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Science inspires an award winning music composition
Published: Tuesday, 19 Feb 2013
Taking Beautiful Science and Making Beautiful Music
Isaac Newton explained the workings of the universe through mathematics. He also gave us one of the most basic principles of our world—the law of gravity. What that law has influenced since 1687 fills libraries, laboratories and now music halls thanks to the work of Victor E. Marquez Barrios, a young Venezuelan-born scholar studying composition at Michigan State University.
Marquez Barrios began sharpening his skills as a composer in 2001.
“At first I wanted to be guitar soloist,” said Marquez Barrios. “It was my instructors who noticed my ability for composing and encouraged me to change my major.”
Becoming a composer would mean continuing his education and Marquez Barrios knew just where to study. He wanted to study with a composer from his homeland by the name of Ricardo Lorenz. Lorenz, an acclaimed composer known for fiery orchestrations, harmonic sophistication, and rhythmic vitality, joined the MSU faculty as associate professor of composition in 2005.
“I liked Dr. Lorenz’ music so I followed him to Michigan State,” said Marquez Barrios.
Education and Collaboration
Marquez Barrios’ talent has been shaped by several members of the MSU faculty including his current teacher Jere Hutcheson. Hutcheson is a professor of composition who has been cited by the National Music Teachers Association as Distinguished Composer of the Year and is a recipient of a prestigious research fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
As a composer, Marquez Barrios holds an extended catalog of pieces which includes compositions for a variety of solo instruments, electronics, numerous chamber ensembles, mixed choir, and symphony orchestra. His pieces have been performed in important national and international festivals like the “University Institute of Musical Studies Festival,” 2001 and 2002 in Caracas, Venezuela;the “12th Latin American Music Festival,” 2002 in Caracas, Venezuela; the “XVII Festival of Contemporary Music of Havana,” 2002 in Havana, Cuba; and the “Chamber Music Institute” in Lincoln, Nebraska, 2009. Marquez’s compositions have also earned him several honors and awards.
It was during his graduate studies that Marquez Barrios met a talented saxophonist by the name of Jonathan Nichol. With common musical interests the two began working and composing together.
“It is always a pleasure for me to collaborate with Victor,” said Nichol. “Concentric Circles was our third major project.”
A true collaboration between composer and performer, the two meet weekly to discuss and try out material. “I would play for him and he would make suggestions, at the same time I was able to let him know if a certain phrase was unplayable,” said Nichol.
“Through this process, Victor wrote a piece that is truly idiomatic to the tenor saxophone. Like Duke Ellington, Victor has an amazing ability to write music that makes the performer sound the best that they can.”
Inspiration Required
Marquez Barrios admits that much of his work gets its start through an interesting story or a simple sonority he wants to explore. “The real creativity is what happens afterwards,” said Marquez Barrios. “It’s a process of sifting, choosing, interpreting and adding your personal touch that brings a composition to life.”
In 2011, a headline from the New York Times, “NASA Detects Planet Dancing with a Pair of Stars,” grabbed Marquez Barrios’ attention. At the time Marquez Barrios was thinking about a piece Nichol had commissioned him to write for the other NASA—the North American Saxophone Alliance Conference.
“This idea of dancing planets is something that caught my attention,” he said.
The article referred to the discovery of the first planet orbiting two stars by scientists using the Kepler telescope at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The Making of Art
On a more personal level, Marquez Barrios was going through the great experience of being a father for the first time.
“After my first child was born it wasn’t long before my wife and I found ourselves orbiting or dancing around her; each in a different way, at a different pace, but with one common center,” Marquez Barrios said.
Modern day astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson often expresses the creative differences behind scientific discovery and the making of art this way:
“If I discover a scientific idea, surely someone else would’ve discovered the same idea had I not done so. Whereas, look at Van Gogh’s 'Starry Night'—if he didn’t paint 'Starry Night,' nobody’s gonna paint 'Starry Night.' So, in that regard, the arts are more individual to the creative person than a scientific idea is to the one who comes up with it.”
“These ideas of a planet circling the two stars and what was happening in my own personal life as a father came together in the composition,” said Marquez Barrios.
When asked about his contribution to the world, Marquez Barrios felt certain that music had a role to play.
“I come from a country where there is a great experience in taking kids off the street and giving them an instrument,” he said. “When you have people play together, in this case in a symphony orchestra, they learn things like problem solving and teamwork—things that can be applied to other aspects of life. Although I am not 100 percent sure how it happens, teaching is a way to help solve some of the complex problems we all face as people.”
Concentric Circles Debut
The piece, titled Concentric Circles, debuted before an international audience in Scotland at the Saxophone World Congress in July. Marquez Barrios was able to attend the performance thanks to the support of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the College of Music, the Graduate School and International Studies and Programs.
watch an interview with Marquez barrios at www.isp.edu/multimedia
listen to a recording of Concentric Circles at www.marquezbarrios.com (coming soon)
