The Lincoln Music Teachers’ Association (LMTA) sponsors a
composition concert open to various ages and levels from early elementary up
through adult student entries and teacher entries. This year, the adjudicator
for the contest was Kurt Knecht, and you can hear the winning pieces that he
selected performed on a concert this weekend on Sunday, April 7 at 5pm. The
performance will take place at Grace Lutheran Church (22nd and
Washington Streets). This recital is free and open to the public.
Knecht, who has been featured on previous articles, spoke
with Examiner.com again regarding this composition contest. As far as the works
he saw entered in this contest, Knecht said that “they were mostly piano
compositions” that featured a wide range of harmonic vocabularies. Everything
from tonal to atonal, pentatonic, whole tone...really the whole range. And they
were generally of high quality. It was fairly easy to pick the winner in each
category, but picking 2nd, 3rd, and honorable mention was
tricky.”
In selecting the winners, Knecht would look for a few
things. He shared some of the questions that he had going through his mind
during the process:
“1. Is there a clear formal structure?
2. Does the music have some sort of emotional direction and
flow?
3. Is there enough variation to prevent monotony, and is
there enough similarity to create unity?
4. Is the texture appropriate for the musical idea being
conveyed?
5. Is the score clean and clearly marked?”
Of course, the performance on
Sunday will give everyone a chance to hear the pieces that best exhibited these
qualities, and the audience will also have a chance to hear Knecht perform one
of his own compositions: “I'm going to be performing my Nocturne in memoriam
Robert Helps.” Knecht has come a long way since his first attempts at
composing: “my development was fairly typical. I wrote a few things that aren’t
worth mentioning when I was young. Then, by middle school, I started
improvising on my piano pieces.” By high school, Knecht had committed to
writing fairly serious music and has spent the years since studying music and
writing some wonderful pieces.
His advice for students who are trying their hand at
composing is that “everyone should write because everyone has something to
say.” But, “That doesn't mean that everyone is going to become a successful
composer. It does mean that you will create something that is very unique, and
putting that something into the world is a great and courageous act. It may be
that lots of other people want to hear the way that you organize sound. Even if
they don't, you will certainly gain insight into yourself and the compositions
of the great masters. If you really enjoy it, you should get lessons with
someone.”
Hear Knecht and some of Lincoln’s beginning composers on
Sunday!
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