Marques Garrett | Episode 2

Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Author

03/30/2021 Added

10 Plays

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Marques L.A. Garrett is Assistant Professor in choral conducting in the Glenn Korff School of Music. Marques’ research and performance showcase the work of black choral conductors. He discusses his experience as a student at Hampton University and his interest in the choral composer R. Nathaniel Dett.

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[00:00:01.588]Welcome to ArtsCast Nebraska
[00:00:03.680]a podcast about the creative activities
[00:00:06.015]and research of the faculty and alumni
[00:00:08.100]of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts
[00:00:10.704]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
[00:00:12.822]I'm Chris Marks, Associate Dean of the
[00:00:15.452]college, and it's my privilege
[00:00:17.233]to share with you these conversations
[00:00:18.925]about the fascinating work that our
[00:00:20.525]faculty and alumni do
[00:00:21.835]in the fine and performing arts
[00:00:23.437]In this episode
[00:00:26.357]I speak with Marques L.A. Garrett
[00:00:28.588]an Assistant Professor in choral conducting
[00:00:31.027]in the Glenn Korff School of Music
[00:00:32.980]Marques's research and performance
[00:00:34.893]showcase the work of Black choral conductors
[00:00:37.805]and composers. We'll hear him talk
[00:00:40.066]about his experience as a student
[00:00:41.740]at Hampton University
[00:00:43.070]and his interest in the choral composer
[00:00:45.294]R. Nathaniel Dett.
[00:00:47.043]I began the conversation
[00:00:48.607]by asking him about his early experiences
[00:00:51.176]singing choral music.
[00:00:52.818][Guest] The music that I was most passionate about
[00:00:56.690]was at church, but
[00:00:58.442]I went to very contemporary churches
[00:01:01.708]so it was just contemporary Christian and gospel music
[00:01:03.957]that we did. I was able to
[00:01:06.109]be in a traditional choral ensemble
[00:01:09.912]in high school
[00:01:11.059]and it was, I believe, my junior year,
[00:01:14.286]and we sang the Christmas portion
[00:01:16.059]of Messiah.
[00:01:16.951]And it was in that moment that I
[00:01:20.694]kind of realized, oh, there is some like really
[00:01:22.847]nice stuff out there.
[00:01:24.752][Host] Do you remember hearing
[00:01:26.482]a choral performance that really
[00:01:29.022]was eye-opening?
[00:01:31.116][Guest] Wow. Yeah, I attended so many
[00:01:35.463]performances because my teacher
[00:01:37.955]would mention some of them
[00:01:39.653]and Carl Harris –
[00:01:41.428]I still remember
[00:01:42.797]him saying, "Hey! Virginia Symphony
[00:01:45.053]is going to do a performance of
[00:01:46.854]Mendelssohn's Elijah.
[00:01:48.095]Would you like to go?"
[00:01:49.338]I didn't know what Elijah was
[00:01:50.548]but he said "symphony"
[00:01:52.607]and he said "do you want to go"
[00:01:53.884]and he was my teacher so I said "yes"
[00:01:55.449]And I went
[00:01:56.448]and in the second part
[00:02:00.158]you have the famous women's chorus.
[00:02:03.586]And at the end of the concert
[00:02:05.644]he looked at me and he said
[00:02:06.855]"you want to write something for women's choir now
[00:02:08.951]don't you?" And I said "Yeah"
[00:02:10.270]He's like "I could just tell
[00:02:11.250]the way you reacted while you were listening
[00:02:14.680]to them.
[00:02:16.128][Host] So when did you
[00:02:17.144]start writing for choir?
[00:02:18.437][Guest] Well, I started writing for choir
[00:02:21.125]when I was in high school
[00:02:22.415]Not really knowing what I was doing
[00:02:24.874]so I was using that notation program
[00:02:26.276]knew nothing about theory
[00:02:27.738]I was just putting stuff down
