Matt Hayes - Junior Recital
This Junior Recital is presented in partial fulfillment of a B.M. in Music Education
Notes by the composer:
“The first Mexican Dance was originally the ninth etude from Etudes for Marimba, Book 2. Warren Benson [Stouts’ teacher] thought that the character of the music of the first dance was very different from the rest of the etudes of Book 2. He suggested that I remove it from that collection, write a second piece in a similar style, and call them Two Mexican Dances. Thus the dedication of the two pieces to Warren Benson. So I didn't think of the first dance as being Mexican. I had never been to Mexico at that point in my life. Warren Benson however, heard something that made him think that. The first dance was composed in one day, with no revisions or changes. The second dance was begun on vibes, and took much longer to compose.”
American Suite is a five-movement work based primarily on a short rhythmic motive presented in the opening four measures. Throughout all five movements, this theme is continuously manipulated utilizing augmentation, diminution, fragmentation and other variation techniques. Each movement is unique and incorporates many aspects associated with drumming in America, including jazz, rudimental, ethnic, orchestral, marching, and contemporary styles.
I: The first movement serves to firmly introduce the rhythmic motive with only an occasional use of unrelated material.
II: This movement combines the old rudimental style of drumming with a more contemporary marching application. Accents play an important role in motivic statements. All forty Percussive Arts Society International Drum Rudiments appear in this movement.
III: The third movement, written entirely for brushes, makes extensive use of hand-to-hand independence while maintaining the rhythmic motive in a jazz style.
IV: Written in a Latin style, this movement makes use of numerous playing areas and special techniques.
V: The last movement is the most difficult and twice as long as any other movement. It is more contemporary in nature and contains new and previously stated motivic variations.
I. Prelude
II. Allemande
Bach’s Six Unaccompanied Suites for Cello are among the most recognizable and widely performed compositions ever written for the instrument. They were most likely composed while he worked in the German city of Köthen as Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen. The Suites have been transcribed for many instruments, but lay particularly well on marimba because the low range is the same the cello. Bach has made a profound impact upon western art music, and his compositions and techniques serve as a foundation for music theory as it’s studied today.
Ron Coulter received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Performance from the Dana School of Music. In his notes for the piece, he jokingly requests, “if possible, players 1 and 3 should both be named Nate. The piece was composed for and is dedicated to two of my students, Nathan Staley and Nathan Kingery.”
Featuring: Bob Young and Dustin May as the two Nates
The composition was named after Mr. Smadbeck’s wife’s mother who passed away tragically in 1986.
Notes by the composer:
“Musically, I wanted to initially create for the listener a mood of quiet reflection. The form is a fairly simple AABC Coda, prefaced by an introduction in c#. The primary melodic theme, also in c#, is stated twice and leads to a rather forceful section in f# which develops fragments of earlier material. This is followed by a contrasting dolce in G, which builds in intensity and leads to a coda. Here, the listener is teased into an expectation of a return to the primary melodic theme when, instead, the material from the introduction is used in a downward cascade of chords, ending in a quiet echo of the opening theme.”
Both The African Queen and Nutville were released on the Horace Silver Quintet’s album The Cape Verdean Blues, which was inspired by Silver’s father who was born in Cape Verde.
Featuring:
Mark Higgins – Tenor Sax
Kevin Snyder – Bari Sax
Dan Danch - vibes
Albert Troiani – Guitar
Jonathan Carran – Bass
Matt Hayes is a junior music education major at Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music. Matt grew up in Coshocton, Ohio and graduated from River View High School in 2001 where he was actively involved in the music program, participating in the marching, symphonic, jazz, and pep bands, Caribbean Percussion Ensemble, the “Certified Gold” Chorale, and both on stage and in the pit orchestra for the school musicals. He studied percussion with Jay Fant, and was heavily involved with the OMEA Solo and Ensemble competition all four years. During high school, he was also a member of the All-Ohio Youth Choir, for which he was then hired as staff percussionist for the past nine years.
In the fall of 2001, Matt began working towards a music education degree at Capital University where he participated in a number of wind, percussion, and vocal ensembles while studying under Bob Breithaupt. In 2004, Matt left Capital and began teaching percussion back at River View, eventually getting hired as the director of percussion. As such, he oversaw marching, concert and indoor percussion rehearsals, directed, composed, and arranged for the Caribbean Ensemble, assisted with the Jazz and Pep bands, and taught private lessons to students from around the county. In 2006 he was a member of Matrix Indoor Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Rob Ferguson.
Finally in 2008, Matt began his studies at YSU under Dr. Glenn Schaft. He is currently a member of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Percussion Ensemble, the Horace Silver jazz combo, and the Youngstown Percussion Collective (YPC), a group for whom he is vice president. He has also performed with the Concert Band, the Marching Pride, and the Jazz 2 big band. In the spring of 2010, he was accepted into the national academic honors society Phi Kappa Phi.
Matt would like to dedicate this performance to his late aunt and uncle, Julie and Garth Griffith.