Anniversary/Updates, W4RP Trio
Hello Everyone,
If you have not already, I encourage you to use the following link to listen to the most recent episode of the TCC Podcast, celebrating the one-year anniversary on the Theorist Composer Collaboration!
https://www.tccollaboration.com/tcc-33-one-year-anniversary-special/
I can’t believe that it has already been a whole year of this podcast. Much has happened since then, and I covered that pretty well within the episode. There are a number of updates, however, relevant to myself that happened pretty soon after the episode that I would like to share.
If any of you are relatively familiar with me, then you know that I am about to graduate from Florida State University with a Masters of Music in Music Theory. That being said, yes, I was on campus during the recent horrific campus shooting. Thankfully, the music theory GA office and music campus is a good distance away from the Student Union, so I was never in any direct danger. Regardless, it is only about a 10-minute walk away. I will say, mentoring my students, who are entirely non-music majors, through this has been quite difficult, as a good number of them were very directly affected by this tragedy. This is both a dark time for the FSU community and a moment of cohesion in the student body and faculty, although there are certainly some professors who could have chosen their words more carefully…
In brighter news, the newly commissioned TCC Theme was premiered on Tuesday 4/22 at the final FSU SCI concert! It was a phenomenal experience, the trio played beautifully, and I am going to post pictures and write about it more in an upcoming social media post.
To round-out this news chunk, unfortunately I was not accepted by a Ph.D. in music theory program for Fall 2025. This has been a grueling and, quite frankly, defeating process. While I would obviously have preferred to be accepted somewhere, in hindsight this might be greatly beneficial. While musicianship skills in the theory realm could be improved (piano, singing, etc.), I have realized that I need to take a concerted effort to improve written prose and research. While I believe I write fairly well in that setting, it certainly could be better and at a larger scale. So, in the meantime I am currently searching for some kind of clerical, administerial work here in Tallahassee, while also very aggressively gearing up for a rap/transformational corpus study over the summer/fall. And, of course, continuing this podcast. Coupled with a conference presentation under my belt, and a (very-probable) forthcoming publication on SMT-Pod (more on that at a later date!), I am feeling good about my capabilities for the second time around. So, to recap, of course I would have preferred to be accepted right away, but I am going into the next round of applications with greater hope of success.
That raps up my little chunk of updates, certainly a crazy time right now.
I am excited to preview that the next episode of the TCC Podcast is going to feature the group W4RP Trio, with members Josh Henderson and Mikael Darmanie to discuss their group’s new album Sermon of the MatriarK. This episode was recorded, frankly, quite a while ago, but given a TON of life roadblocks it has been delayed until now. Sermon of the MatriarK is a phenomenal, dynamic album. Mixes of popular music, jazz, funk, and classical/avant garde idioms. Josh, Mikael and I discuss all manner of topics in the episode, ranging from the compositional process, the messages behind the album, and its place in music culture given the political/social climate. I, of course, want to share more, but that would be spoiling the fun!
Again, don’t forget to listen to the most previous episode if you missed it, celebrating the one-year anniversary of this podcast. Make sure to follow our social media links below and the podcast streaming platform of your choice to keep up-to-date on new episodes and blog posts from the TCC. Additionally, set your calendar and or streaming subscriptions to this coming Monday, April 28th, for the episode featuring W4RP Trio’s Josh Henderson and Mikael Darmanie and their group’s album Sermon of the MatriarK. You won’t want to miss it, and we’ll see you there!
- Aaron
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Aaron D'Zurilla
TCC Founder/Music Theorist
Hello, my name is Aaron D'Zurilla and I am the primary host and founder of the Theorist Composer Collaboration. I created the Theorist Composer Collaboration out of a love of the connection between the artist and their art. Music theory, in my view, is a lens and avenue in which to understand people and their experiences. Often, as music theorists, and individuals attempting to find success in a historically hierarchical field, we find ourselves turning-away from modern music and artists when choosing what to study. As many academics could attest, the decision to study or analyze a work goes beyond that simple decision. It is a choice to highlight, spotlight, platform, and even promote the continuation of a commodity or idea, even if it is in a critical light. While there is plenty of space for such scholarship, and new inventive work in the field of music theory is developed everyday across the world in numerous topics, there is a stark lack of attention to the new music of today.
My personal rationale can be surmised in that we should not wait for music to be 40,50,80+ years old to begin pondering the creation of the art of today. Why wait to engage with literal generations of new composers, creating worlds of novel sounds and experiences everyday across the world? Generally, when looking at where composers and their compositions find support, it is within the composition community, across academia, festivals and through online platforms specific to the field. The hope of the TCC is to expand the support for modern, living compositions outside of these ar… Read More
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