South-Central Regional Conference of The College Music Society 2016

What a conference! Applying the Existential Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre to Performance and Stage Fright! Cellular Pivots as a New Means of Progression in Post-Tonal Music! Audience, Performance, and Compositional Considerations in Electroacoustic Composition! Art Song Settings of Poetry of William Butler Yeats! These were just a few of the topics of the sessions presented in rooms C111 and C117C in the C wing of the Fain Fine Arts Center of Midwestern State University. And it all happened in Wichita Falls, TX earlier this month (March 17-19, 2016). Oh man, the composer concerts! Derek M. Jenkins, who is currently studying at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (DMA Composition / MM Musicology) and who holds degrees from Rice University (MM Composition, 2013) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (BM Composition / BM Theory, 2010), has described his piece for wind ensemble Boreas: The North Wind, saying, “...this work begins with slow, lyrical lines that quickly fade into an unrelenting fury of anger,” Jeffrey Loeffert, who serves as Associate Professor of Saxophone and Theory at Oklahoma State University, has said of his Bombinate, “The word "bombinate" is a literary device, which means to make a humming or buzzing noise,” and Igor Karaca, who teaches Music Composition, Counterpoint, Music Technology, and Music Theory at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, describes his work Calligrammi II, saying, "This is an experimental piece, belonging to the genre of computer-assisted algorithmic music. A book of visual poetry named Calligrammes by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) was used as a basic material for the piece." We know what these composers think of their work, but visit my point of view regarding my Two Noumenist Poems, duets for soprano and alto vocalists with piano accompaniment, which began Composer Concert 2 (March 18, 2016 at 4:00 PM). I feel that musical language seems to be changing according to a prospective approach: a new contemporary endeavor that, although marked by triadic harmony, contributes to culture in a non-museological manner. My duets may be regarded as a primer of my own involvement in this new triadic post-tonality. By using familiar sounds to cultivate a wider public, contemporary works may be brought out of a strictly academic environment of isolation. Let's not, however, forget the respective authors of the art songs' texts: James Daniel Gillespie, Instructor of English at Southwest Tennessee Community College, Assistant Editor of that institution's literary journal Hieroglyph, and author of the text of the second duet "The Aftermath of Gravity," and Dr. Jason W. Johnson, Instructor of English at Guilford Technical Community College, author of The Anvil's Children, and the text of the first duet "Aubade." To listen to what I say about these men in my opening remarks, click here. Sometimes I think it will take a miracle for our shared aesthetic to win out. Will Noumenism ever be so lucky as to win the hearts and minds of all enthusiastic lovers of Art?

Special thanks to the following: Rebecca Carol Hutchins, soprano; Sandra Cleo Hilliard, alto; Dr. Ruth E. Morrow, Dolores P., D. Phil and Aurora S. Bolin Distinguished Chair of Piano, Lamar D. Fain College of Fine Arts, Midwestern State University, accompanist.    

ZANE GILLESPIE

After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.