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It's All Been Done
Harshbarger, Jeff
Harshbarger, Jeff
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Abstract
It’s All Been Done is a suite of music composed for jazz ensemble, comprising seven movements played consecutively and without interruption. Initially inspired by a lawsuit that singer/songwriter Tom Waits filed against a large corporation for using an impersonator in a commercial, It’s All Been Done is an exploration of style, sense memory and the compositional process.
It’s All Been Done begins with a parody of Waits’ own style. I use a single motif as material for melodic, harmonic and rhythmic development throughout the composition. This motif is also utilized as the connective material between movement as I explore modern jazz, minimalism, Afropop, free improvisation, Americana, sound collage and romantic-era classical music. For most transitions, I draw inspiration from avant-garde composer John Zorn and the absurdist comedy troop Monty Python’s Flying Circus, using jump cuts to quickly transport us to entirely different musical scenes that seemingly have nothing to do with the previous movement. While the movements are completely original, they are orchestrated in such a way as to be instantly recognizable homages of their respective genres. It is my intention for these sudden live edits to elicit a visceral, emotional response, usually to comedic effect. I also set disparate genres simultaneously, allowing us to enjoy when the cacophony accidently achieves consonance.
I have always admired how Duke Ellington and Maria Schneider filled their ensembles with individuals that have developed an idiosyncratic sound and language on their respective instruments. With that aesthetic in mind, It’s All Been Done was composed for a specific group of musicians and the unique manner in which they interact with one another. The selection of the individuals that make up the ensemble was the foundation of my compositional process for this work. Who I write for far outweighs what instruments they play, as orchestrating for the possible relationships of individual personalities, timbres and improvisational dialects is a far more interesting palette to paint from.
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Date
2025-01-01
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University of Kansas
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This item contains archived web content.
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Harshbarger_ku_0099M_20213.pdf
Adobe PDF, 5.86 MB
- Embargoed until 2176-05-31
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Keywords
Musical composition, Jazz