you have playing it,
but it's something to think about. Okay.
Maybe the biggest question I have is
how many horn playersdo you intend to be playing this?

(15:39):
Are you right? Horn one and horn two.
And it's not clear to mewhether you want, you know,
one horn player on hornone and one player on or two.
So we have two, two French linesor whether you want that
to be like too many sections.
I think the way you write, at least to me,at least it's suggested

(16:02):
you want one player on a partand it looks like it's roughly
that way for pretty much every instrumentone one player on a part.
Although obviously in an academic settingyou would have more.
But I would I would consider whetherif you dual elite, if you're only thinking
one person on a part where the two hornsare really going to cut it,
that would probably be that to me.

(16:24):
And a more professional higher endensemble.
Probably normallyyou're going to have for horn parts
and probably for horn playersif you're thinking of sections, multiple
players on horn one in the horn two,then you want to think about that.
But I would think thatif you have one on the part you.
You may want to thinkabout having four horns.

(16:47):
And if you do only want,
you know, if you if you want sections,think about marking
whether some lines should be soloor unison.
Okay. With the horns in particular.
Yeah.
So those are some some questionsI would have you think about
and a few other things that are kind

(17:08):
of matters of preference in style.
But I think it's good,good to point out also for our audience
and I definitely urge you to go listen,this whole work support
Patrick in any way you can listen to hisyou know,
look at this channel.

(17:28):
And you can also I would
definitely, you know, look at this piece.
Whether you want to write for windensemble or not, if you are a aspiring
composer, is a lot ofreally fantastic stuff going on here.
But some, some,some things that stood out to me.
And so in general,you have a lot of imitation

(17:49):
of what you're doing, you know, like,like theme a part of the ensemble theme, a
the next measure in a different partof ensemble again in the first part,
the A in, you know, in the second group,again , a lot of that kind of
was I canonic imitation.

(18:10):
And I think that adds a little bitof a sense of spaces in some, some places
and not, not,you know, in a, you know, in a bad sense.
But it's not like this is not a piece
that's about development of ideasis kind of like idea.
And I'm going to keep repeatingthat idea, that sort of thing.

(18:31):
So, you know, that's something to keep inmind if you're going to listen to this.
It's not a piece where we're going to like
think about how we work outand develop ideas.
For me,some of the transitions are really abrupt,
and I think in some of the comments,some people mentioned this to you.
You know, you said that you like that,which is totally fine if you like.
So I guess abrupt transitionsstick with them.

(18:54):
I would point outthat this may feel abrupt to me
and you can like that or not like itpersonally.
You know, I've been thinking about thisa lot recently with a class I'm in, which
is doing really, really in-depth analysisof some of Beethoven's string quartets.
And, you know, Beethoven is a composer ofreally jarring contrasts in transitions.

(19:17):
So it was a question for me.
I know I mentioned this onI think maybe, maybe
the last few ideas that were one beforethat were that.
I think that transitions,making transitions sound
organic is the big priority for meand also a really challenging thing.
But sometimes we don't have to be organic.
So, you know, if you like itthe way it is, that's that's awesome.

(19:39):
If you didn't intend then to be abrupt
that some of them do feel abrupt to me,
you have a lot of pairings of the
woodwinds that you repeat. So
again, you have a
good sense of what those parentsare going to sound like.
You have one really tricky one there.

(20:00):
You have euphonium, clarinet, one.
And Piccolo and I was going to sayfrom from experience,
that is going to be very hardto keep that in tune.
It kind of a little event innocent of
the end of the last movement
of the Holst second suite.

(20:20):
I'm sure you know what?
That is what I'm referring to.
We have the tuba solo and piccolo tubal
piccolo not playing in unison,but kind of playing off of each other.
And I just I played it many times.
I just performed it, played Piccolosolo on it at my last concert a while ago.
I that is, is tricky of the intonationbetween low and high,

(20:45):
but it's an interesting pairing.
And and if you're looking at windorchestration, this is a good, good
piece to kind of think,
you know, look at and think about whatthese kind of combinations sound like.
Yeah, two more things quick.
Quickly.
I think in some of these pairings, though,that you have,
I don't know, my ears want some more,like a little bit more harmony, honestly,

(21:08):
instead of just unison, octavelines, it's a matter of taste.
But some of these, you know, especiallywhen we're doing kind of like, like
I guess it was like noncanonic stuff like theme
in, you know, pairing themeand another pairing theme again
some, maybe some my earkind of wants a little bit of a harmony

(21:28):
between some of those pairings.
So again, totally up to you.
My ear kind of wants that.
And I really like this idea that you have.
I will.
We'll see what measure.
I think it's measure 18.
Yeah, this kind of.
Running 60 votes between you know,
we go through that, the ensemble,

(21:50):
and it happens in one other spot.
But to me,that's a really interesting idea.
I would love to hear a little bitsee a little bit more of that developed,
sort of just those two measuresof personal, personal preference.
But I think that'sa really interesting idea
that could add some more dimensionto what's going on melodically.

(22:10):
The last thing I would say
on the notification front, it'skind of a personal preference.
You have a lot of stringsthat like when you have a,
you know, long series of notesthat are all accented
on the page , kind of loose a little bit,a little clutter.
I think from the conductor's perspective,
you have all of these accentsright next to each other.

(22:33):
I'm sure you know, you know this,but I would consider, you know,
doing a couple of accents and saying,you know, simply write something
or saying whatever or whatever,similar, whatever,
you know , language you want to useor indication is everything after that.
It's accents.
It, I think, might be going a little bita little bit easier on the eye.

(22:55):
Overall, really fantastic work.
Like I said, it's a pretty mature,condensed, artistic statement
of pretty deep thematic meaning.
But, you know,so really, really great job.
You have great controlof what you are doing.
And obviously,like I said, a little bit different

(23:16):
than some of the stuffwe normally talk about.
You're writing from a different,totally different
kind of world, both in termsof the ensemble you're writing for
and the kinds of performance opportunitiesyou're looking for.
And then the other composersI think we've had on our show.
But yeah, I think, you know, good, toogood to kind of

(23:39):
have that a little bit of a differencein what we're talking about.
So really, really great job.
Hopefully you get this performed.
Yeah.
And to cap it off, producer wife
Stephanie England Nester says, I
really enjoyed hearing this pieceand it actually made sense

(24:02):
when you mentionedhis son was his inspiration.
Definitely felt grand in a loving, familylike way.
I'm not a music person or any means,but for some reason
it made me think of Disney's Fantasiaand some childhood memories came back.
No idea why that association,but again, really enjoyed this.
There you go.
And I got to say, I enjoyed it as well.
Now, I have one question, though,with the length.

(24:24):
Is that like
it sounds like it was 4 minutes at fourand a half minutes or something like that.
Is that like a normal lengthfor like a performance piece
for like a communityband or something like that?
I think it really varies.
I think it was probably a good standard.
Lampard You know, bands when bands have

(24:47):
I don't want to say more diversityin the kinds of things
they do in their programing,but they tend to be a little bit
more adventurousand do shorter things than orchestras do.
So I think that's totallywithin the normal
ballpark of normal lengths.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well,if you want to check out any of his stuff,

(25:09):
his the link to his thethis piece is actually in the chat.
Also in the description down below.
And then if you click that,there's channels there as well.
You can check out any of this other stuff.
But if you do that, tell himthat we sent him sent we sent you to him.
That's what I to say.
And yeah, we just said,let us know what you think.
If you see this as well later,let us know what you think of the segment.

(25:34):
Yeah.
And thanks again, Patrick, for letting usplay and talking about your piece.
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