Chris Arrell, assistant professor of music at the College of the Holy Cross, was recently awarded the distinguished Ettelson Composer Award for his piece “Of Three Minds.” Arrell was one of two winners chosen from more than 200 applicants.
“Of Three Minds,” written by Arrell for critically acclaimed musicians Tony Arnold and Jacob Greenberg, is a setting of five sections from Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (1917). Inspired by Japanese haiku, each of the poem’s 13 sections presents the image of a blackbird as the focal point for a concise study in vivid landscape and nuanced inflection.
“‘Of Three Minds’ is a trio scored for vocalist, pianist, and laptop operator who, during a live performance, alters and augments the timbres, rhythms, and notes of the musicians with the aid of an interactive computer application that I created with the software program Max,” explains Arrell. “I teach this software in my music tech classes and it will also feature prominently in performances by the newly minted Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble, which will give its inaugural concert in the fall of 2014,” says Arrell.
As part of the award, Composers, Inc. will host Arrell as a guest composer and give the West Coast premiere of his winning work in Berkeley, California during their 2014-15 concert season.
The Ettelson Composer Award is given out annually by Composers Inc., a nonprofit advocate for living American composers. Composers may submit an anonymous audio file marked with a pseudonym. The judges are the artistic directors of Composers, Inc.: Robert Greenberg, Frank La Rocca, Martin Rokeach, Allen Shearer, and Nick Vasallo.
Previous winners include Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higden, and Shirish Korde, professor and chair of the Holy Cross music department.
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