Post-tonal
The long era of common practice tonality weakened in the last half of the 19th century and (with a few exceptions) died a natural death around the year 1900. It was not the result of a single composer but of many, over several generations. The early 20th century was a time of innovation. New vistas of compositional resources were opened up by Debussy, Scriabin, early Stravinsky, early Schoenberg, Bartók, and others which, I feel, were never fully explored. I still find this music inspiring and fertile ground for further development. I build my compositions using a variety of post-tonal pitch materials. (However, the sacred pieces written between 1994 and 2006 retain traditional tonality and modality.)
An Aim for Beauty
I suspect it may be true that of all the arts, music is the one in which the perception of beauty depends the most on habits. Concert-goers still love the music of Bach and Mozart, but not only for its familiarity but also for its internal coherence. This music is felt by many as beautiful. I believe that it is possible to create music that displays a kind of beauty without traditional tonality. The lack of familiarity that comes with the territory of a post-tonal language is a challenge which I accept. I believe that with consistency of language and clarity of form, post-tonal music can be beautiful.
What about the post-war European avant garde?
Many post-war composers took the radical approach of Webern as a license to discard the entire history of western music without offering a convincing aesthetic rationale for doing so. Since then, waves of trends and counter-trends have come and gone, eroding the idea of music as an art and a craft and leaving us with little more than style.
Jazz
In addition to the classical composers of the early 20th century, I am also inspired by the music of Davis, Coltrane, Evans, Hancock, Corea, Metheny, Brecker, and others.
With early 20th century classical and late 20th century jazz as my inspirations, my music
- retains traditional elements of melody, harmony, and rhythmic pulse;
- employs a variety of post-tonal pitch materials which are capable of yielding perceptible relationships; and
- uses well-established processes such as variation and development.
My hope is that each of my works successfully communicates its own central idea or feeling.