SENIOR RECITAL ROBERT (TOMMY) MCPHEE Monday, May 3, 2021 Rothwell Recital Hall 7:30PM From the studio of Dr. Nick Rissman Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Music in Composition – PROGRAM – It Lives ........................................................................................................................ (2018) mixed media (music and video) Space Pool ................................................................................................................. (2019) Kevin Melendez, flute| Zachary Davis, clarinet| Robert McPhee, clarinet Four Seasons .............................................................................................................. (2021) Cooper Trejo, toy-piano| Rachel Clark, piano Fortitude .................................................................................................................... (2018) Adriana Avalos, horn| Austin Muñoz, trombone| Gerson Reyes, tuba The Sweetest Poison .................................................................................................... (2018) Robert McPhee, piano Zaphod Beeblebrox .................................................................................................... (2019) De’vionne Jones, trombone |Joshua Rigsby, euphonium| Logan Sells, tuba Ice Cube ..................................................................................................................... (2020) Robert McPhee, Roland TR8-S drum machine, ASM Hydranth synthesizer, Vox Lil' looper pedal Cool Bug Fact’s ......................................................................................................... (2020) Robert McPhee- ASM Hydranth synthesizer, 1010 Blackbox sampler The Third Eye ............................................................................................................. (2021) Christopher Graves, saxophone| Robert McPhee, Roland SP-404sx sampler Culture of Rebellion ................................................................................................... (2020) Robert McPhee- ASM Hydranth synthesizer, Roland TR8-S drum machine, 1010 Blackbox sampler Lunar Truth ................................................................................................................ (2021) "Self-performance" by the ASM Hydrasynth synthesizer Catnip ......................................................................................................................... (2018) mixed media- electric piano, music, and video Audience members are reminded to silence all electronic devices before the performance. As a matter of courtesy and copyright law, no unauthorized recording or photographing is permitted in the performance hall. The James M. “Jimmy” Simmons Music Building is a non-smoking facility. It Lives (2018) is a fixed media composition that utilizes the form, structure, and musical ideas of hip-hop instrumentals to create an atmospheric listening experience. In this way, the piece represents a unique integration of both commercial music and art music. The work relies on several techniques to create its uniquely eerie and unsettling ambiance. Subtle tuning and timing adjustments offset the melodies and drums from the “grid” of beats and twelve-tone pitches commonly found in digital audio workstations like FL Studio, in which the project was created. Additionally, the use of digital renditions of acoustic instruments, including several nonwestern instruments, helps give the instrumental an expressive and unique feel as it progresses. Space Pool (2019) was titled after both an abstract concept of a pool in space, as well as the literal space pool which was and still is a frequent biking destination near my house. Space Pool makes use of many very abstract musical concepts and relies heavily on larger-scale musical changes. The colorful stylistic and harmonic variety is held together by the abstract imagery implied by these changes. The interactions between completely distinct musical parameters, such as rhythm, harmony, and style are what make this composition truly stand out to me as one of my simplest yet most freeing works. Four Seasons (2021) was composed as a commission specifically for Cooper, a pianist with a particular fondness for both the toy and grand pianos. Though it is played by two performers as seen here, it is possible (albeit quite difficult) to play the piece as a soloist on both instruments. In recent years, the interest in the toy piano as a concert instrument has been steadily increasing. However, a surprisingly scarce amount of music has been composed for both instruments played together, especially by one performer. These conditions make the timing of this composition rather optimal for it to perhaps see future interest and performances outside of the scope of this recital. The piece is composed in four movements, representative of the four seasons, which are either implied through transitionary composition or articulated through a brief pause in the music starting from the early winter chords that open the piece and progressing through spring and summer before finally concluding with an exciting fall section. The inspiration for the piece derived from a desire to create a work in which I could exploit the timbral differences between the two instruments in a programmatic context. I do this by combining and separating the two instruments as I see fit to best express the musicality of the piece and the nature of the seasons being depicted. The piece is my most recent composition for fully acoustic instrumentation, and as such it tends to integrate a more advanced and chromatic harmonic language interspersed between clearer instances of tonality. Several late nineteenth and early twentieth century theoretical concepts influenced some of my less traditional musical choices, such as polytonality, set theory, and symmetrical scales. It is also one of my longest acoustic works, and one of my first pieces to feature a collection of multiple distinct movements. Fortitude (2018) is a piece composed for a nonstandard brass trio consisting of horn, trombone, and tuba. I chose this instrumentation so that I could express melodic lines with the mellow sound of the horn, while keeping the ensemble’s tone bright through the more assertive sound of the trombone. The piece is driven by melodies and harmonies that are inspired rather directly by hip-hop and trap music particularly from the late 2000s and early 2010s. I wanted to capture the grandiose feel of the songs of this time, particularly exhibited by major artists like Lil Wayne that integrated the mainstream and the rapidly progressing underground trap scene. I accomplish this by incorporating harmonic ideas driven by 4ths, 5ths, and 2nds, and melodies constructed in direct reference to this genre of popular music. Given that the work is over two years old, I feel as though this piece was one of my first strong attempts to break out of the box of duple meter, particularly given that I come from a background in 4/4 centric commercial music myself. I use the middle section of the piece as a more abstract “development” section that includes more duple time and mixed meters while referencing and contrasting previous ideas in new ways. The Sweetest Poison (2018) is a self-performed solo piano composition. Since piano is a strong secondary instrument for me as a performer, I chose to showcase my musical and technical abilities on an acoustic piano through this piece. What I thought was a moderately difficult work proved to be quite an involved learning process, though it was a beneficial task to take on, particularly given that had I initially composed this piece mostly away from the piano. The piece is rather traditional in many aspects alongside my more experimental works on the program. I find the harmonies and rhythms somewhat reminiscent of a late romantic to early expressionist musical language (1850-1900), with some influence from baroque-era counterpoint as well. Emotionally, I see the work as broadly embodying an aesthetic of progressive unease and despair, which is implied in the title. One important takeaway I have from this work is that it is by far one of my most contrapuntally driven pieces. While the harmonies heard in the piece may be reminiscent of late romantic music, the actual progressions between chords are often open to interpretation. Structures like chords are truly secondary to the way the left hand and right hand interact on a note-to-note basis. As a result, many sections of the piece can be tonally ambivalent between two or more keys. Furthermore, while the piece is scored entirely in triple meter (3/4), a 6/8 duple meter is often implied as well, which provides a curiously disorienting effect to the listener. Zaphod Beeblebrox (2019) utilizes the contrasting timbres of the trombone, euphonium, and tuba to achieve a distinct low-brass trio sound. The differing tambours of the three instruments compensates for the similarly low pitch range that they all occupy. The piece is written in a hip-hop influenced style, with particular emphasis on rhythm and counterpoint. The piece also features a fair amount of jazz influence which becomes more prevalent as the work progresses. The piece is one of the best examples of many works within a similar style, including the brass quintet “Sipping on Tereré” heard on my 10:20 recital in 2019. You can find this piece on my YouTube channel (“Tommy McPhee Music”). This performance includes the same performers as well, plus two others, but I opted