•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Hymns of Babel Research Brief

Over the course of the eight-week faculty mentorship undergraduate scholarship period, Dr. Reed Spencer and senior Steven Day composed a twelve-song cycle on the theme of Generation Z’s interaction with social media. This piece sought to articulate the thoughts, emotions, responses, and impulses that accompany the virtual world. Many of the songs explored where we find God in our social media age, as well as how we create gods, try to act as a god, and pretend there is no God. The collaborative process began by creating a rough lyrical structure and purpose, followed by the composition of accompanying musical ideas. The scholarship involved the exploration of collaborative songwriting between faculty and student, the study of songwriting processes through published literature and previous musical works, and the documentation of musical ideas that could be shared with performers.

At the end of the eight-week period, twelve pieces had been created with demo recordings and the beginnings of notation for each piece. Throughout the following fall semester, Taylor University’s Lyric Theatre adopted the project and rehearsed weekly to produce the songs in a workshop form. The notation of each piece was completed, the songs were cast, staged, and performed for an audience on November 30th at 7:00 PM. As part of the workshop, audience members were asked to give written feedback that could help shape the future life of the song cycle. Video and audio recordings of the performance were captured, and the two composers participated in a talk back session with the audience where they responded to questions and comments about their work. Future plans include further editing of the music and lyrics in response to audience feedback, finalization and publication of materials, and submission to songwriting or new work competitions with the desire for external performance and review that might further refine the work.

Download

Share

COinS