BCM International ~ View topic

Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 661 Location: Michigan

I don't know, maybe this is just a personal pet peeve of mine, but I get annoyed at titles to compositions that seem over-the-top or try to be too cryptic, clever, sublime, etc when the music itself is not deserving of the title. This tends to happen a lot especially in repertoire for younger musicians.

For example, there is a tune for young band called something like Excellentia (I can't remember who it's by at the moment, but Jim Swearingen or Ed Huckeby come to mind). I mean, c'mon! What the heck is "Excellentia?" I can accept the fact that it's not a real word, but it's not even a good made-up one! I also understand that simply calling the piece "Excellent" is a bit trite. But even the kids who play these pieces can come up with better titles. It almost seems as if the composer is trying to make up for the lack of musical interest in the tune by slapping a fancy title on it.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most inventive or imaginative when it comes to titling my music. (Case-and-point: I have a piece for orchestra called Joey in the Chemistry Building. Yeah, it's programmatic. I'll let you use your imagination from there.) I'd like to think that the music can speak for itself, despite the fact that a good interesting title will more likely draw more listeners. But to throw a fancy and even downright absurd title on a piece of music, especially one that doesn't really deserve a fancy title, comes off as pretentious, in my opinion. It's kind of like that gaudy fake jewelry you can get at Wal*Mart for less than $10; it's flashy, but too cheap to have any substance to it.

Any thoughts from anyone else on this?

Matt
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*ZOOP!*

... or the ones were it seems like two big words thrown together...

Centrifical Opulence

Razz

p.s. I hope that isn't a real title. If it is, I apologize.
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Daniel Montoya Jr.
www.danielmontoyajr.com

Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 125

Many of the one word titles are copycat responses to something. I'll have to think of what the source was. This was addressed in an interview of a composer in The Instrumentalist, I think. Maybe Claude T. Smith. He's got a bunch of those: Emperata, Jubilesta, Jubilo, Acclamation, Bombasto, Citation, Credence, etc. Francis McBeth is another one: Battaglia, Caccia, Canto, Cavata, Drammatico (not to be confused with Robert W. Smith's Dramatico), Estampie, Masque, Mosaic, etc.

Some composers have this tradition of one word titles. A bunch of Larry Clark's beginning band pieces all start with C - Character, Consensus, Confidence, Conflict, etc. Stephen Melillo is such a freak about this stuff that a bunch of his pieces are five letter names. With exclamation points - Monty! Erich! David! There was an exception made for Ahab! (Makes me think of what was described as that "absolutely defining sense of self: Tall! Decaf! Cappuccino!" or perhaps of "Myra had the baby.")

I keep a database of works for band and would you believe that there are actually two pieces with the unlikely title of "Exordium" - two titled "Accolade" then two more titled "Accolades"? You would think that you could just say we played "Festivo" and everyone would know, but NO - you gotta say - by Nelhybel or by Gregson.

Maybe I'll just go with Opus 19, No. 4.

One of the pieces that was written for my band last year came in without a title - and man, did the kids freak out.

Mike

Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 621 Location: New York City

Titles. Oy, don't get me started.

My peers and I spent our schooling attempting to get away from the academic exercise of "Symphony No. 2"-type titling -- and with some success. Interesting and evocative titles are very common in the concert music world now. But only up to a point:

Sure, it can be interesting -- but not TOO interesting. This drives me crazy. CRAZY I tell you. In a way, the "absolute music" titling of the past ("Woodwind Quintet No. 2") is a better deal, in that the music itself is never judged by the title. That's a plus. Try not pre-judging what something called "OK Feel Good" will sound like...

(NOTE: my string quartet, WAPWALLOPEN, was subtitled "String Quartet No. 1" for this very reason. An interesting title only brings questions. Adding the absolute-music title on for good measure tempers it to normalcy...)

The result of this evocative-but-not-too-interesting-so-as-to-alienate-anybody titling is the predominance of "adjective-noun" titling, which to me is a frequently lazy way out, and often insulting to the audience. If your piece is called "Red Heat" you might as well name the thing "Orchestra Potboiler No. 2". (for examples of this, see any title by Richard Danielpour...) Wink

Mostly what I'm talking about here is a mostly a problem of the orchestra and chamber music world. Things are a little less tight-*** in the wind world...where "Uncle Sid" doesn't really cause anyone to blink twice. But I got a refresher recently in the politics of titling with my orchestra piece, originally titled "Hip+Now". After hearing quite a dramatic response against the irony of the title (despite the good response to the music itself), I eventually threw my hands up and renamed the piece to (the still cool, however much less interesting) "Metropolitan".

