Ben Tibbetts Studio: Piano Performances and Original Music

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Overture

for orchestra

Listen (mp3)

This overture was an orchestration assignment in graduate school. We had to compose something original, so I picked a sketch I'd written some time before and had never used.

This piece begins and ends quietly. It feels unfinished, although I think the length is about right. The final note is unsatisfying. I knew that when I wrote it, but I had run out of time. I had done what many students do, a thing I used to do frequently: I had put it off until the last minute. This piece was written in one night. I had sketched it out beforehand, and in eight hours I had gone from a piano sketch to an orchestration. It was miserable.

Tian Ng (who I worked with on Miss Red) conducted the UMass orchestra in reading these orchestrations. That led to the recording on this page. It's pretty good considering they were basically sight reading.

Listening to this again, I notice the influence of hymns on my compositional style. I was probably aware of that when I wrote this music, but I'm even more aware of it now. At one point it almost quotes "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God". I don't think that quote was intentional, but the resemblance to hymn melodies certainly makes sense. That music was close to my heart when I was growing up, so I guess it's ingrained in my brain.

I also notice that this music is very lapidary. Everything feels lean and intentional. What's written is what's necessary, and nothing more. It's like a Classical piece (referring here to the Classical era). I find it's difficult to write that way. It can even be a mark of good craftsmanship as a composer; but here, I think it's just because I orchestrated very quickly, which incentivized me to be arrange the material conservatively.

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