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Chops – Sticky Bow – Carnatic Fiddle Groove – Jazz-Rock Fusion – Georgia Shuffle. These are some of the terms that appear in the music that the musicians are presented with for Confetti Man. Not exactly the kind of terminology normally associated with traditional orchestral music. However, they are signposts of an evolutionary process that is slowly but inevitably sweeping the American string world. We are in a new era of musical integration, and musicians from all genres are writing and performing music that challenges what the term “classical” means. Those genre-bending artists have done much to bring more awareness to the need to expand the stylistic parameters of classical forms by challenging the deeply rooted European traditions from which these forms evolved.
Perhaps the next step in this evolution will be for entire orchestras to share in this development of stylistic versatility, especially the styles that were born in America—Jazz, American folk music and all the various tributaries of these two main genres. The Turtle Island String Quartet is firmly rooted in this approach, and for the last twenty years has been pointing the way for the possibilities for other ensembles. The Nashville Chamber Orchestra shares this mission. And so Confetti Man came to be my first work as the Nashville Chamber Orchestra’s Music Alive Composer-In-Residence, as we journey together through the challenges and joys of creating a new kind of orchestral music.
Some day it may be the general rule that orchestral string players will be able to draw from fiddle bowing techniques to create rhythmic groove, to swing in various jazz idioms, and to eschew the Italian opera singer approach to vibrato. More and more it won’t be just the bass players who are able to solo over the complex jazz chord progressions that were once almost entirely the exclusive domain of the horn-dominated community of jazz musicians. Confetti Man was written with the express intent of furthering this goal.
David Balakrishnan -
March, 2006
NCO Music Alive Composer-In-Residence (2005-2008)
The residency of David Balakrishnan with the NCO was made possible through Music Alive, a residency program of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet The Composer. This national program is designed to provide orchestras with resources and tools to support their presentation of new music to the public and build support for new music within their institutions. Funding for Music Alive is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.
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