Free and open to the public!
Social Time: ~7:15PM PST / Presentation begins: 7:30PM PST
Presenter: Stephen Lewis
Topic: How Composers Create Meaning in Music: Conceptual Metaphors, Gestures, References, and Structure
Applicable to any style or harmonic language, this talk is geared towards helping composers better understand how and why music seems to create meanings within itself so that composers can write their own music more effectively. I will lay out the basics of modern developments in the understanding of musical meaning, including the conceptual metaphors that fundamentally shape how we perceive sounds and rhythms, how we group events together into coherent gestures (motives, melodies, phrases), how references engage extra-musical concepts, and how pieces of music bring this all together in uniquely musical narratives. Composers will leave with a greater sense of confidence about how to craft their ideas and pieces, as well as how to talk about their music to others. I will use short examples by various composers to help illustrate concepts, including from my own music.
Bio: Dr. Stephen Lewis (NCTM) is a pianist, composer, conductor, and music teacher living in Portland, Oregon. Stephen’s compositions explore the boundaries of musical meaning, as well as alternative perceptions of time. His style involves an eclectic blend of influences: the European avant-garde, American experimentalism, Expressionism, Modernism, the European Renaissance, and contemporary avant-garde rock, among others. His works include opera, orchestral music, chamber music, solo works, and experimental works (open instrumentation). As a concert pianist, Stephen performs traditional piano music with a composer’s urgent, expressive power, while bringing to avant-garde and experimental music a classical concert pianist’s devotion to beautiful sound.
Stephen has performed with the Oregon Symphony, 45th Parallel Universe, Third Angle, Fear No Music’s Young Composers Project, the Portland Chamber Orchestra, and Cascadia Composers. He has performed in venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Miller Theater, Severance Hall, and the San Diego Museum of Art. As a composer, Stephen has been commissioned by Red Fish Blue Fish, Diagenesis Duo, the Wellesley Composers Conference, and soundSCAPE.
Stephen teaches private piano and composition lessons from his home studio in southeast Portland. He also coaches professional musicians, music teachers, and composers in learning advanced repertoire and skills and in completing major creative projects.
Stephen earned a D.M.A. in Contemporary Piano Performance in 2017, and a Ph.D. in Composition in 2015 from the University of California San Diego. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Composition and Piano Performance) in 2006.
Read more at his websites: chopinois.com (teaching) and stephenlewiscomposer.com (artistic).