So-called "Band titles" like the excellent examples you guys have mentioned already, are a whole other category for me, and honestly, they're just too easy a target. The ridiculousness of bastardizing a latin word or celebrating some suburban subdivision speaks for itself.

Despite my railing against the ones I perceive as terrible, I wholeheartedly admit, titles are hard. They are personal and subjective. One (wo)man's great title is another (wo)man's self-indulgent claptrap. I'm sure people HATE my titles just as much as I hate theirs. That being said, one of my favorite pastimes every year is going through the "new issues" section of the Midwest Clinic catalog and making fun of all of the titles. Exclamation-pointed titles get set aside for especially cruel derisive laughter.

So for me, a self-proclaimed snob of the highest order, bad titles are the norm. In music, in dance (the BIGGEST instigator of the adjective-noun epidemic), and in the visual arts. I can't tell you how many times I've been in an art gallery, looking at new works, and instantly and viscerally enjoyed a piece until I glanced at its title. Honestly, I just don't look at the little cards to the left anymore.

I wish I could do the same on concert programs...

Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 621 Location: New York City

ADDENDUM: I actually thought of yet another common cop-out titling system which drives me bananas (and yes I've been guilty of employing this one more than once):

some descriptive word or phrase +
a) "Music"
b) "Dance(s)"
c) some specific kind of music or dance (ie. "Gavotte" or "March")

At its best, this yields titles like John Adam's NAIVE AND SENTIMENTAL MUSIC

At its worst, one gets CHELSEA TANGO or WACKY WALTZ (not making those up)

Facebook

Joined: 25 Jul 2004 Posts: 136 Location: Cincinnati OH

ahhhh, bad titles. They are the first and most important impression that a musician can make about a piece of music.

I avoid, like the plague anything that ends w/ "tia" (ie think of swearingen)

However, sometimes, there are some at least decent pieces w/ very, very unfortunate titles. For example, Panther Fire by Rob Smith (no, not that Robert Smith). It's a neat little piece with a lot of high energy, that is kind of a mix of Tempered Steel meets Lawrence of Arabia. A friend of mine, performed this piece, and before the first note, I was shocked he would pick a piece w/ such an incredibly bad title. Immediately, I began to judge the piece, not on its merits, but on the title. 90% of the time, I'm correct in my assumption, but this is one time when I was not.

Personally, I rather enjoy esoteric titles, that, while they reflect the mood of the piece, don't give the whole thing away. They also can help performers to have the right frame of mind when performing it.

I don't envy composers who have to come up with the titles for their compositions, knowing, unfortunately, how important they are. Just remember that Copland didn't actually create the title "Appalachian Spring", Marth Graham did that. He just titled it Ballet for Martha.
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Director of Bands
School for Creative and Performing Arts
1310 Sycamore St
Cincinnati OH 45202
(513)363-8025

Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 661 Location: Michigan

Just a few quick reponses...

First, while composers like Claude T. Smith and Francis McBeth use a lot of titles that appear "bad" in today's context, I kinda give them the exception. When they were writing the majority of their music, it was in a time before bad band titles were really an issue. Therefore, they were probably forced to try out whatever they could think of, rather than following a trend. Also, unlike a lot of the band music with bad titles today, their music was usually good enough to forgive any title they chose. This leads me into my next response...

Newman, I think it's awesome that you go through the new pubs (abbr. for publications, however, everyone at Midwest is certainly very interested at checking out all the actual pubs, too) at Midwest just for a good laugh. I end up doing much the same thing! In fact, I got my first crack at it at the National Band Association Conference in San Antonio in 2000. Mark Camphouse pointed out that there was a new pub. by the name of Taco Time. TACO TIME! *hangs head*

Finally, I must admit that I am guilty of adding an exclamation point to the end of one of my titles...but it was for a good reason! My very first young band piece that I ever wrote (hurray for redundancies) was a piece called Volcano. It was written to be sound (of course) very aggressive and dynamic. However, the 7th graders weren't really getting the point as well as I had hoped. So, just to get the point across, it became Volcano! Yet, somehow, the exclamation point gets left off most of the time when it is listed by TRN,or J.W. Pepper, or whoever else might list it. Maybe that's a good thing...

Matt
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*ZOOP!*

Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 125

Although it's not a crazy made-up word, you might like to know that there is another piece for band titled "Volcano" (don't know about the !) by Douglas Nott. Also one titled "Volcano" for brass band by Robert Simpson.

You might have better luck in terms of unique-ness by sticking with "Zoop!" Though you never know.

