EP!C!!!
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SKU: A0.1031686
Composed by Austin Wintory. Contemporary. Score and parts. 39 pages. Austin Wintory #3512243. Published by Austin Wintory (A0.1031686)."EP!C!!!" is an overture-sized orchestral work, originally commissioned by the West Michigan Symphony in 2016. It is intended as a higher energy opener or Act 1 closer.
Program notes:
Entirely by mistake, "EP!C!!!" is study in conflict. The piece began with a simple premise: compose a work which teases some of the pervasive clichés of today’s musical landscape (particularly the Hollywood or so-called "media music" scenes). Those clichés are primarily two gestures: 1) a progression of chords, often called the "Chords of Destiny" (consisting of i – VI – III – VIII) and 2) an endlessly repeating minor third ostinato.
The conflict emerged internally when, after multiple false starts, I would quickly start to hate the piece because it felt like the clichés were being presented whole cloth, without the slightest sense of irony. I became deeply paranoid that the music wasn’t in on its own joke. When I would reverse course, it felt condescending, as though it were declaring from some erudite ivory tower that it was above those gestures. The trouble particularly with the latter is that clichés become so for a reason; something genuinely compelling becomes so ubiquitous that it loses some of the freshness, but that doesn’t erase what initially made it compelling. So the piece needed to somehow make fun of the fact that these gestures are cliché, while not dismissing their intrinsic value. And indeed, to celebrate that value!
It took a long time to find my place between those two extremes, and ultimately I think the music that emerged is actually the conflict itself manifest. The two gestures are this constant presence, almost like a seductive temptation, that are initially regarded as distractions, but eventually become the music’s core. It’s as though the music finally decided to just relent and find something to truly love and celebrate within these overwrought ideas, haters be damned.
However, for the sake of total clarity of intention, I couldn’t resist some on-the-nose tongue-in-cheek. The little cameo of Haydn’s lulling 94th Symphony 2nd movement tune is my way of saying "you think classical music is epic??? THEN LISTEN TO THIS SH*T!!!" before inevitably popping open a Mountain Dew and snowboarding into an avalanche.
- Austin Wintory, October 21, 2016
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