[00:02:29.745]in the program, and
[00:02:31.386]I think I did a few arrangements of
[00:02:34.844]The Star Spangled Banner
[00:02:35.997]I remember doing that
[00:02:37.026]for like mixed choir,
[00:02:38.719]I had one for soprano, alto and tenor
[00:02:41.065]I think I had one for women's choir
[00:02:42.285]and one for tenors and basses
[00:02:43.863]they were all different
[00:02:44.729]and they were all bad!
[00:02:48.875]But, it gave me
[00:02:50.461]experience in just trying stuff
[00:02:53.243]and, it - some of them had moments
[00:02:56.640]that worked
[00:02:58.036][Host] So you talked about
[00:02:59.702]singing in choirs, and
[00:03:02.073]you've talked about writing for choirs,
[00:03:03.774]when did you get up and start
[00:03:04.968]conducting choirs?
[00:03:06.232]On to the podium?
[00:03:08.155][Guest] My freshman year,
[00:03:09.379]at the end of the first semester,
[00:03:10.467]my teacher told us
[00:03:12.747]at the end of university choir rehearsal
[00:03:14.453]which practiced Monday and Wednesday nights
[00:03:15.886]5:30-7:30
[00:03:16.927]he said "hey, are there any guys
[00:03:18.944]in here who would be
[00:03:21.151]interested in singing in another group?
[00:03:22.952]There is a community
[00:03:25.182]men's group that practices
[00:03:27.281]in here starting at 8:00
[00:03:28.655]on Monday nights
[00:03:29.781]and they've been rehearsing
[00:03:31.048]at Hampton for the last
[00:03:32.933]60 or 70 years.
[00:03:34.325]The Crusaders Male Chorus."
[00:03:36.189]So four of us decided to go ahead
[00:03:38.019]and do it, and they gave us a little bit of money
[00:03:40.171]at the end of the concert, we're like
[00:03:41.365]"Oh, cool, this is nice!"
[00:03:42.670]And I started writing a few pieces
[00:03:46.214]for men's voices, and I
[00:03:47.774]shared it with the conductor,
[00:03:50.147]and she said "OK, so
[00:03:52.041]you'll teach this" and I was like
[00:03:53.233]"no no no no, I don't do that stuff,
[00:03:55.152]I'm just writing it", and she was
[00:03:56.468]like "no, just get up and teach it
[00:03:57.507]you'll be fine"
[00:03:58.356]So, I taught it and
[00:03:59.782]I was able to kind of do a little
[00:04:02.369]of the conducting then, but she
[00:04:03.831]conducted the first couple songs
[00:04:06.214]and then, because I was music education
[00:04:09.434]student, I had to take beginning
[00:04:12.002]conducting, and we had to get ready for
[00:04:14.624]a big performance on campus
[00:04:17.396]with two of the three choirs
[00:04:19.340]and the teacher had to be away
[00:04:22.022]so he was like, "All right,
[00:04:23.335]Marques, I need you to teach this piece."
[00:04:26.238]And I was like "Whoa!
[00:04:27.630]Like, I barely have any conducting", like
[00:04:31.871]under my belt, I have not had any
[00:04:33.563]methods courses or anything
[00:04:35.301]and he's just like
[00:04:36.228]"You just do rehearsal while I'm gone."
[00:04:38.540]So, yeah, I was just kind of placed
[00:04:41.195]in front of people
[00:04:42.337]I was blessed with so many opportunities.
[00:04:44.780]And people who, again, they saw things
[00:04:47.444]in me that I didn't even know
[00:04:48.980]or realize were there.
[00:04:50.284][Host] And so you went to
[00:04:52.075]graduate school in choral conducting at....
[00:04:54.891][Guest] The University of North Carolina - Greensboro
[00:04:56.803]Yeah, I was there for two years
[00:04:59.295]and learned a lot.
[00:05:01.998]Learned a lot, and it was actually
[00:05:03.487]there that I got my
[00:05:06.478]first ideas
[00:05:08.361]even without knowing it
[00:05:10.643]but really my first ideas
[00:05:12.333]about what my research would end up being.
[00:05:14.247]Hampton being a Historically Black College,
[00:05:16.967]the music program
[00:05:18.399]there and at many other HBCUs
