That rousing, adventurous, blow-up-the-Death-Star feeling you get when you start watching “Star Wars” is thanks in part to the UCLA composers program, where John Williams got his start.
Future John Williams, John Cages and Danny Elfmans may be within the ranks of the undergraduate composers program right now, but the only way to find out is to listen.
Fortunately, an intrigued listener can hear 15 original student compositions by going to the Undergraduate Composers Recital. The recital is a quarterly event that showcases undergraduate composition students’ original works.
“It’s voluntary, you don’t have to do it. It’s not for credit or anything; it’s just a way for us to share our music with people at UCLA,” said Max Kaplan, a fourth-year composition and clarinet performance student.
In contrast with the official graded recitals required from composition majors, this concert is organized each quarter by one undergraduate out of the small pool of about 20 students in the major. The student-run, somewhat informal organization allows for a great variety of compositions and performances.
“There’s a piece for a traditional Indian ensemble, there’s a piece for brass, there’s string quartets, there’s actually a double quartet for strings and a saxophone quartet,” said Tim Silva, fourth-year composition and education student, and this quarter’s recital organizer and performer. “The first piece on the concert is pretty insane. It’s got some electronics, amplified voice, harpsichord, electric guitars. It should be pretty out there.”
That first piece in question is in fact Max Kaplan’s, which is a mixture of acoustic and electronic instruments. It includes the aforementioned instruments as well as Kaplan’s friend Ryan York creating ambient noise. Kaplan himself will play not his native instrument the clarinet, but a shaker and a “digi-harpsichord.”
“So far it’s been kind of a disaster rehearsing it. It’s the kind of piece where it’s either going to come out sounding really good, or really, really, really bad,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan’s piece has a total of 11 musicians on stage, most of whom have been culled from UCLA’s own student body, from within and without the music program. Tim Silva’s piece, written for a choir, employs students as well.
“We have about 20 singers,” Silva said. “They’re mostly non-music majors. They’re mostly people in the UCLA chorale.”
Silva’s piece itself is a new version of the traditional prayer “Agnus Dei,” which he has appropriately titled “Agnus Dei 2008.”
“It reflects a little bit of influence from chant and medieval music. I wanted to leave the piece at the end, leave it sort of unresolved, as in there’s really no peace on earth right now,” Silva said. “My piece also includes a gong, which sort of represents war and eventually takes us over.”
Far removed from the lush instrumentation of Kaplan’s piece and the vocal force of Silva’s composition is fourth-year Michael Bang’s solo piano composition. Bang’s composition is a six-minute piano piece influenced by minimalism.
“There’s a lot of repeated stuff and there’s no tremendous focus on melody or a scene being developed or anything like that,” Bang said. “I guess you could just say it sounds like me messing around on a piano.”
The piece also draws from Bang’s experience as a rock and jazz guitarist.
“The harmonic language that I use is very much based in jazz.”
Besides the talent and ideas, this concert illustrates the interconnectedness of the tight-knit major.
“Probably my biggest influences are actually the students here, like the upperclassmen. I like listening to all the famous composers and whatnot, but I feel like people in this department, they know what’s up and what’s hip,” Kaplan said.
In terms of future prospects, there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus. Silva plans to compose and teach music, and Kaplan hopes to compose professionally, with film and commercial scoring as a backup. And Bang? “Whatever makes money.” If that happens to be film scoring, so be it ““ UCLA just may be due for another summer blockbuster composer to brag about.