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B.M.ed.

       

The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Trumpet Student in the studio of Donald R. Tison, Principal Emeritus, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Additional studies with Dr. Wayne C. Cameron

Music Theory with Moishe Cotel

Alto Saxophone with Vito Cuscuna (Saxophone virtuoso and First-call Broadway Reed Player)

Music Education with Dr. Richard Higgins

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M.A. Musicology: Music Theory 

       

The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music,

The Catholic University of America

 

Thesis: The Aesthetic Research Ensemble: An Analysis of Auto-Acoustic Works by Composers Alec Bernstein and Daniel Carney

 

Composers /Inventors Alec Bernstein and Daniel Carney constructed extraordinary computer- driven acoustic instruments.  Having created an operating language using standard keyboard-assigned commands and early versions of programming language, they composed semi-automated music of an incredible nature. Alec Bernstein also trained as an artist and is an AI research designer. Daniel Carney is an active composer with an impressive oeuvre and a new music presenter in Baltimore.  His concert space is The Carriage House in Homewood near Johns Hopkins University.  Still an inventor, he handcrafts specially tuned log drums and mallet percussion made of hand-tuned alarm bells.

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                www.logdrumsales.com                                                 Carr Hse Int H.JPG(241KB)

 

Ph.D.  Music Theory, Composition, Conducting

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The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music,

The Catholic University of America

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Research Director: Dr. Steven Gerhardt Strunk and Dr. Paul Garvin Taylor

Reader, Dr. Robert Wayne Ricks

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Composition with Dr. Gerald Frank Muller

Conducting with Dr. Robert Wayne Ricks

 

Dissertation: An Analytical Study of Paul Hindemith’s Symphony, Die Harmonie der Welt.

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This dissertation employed post-tonal analytical techniques to examine pitch-class content, reductive schematics (graphs) to show voice leading processes and generalized, broad harmonic goals, and GS (Golden Section) proportional analysis to display formal constructivist attributes.

 

For me, the focus of the investigation rests upon Hindemith’s intricate and complex use use of GS proportional design throughout the symphony, employing Fibonacci and Lucas summation series (and possibly derived values therefrom).  This formal organizational tactic permeates the entire work, ranging from spans that (a) control large scale structural divisions, to (b) the formal ordering of localized segments, even unto (in many cases) (c) the organization of phrase construction.  Within large segments of the movements, as well as proportionally smaller spans (or sections) within segments, series values are nested within one another, forming discrete proportionally coherent formal constructs.  Hindemith also seems to employ “proportional modulation,” a process by which the referential durational value is altered, thus changing how a given proportional span is measured and rectified in terms of GS spans.

 

Die Harmonie der Welt, Hindemith’s last major opera (an expansion of the eponymously-titled predicate symphony), is an allegorical treatment of the life and political/religious backdrop of Johannes Kepler.  The creation and fulfillment of the work spanned thirty years, from its early initial conception, scenarii, and libretto drafts, to its execution. It stands beside The Craft of Musical Composition (Unterweisung im Tonsätz) as his artistic and aesthetic testament.  The Opera represents his compositional and artistic apotheosis.

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It is of interest to observe that Hindemith's compositional procedure for this Symphony/Opera pair is identical to his other great allegorical work, Mathis der Maler, an allegorical treatment of the life and historical/political setting of Mathias Grünewald. This 1934/1936 Symphony/Opera pair is striking in its resemblance to the constructivist compositional aspects of the latter work. Given the times, Mathis served as a personal testament, with multiple layers of symbolism. For Hindemith, it poses-and answers-the Ultimate Question of the rôle of the Artist and Aesthete in times of terrible political and social turmoil. The final Alleluia fends off all supercilious carping and demands that the Artist/Aesthete is compelled to execute a higher obligation, a transcendent duty.

 

The Symphony Die Harmonie der Welt was completed as a commission in 1953, the expanded/extrapolated Opera staged in 1957. (A photograph of the final scene, found in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, shows obvious visual GS design. One hopes this was by design!)

 

By this time however, Hindemith’s music had somewhat fallen out of vogue, replaced by the post-war avant-garde and post-Webern Serialists.  This in no way should be construed as lessening the work's inherent power or aesthetic value.

 

Additional Study

 

Private Jazz studies with Bill Potts.

And I stole anything I could from the superb mind of Dr. James Vincent Badolato.

 

Recording Engineering and Electronics classes, Wor-Wic Technical and Community College.

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During my short tenure at Salisbury State University (and prior to acceptance into the Peabody Institute and Conservatory)...a chapter best forgotten and supressed)...the one positive experience that arose from that period was my involvement as a radio jock for WSSC, the College radio station.

 

At that time, the studio was built into the stairwell space of Wicomico Hall, a female dormitory.

My regular show was Saturdays from 6pm until I couldn't stay awake any longer, usually closing out with the Dawn Patrol!

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Based around a Prog Rock/Alternative format, my playlist relied heavily upon that material, with occasional eclectic selections (READ: "Bizarre") thrown in.

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After matriculation to Peabody, I resumed my show during summer breaks, when I was not driving a Coca-Cola truck from Rehobeth Beach/Dewey Beach south through North Ocean City (you should see MRI' of my spine!

It was very enjoyable, and I was able to earn an FCC 3rd-class Engineers license (upon re-testing!).

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