Composer and Teacher

The word consummate, as an adjective, refers to something that has been fulfilled or something that is complete. I take pride in stating that I am a consummate composer. The 4,000+ pages of sheet music I have written, including multiple arrangements, cover all styles, forms and genres of music. In composition, there is not much that I have not yet done.

The grandest pieces, of course, are the 8 symphonies, the 2 piano concerti, the 2 violin concerti, the 5 string quartets, the opera score in both French and English, and the fully choreographed and scored ballet. But, I have also written several ragtime pieces, and I enjoy jazz music very much, including the compositions I have in cool jazz, hot jazz, big band, and other styles. Ragtime, however, is probably my favorite style of jazz music.

It takes a long time to become a consummate composer. In jazz alone, you have upwards of 30 schools of jazz. First, you start with regional jazz, like New York, or St. Louis, or Kansas City, or New Orleans. Then, you add specific types of jazz, like bebop, or Dixieland, or ragtime. After that, you add all of the many crossovers, like bluegrass (country and jazz), or reggae (calypso and jazz), or rhythm and blues (rock and jazz). In classical music, you start with the sonata, and then you can try all of the other forms up to the opera and the symphony. If you are going to compose contemporary music, you have a lot to cover too, from ballads to holiday songs, from country-western to rock music. Let us not forget those folk songs or tributes either.

In other words, you cannot go into anything halfway, if you plan on learning your craft or your art. To become a consummate composer, to become complete, you must at least attempt the many styles, forms and genres in the world of music.

You must learn the styles, the forms and the genres, not just the sounds. Ragtime, for example, is something most people describe only as an upbeat tempo type of light jazz. But, ragtime is much more than that. Ragtime represents the joy of the northern migration of the southern black person, but which is still colored with the blues of the plantation at the turn of the century. That is why ragtime is upbeat in nature, but it still clings to the blues scale. Bebop, as another example, is often described by many as the "sound" of the music's beat, the "be-bop" of the music. But, actually, bebop became bebop because it was too fast for most musicians to play, and the word represented the speed of the music.

Therefore, you cannot be a consummate composer unless you have been around for a certain period of time. A consummate musician must be able to play all styles, forms and genres of music. A consummate composer, the one who writes the notes to be played, must actually sit down at his desk and take up a pen and paper to indeed write such music. Nobody is going to write it for you.