Mike

Egads - a quick search on Pepper finds even more Volcani. Jimmy Buffett???? Glad that's been arranged for concert band.

Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 429 Location: Clarkston, MI

Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 29 Location: New York, NY

I think I'm pretty good at creating titles. Sometimes, I think I'm better at making titles than I am at composing... yeesh. Here are some of the titles for instrumental works (vocal works usually take their titles from their texts) that I'm working on or have worked on:

Orbits (for orchestra, currently shelved)
The Visitor (for electric guitar and orchestra)
The History of Places (for chamber symphony)

I love titles that are wedded to their music. John Adams seems very good at this (e.g., Harmonium, Naive and Sentimental Music, etc.). It's generally easier to have a "wedded" title with a vocal work, because the poet usually titles the poem, but it's possible with an instrumental piece. John Corigliano has a real talent for wedded titles: "Fantasia on an Ostinato," "Of Rage and Remembrance," "The Mannheim Rocket," "The Ghosts of Versailles," etc.

I HATE the fake-latin-words titles (even real latin words tend to irritate me. You don't speak latin!), and I tend to hate titles that use the word "dances," unless it's VERY clever or somewhat tongue-in-cheek (The Chairman Dances comes to mind). I also HATE the word "sketches."

The best titles are (forgive the analogy) like the best strippers: they never reveal too much, too soon. They know that mystery is the best thing they have going for them. Some of the best I've heard in recent years:

"The Right Weather" -- Lisa Bielawa
"Naive and Sentimental Music" -- John Adams
"The Ghosts of Versailles" -- John Corigliano
"Cloudburst" -- Eric Whitacre
"Redline" -- Steve Bryant
"HIP+NOW" -- Newman (sorry bud, I know you had to ditch it... I just love it so much)
"Fratres" -- Arvo Pärt
"Fire Water Paper" -- Elliot Goldenthal
"Poem of Ecstasy" -- Alexander Scriabin

Hope this hasn't been too abrasive... hehe.

--Jer
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Jeremy Beck
Music Composition
The Steinhardt School
New York University

er... I have a confession to make.

Forgive me, O almighty BCM father, for I have sinned most heinously. When I was a freshman in college, I started on an orchestral piece which I then most seriously and abominably entitled "Festivus." Although I never finished it, recently the most abhorrent idea has recently entered into my mind to revive it, and finish it.

May I be beaten bodily with a stick numerous times for this most grievous of transgressions, and forced to repeatedly repeat this repetitious motto:

YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING
YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING
YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING
YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING
YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING
YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING
YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING

So be it.
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"You can't impose divinity on a chord; a chord's divinity has to come from the inside out." - from the film "The Caveman's Valentine."

It;s funny cuz TACO TIME, is what the P.A. announcer says when TMEA (Tx. Music Educator's Association) and TBA (Tx. Band Masters Association) Conventions end...

"...it's 5:00, and you know what that means. It's TACO TIME!"

Funny how Mark mentioned it at TBA...?

And to stay on topic, my first wind piece was entitled DANSE MOODS. I wish I could say the title was a play on my name (DANiel + Moods = DAN'S MOODS), but alas, I am not that clever. I just wanted to change the "C" to an "S" so it would seem a lot cooler than it was. Hehehe...
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Daniel Montoya Jr.
www.danielmontoyajr.com

I have always had a hard time naming my pieces. I don't like the fact that the title could mean something completely different to someone else and so they have preconceived ideas about what the music should sound like. My titles have never been great but I hope I'm getting better.

The Second Coming (SSAATTBB and Piano) The text was several excerpts from the book of Revelation.
Angel of Morning (SSAA and Piano) This was my own text.... sadly.
Refraction (Brass and Percussion Ensemble)
My Little Black Box (Video and Electronics)
Intermittent (Woodwind Quartet)
Woven Memory of (Flute, Tenor Sax, Two Pianos, Percussion Ensemble and Electric Bass)
raise the shade (Art song) Text by e.e. cummings
Thy fingers make early flowers of all things (SSAATTBB and Piano) Text by e.e. cummings
I am working on my first orchestra piece. I am thinking about naming it Point of Collapse but I would like to come up with a good name for once.
I think I might win the award for worst named piece ever. I named an early piece....... yes, its true............ The Dance.
I just didn't even try. It was pretty. It had a steady pulse. It was.... The Dance.
Anyway, I hope my titling ability makes you all feel better about yourselves. That way I can feel like there is a good reason for my lack of ability.
Jay