Students listened to the finished projects of juniors Joshua Mason and Christopher Wiley in the McKay Auditorium on Thursday, March 19 during the Undergraduate Research Conference’s segment on musical composition.Mason, a junior from Oklahoma majoring in both music and psychology, told the story of how he originally had a much more complex version written to impress his professor. After much consideration, Mason and Dr. Bradshaw talked about how he could improve his skills. “We had a ‘Come to Jesus Moment,’ as he called it,” said Mason, “where he made sure I, as a composer, was composing music that I wanted to–what I thought that music should be.”Mason composed a duet for cello and viola called “The Rose Garden.” Mason was inspired by two main sources: a Julie Gardner Bray song entitled “Lady To The Flowers Go,” and the song “Kiss From A Rose” by Seal.Hannah Larsen, a freshman music major from Utah and violist for the duet, said, “I was extremely excited to be a part of it. We met together a few times to rehearse and Josh was patient with us as we learned how to play his composition.”“Part of it was an experiment,” said Mason about the duet choice, “but also because Dr. Bradshaw suggested it. I haven’t really done a duet before, and it’s something he does with all of his composition students; he has them write projects in sequential order.” Mason also spoke of working on a composition for a trio.Wiley composed a flute solo, “Exaggerated Bipolarity,” inspired by “Syrinx” by Claude Debussy. Woodwind instructor Larry Cook performed the song. Wiley said he deliberately wrote difficult rhythms played with different notes to create a motif. However, because Cook was unable to make the conference, a recording of Cook was played over the auditorium speakers.Wiley said, “I was trying to experiment with a style of music that I didn’t have much experience with—namely twentieth-century music. It was really successful. I’m really happy with how it turned out.” Mason later noted that he wished he could have seen Wiley’s music earlier so he could have applied similar ideas into his own.Uploaded March 25, 2015
Writer: Camron Stockford
