Necessary Roughness (2019)
Mixed Chamber – 8 min.
Order printed score from Subito Music
Order printed parts from Subito Music
Order PDF score & parts from Freundworks
[feat vln. / fl.cl.asax. / hn.tbn. / pno.]
Performance Video
Scrolling Score Video
Audio
Score (free download)
Program Note
Necessary Roughness was composed for the Jacobs School All-Star Faculty Band that gave the belated western hemisphere and northern hemisphere premiere of my 1992 work Good Morning, Melbourne in 2018. That was so much fun that I decided to write a new piece for that ensemble, inspired by my coming to grips with rapper Kendrick Lamar’s winning of the Pulitzer Prize in music composition. While I’m still far from appreciating the need for what the Pulitzer board calls “vernacular authenticity” in Lamar’s stream of Parental Advisory lyrics, I can recognize his “rhythmic dynamism … capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” I feel impelled to respond to what the Guardian sees as Lamar’s “ferocious state-of-the-nation address, steeped in decades of soul, funk, hip-hop and jazz.” I also couldn’t resist the opportunity to write a piece featuring Brenda Brenner as a rap violinist!