Texas Tech University was fortunate to have fiddle virtuoso and composer Mark O'Connor with us for a solo violin concert on Thursday night, September 4th, and a lecture/demonstration on Friday morning. His playing is truly impressive and his compositions are quite enjoyable and varied.
(photo from Dirty Linen)
During the lecture/demonstration, he presented his vision for American music. He noted that there are many composers who are including popular musics in their compositions these days, but he's hearkening back to the earlier days of America. He's mainly interested in the period of Westward expansion and tries to embody the feelings and sounds associated with that in his music: wide open spaces, the sounds of the railroad, horses, and the like. He also works to include the variety of American folk traditions--bluegrass, Texas fiddling, Celtic music, blues, and jazz--into his compositions.
It was quite interesting to hear him speak about his music. I'm thinking about including one of his pieces--probably one of the caprices for solo violin--in my analytical techniques course next semester. I think it would be an interesting study in semiotic/topical analysis. You can watch him play his Caprice #2 below.
After I select one of them and spend some time with it, I might post some preliminary findings.
(photo from Dirty Linen)
During the lecture/demonstration, he presented his vision for American music. He noted that there are many composers who are including popular musics in their compositions these days, but he's hearkening back to the earlier days of America. He's mainly interested in the period of Westward expansion and tries to embody the feelings and sounds associated with that in his music: wide open spaces, the sounds of the railroad, horses, and the like. He also works to include the variety of American folk traditions--bluegrass, Texas fiddling, Celtic music, blues, and jazz--into his compositions.
It was quite interesting to hear him speak about his music. I'm thinking about including one of his pieces--probably one of the caprices for solo violin--in my analytical techniques course next semester. I think it would be an interesting study in semiotic/topical analysis. You can watch him play his Caprice #2 below.
After I select one of them and spend some time with it, I might post some preliminary findings.