CFAMC Listening Page #76

A monthly musical offering by a composer member of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers. Both your listening and comments are encouraged.

You've Got Email graphic

You've Got... To Be Kidding
(Computerondo)

and

You’ve Got... 60 Seconds

(Electroacoustic works)

John R. Akins

February 20, 2011

Program Notes

Because I believe humor has an important place in God’s economy, along with being more serious when appropriate, I have composed a number of lighthearted pieces during my life along with many more serious ones. The two short pieces shared here this month will perhaps provide a few moments of levity for anyone grappling with “cabin fever.”

“You've Got... To Be Kidding” (2006-08), with an alternative title of “Computerondo,” is a sequel of sorts to my first electronic composition of 1970-77, entitled “Electrondo” (begun under Tom Wells, no less), which attempted to show, lightheartedly and yet seriously, that the “new” electronically synthesized sounds could be put into old classical formal structures, specifically, an extended rondo form. Now, in place of Moog and Arp with patch chords and MIDI improvisation, it has been fun to use .wav sounds familiar to personal computer users and process them in Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge program — cutting and pasting virtually instead of the more tedious real life cutting and splicing of tape — to come up with the present shorter work, which again is in rondo form.

“You've Got… 60 seconds” is a condensation of “You've Got... To Be Kidding,” which was submitted through Robert Voisey's VoxMusic for the “360 Degrees of 60X60” at the International Computer Music Conference in New York in 2010. It was selected for the Scarlet Mix portion of that presentation, which has since also been presented at the Electronic Music Midwest near Chicago and in Bellingham, WA, and Tokyo, Japan, with accompanying video by Patrick Liddell. It will receive another presentation at Rutgers University in February 2011.

Composer's Statement of Faith

I subscribe to what the Assemblies of God publishes as their “Four Cardinal Doctrines,” as well as their “16 Fundamental Truths”* of which the “cardinal doctrines” are a part. These four are stated as follows:

I have personally experienced salvation, baptism in the Holy Spirit and divine healing in my own life and I carry the personal hope of Christ’s bodily second return to the Earth. Further, I strive to “grow in grace,” and to be Christ’s hand extended to others in need, whether spiritual or physical.

* One can find the full listing of these 16 Truths at:

Composer Biography

John R. Akins, a Michigan native, received his B.M. in piano and theory/composition and M.M. in theory/composition from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (1961 & 1962), and a D.M.A. in composition from the University of Texas, Austin (1971). He studied composition with Jack F. Kilpatrick at SMU and with Hunter Johnson and Kent Kennan at UT. He has taught at Southwestern Assemblies of God College, Texas Lutheran College, the University of Maine at Machias, and from 1977-2010 at Evangel University, Springfield, MO. He has received two commissions from the Missouri Music Teachers Association (in 1980 and 2000). Other commissions include the Machias Bay Community Concerts Association in Machias, ME, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and tenor Ron Brendel (faculty member at Lee University, Cleveland, TN). He has had performances of his works in Michigan, Texas, Maine, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, New Mexico, New York, Latvia, and at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; these include numerous regional conferences and one national conference of the Society of Composers, as well as at CFAMC conferences in Indianapolis, at Evangel University, in Durham, NC and Marion, IN. A portion of his doctoral dissertation, "A Symphony of Praise," for orchestra, chorus and soloists, received its world premiere in February 2005 by the Springfield Symphony and the Evangel University Chorale plus Paula Patterson, contralto, and Jeremy Harris, baritone, as part of a Fiftieth Anniversary celebration concert at Evangel. A member of CFAMC since 1999, Akins hosted the Mid-Central Regional conference in March 2003.

- - -  SOLI DEO GLORIA!  - - -

For comments, email the composer directly at:
Visit John's webpage at: http://www.evangel.edu/Directory/Bios/Index.asp?username=AkinsJ

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