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Barbara Geehan
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Finding the Sound that Wows Us
by Lee Capristo, Director of Publications
There's an expression that if you can't find what you're looking for, create it yourself. So it is with music: a listener doesn't hear the music he wants to hear from others, so he creates his own. Professor of Music David Froom creates his own music and teaches his composition students to do the same. "Composition is creating the music you've always wanted to hear but never have," says Froom. And now, more and more, his compositions are becoming music that others want to hear as well.
Since his Guggenheim fellowship in 2003, Froom has been climbing the chart of American composers of note. That same year, he won his fourth Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. In 2004, he earned a commission from the Barlow Foundation at Brigham Young University and his second commission from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University. In 2006, the American Academy of Arts and Letters presented Froom its Academy Award, and in 2007 he was designated Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teachers National Association.
His newest CD, "Song and Dance," is the culmination of six years of work, securing sponsorships, making recordings and producing them. Froom's works are performed by the 21st Century Consort, led by Christopher Kendall; the Consort is the Smithsonian Institution's new music group-in-residence. This collection of Froom's music is available on CD from Bridge Records, and also from Amazon, iTunes, and, in a few months, the Naxos Music Library.
Music "must be essential," Froom tells his composition students. He sets high standards for them, insisting that anything they put down on a page "must cry out with a reason for existence." Froom encourages his students to push their ideas and set musical goals beyond their current limits. "Always raise the bar!" Froom tells them. On his role as a coach and mentor for young composers, Froom says that what he does is analogous to the work of a director, coaching how a line might be said, or a choreographer, showing how a movement might be expressed.
Striving to meet Froom's high expectations became an inspiring part of Matt Sargent's education at St. Mary's. Sargent, who graduated with a double major in music and English in 2006, says that Froom as a mentor was a "perfect blend of authoritative and supportive." For a student of composition, music is studied as a sound and structure. A successful piece requires months of deep listening, thought, and exploration. "But almost no composer actually hears music this way," says Sargent. "Composing always starts first as a gut reaction - a serious and intuitive pursuit of finding a sound that 'wows' you - then blossoms into months of deep listening, thought, and personal exploration."
Sargent's performance interests at St. Mary's were informal, off-beat, "do-it-yourself" musical compositions which lasted a half-hour to a week, shared in communal settings like a coffee bar or residence hall lounge, as well as the student-run White Room Theater in Montgomery Hall. "I loved the ability to produce my own concerts," says Sargent. "The enthusiasm of the other students and faculty at St. Mary's made it a great place for fostering this sort of creativity."
Sargent has continued to compose and perform since graduation. He is now wrapping up a master of music degree in composition at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. He's cofounder of a music ensemble called the Hartford Sound Alliance, a group of musicians and artists who present multimedia concerts throughout New England. The group had a residency in March 2008 at the Hartford Art School, performing four concerts over seven days, all of which were original compositions.
And he carries Froom's life lessons with him. "In addition to teaching compositional technique and practice," Sargent says, "Dr. Froom imparted a belief that great art can only be made by taking great risks." Sargent clearly lives by this dictum.
And as you listen to his new CD, you can hear that Froom clearly practices what he preaches!