[00:05:20.782]they have a strong focus
[00:05:24.296]on ensuring that
[00:05:26.144]their students, whether they're music majors
[00:05:28.552]or not, know about the music
[00:05:30.893]that other Black musicians have created.
[00:05:33.563]So I learned about so many of these composers
[00:05:36.655]and then I get to UNC Greensboro
[00:05:38.524]and I'm talking to my friends,
[00:05:39.824]who can list every piece by
[00:05:42.342]Verdi and Brahms, Mendelssohn,
[00:05:44.558]Byrd and Tallis,
[00:05:45.784]Benjamin Britten, all these folks,
[00:05:47.829]and I was like
[00:05:49.303]"Well, I know like two of those, but what about
[00:05:52.406]Undine Smith Moore and Hall Johnson
[00:05:53.795]and Jester Hairston, and Betty Jackson King
[00:05:56.002]and R. Nathaniel Dett and Harry T. Burleigh
[00:05:57.771]and they're like "I don't know who you're talking about"
[00:05:59.676]and I'm like "What do you mean?
[00:06:01.079]Everywhere I went– " and then I realized
[00:06:03.097]Oh, that's because every time we did concerts
[00:06:05.399]we went to Black churches
[00:06:06.717]all of the times we collaborated
[00:06:09.263]with other choirs
[00:06:10.746]it was with other Black choirs
[00:06:12.132]So we all had the same mission
[00:06:13.987]so we got to hear all of that same
[00:06:16.274]type of music so then I was
[00:06:17.840]just like "oh, so this
[00:06:19.180]is actually not how everybody
[00:06:20.608]um, works, in music, they're not thinking
[00:06:25.033]about these kinds of things.
[00:06:26.261][Host] So did that experience
[00:06:27.883]encourage you to
[00:06:30.669]share that music with these folks
[00:06:32.369]who hadn't heard of it, or
[00:06:33.592]did you feel more like
[00:06:34.676]oh, I need to learn all of the stuff that they know
[00:06:36.530]or both?
[00:06:37.797][Guest] Both. Yeah, definitely both.
[00:06:39.774]Two of the papers that I wrote
[00:06:41.000]were about Black composers
[00:06:43.904]and then the music that I
[00:06:46.822]chose for my time conducting
[00:06:49.404]ensembles, I chose three pieces
[00:06:51.997]and all three of them were by
[00:06:54.051]Black composers, yeah.
[00:06:55.946]Robert Harris, Rosephanye Powell, and
[00:06:57.848]Adolphus Hailstork. And so I felt like it
[00:07:00.319]was part of my job
[00:07:02.496]to ensure that they got to experience
[00:07:04.770]those kinds of things.
[00:07:06.588]Yeah, but after that
[00:07:08.643]I then taught at a Historically Black College
[00:07:11.597]for five years
[00:07:12.671]so it was easy for me to
[00:07:14.243]just put all the stuff that I had already
[00:07:16.066]thought about, especially things I had learned
[00:07:18.031]when I was an undergrad
[00:07:19.623]was able to use that, but then also
[00:07:21.387]say, well, there were still some things that
[00:07:23.017]I did not learn that I felt like
[00:07:24.675]I probably should have when I was an undergrad
[00:07:26.677]so I tried to pull both of those together
[00:07:29.067]to give them as balanced
[00:07:30.877]an experience as possible.
[00:07:32.601]And then it wasn't until
[00:07:34.014]I got to Florida State for
[00:07:36.041]graduate school
[00:07:36.923]where I realized, OK,
[00:07:40.440]like research research is a big thing
[00:07:44.327]and you can focus on whatever
[00:07:46.698]you want to focus on, so I
[00:07:48.095]got to see my teachers
[00:07:50.621]and even some of my classmates
[00:07:52.271]who were plenary session speakers
[00:07:55.712]or giving intersession presentations
[00:07:58.756]and talks here and at every conference
[00:08:00.928]you go, they're talking to folks
[00:08:02.821]about whatever they're interested in
[00:08:04.891]and I was like "OK, let me try talking
[00:08:07.513]to people about something, so
[00:08:08.740]I put a proposal together
[00:08:10.045]and it worked.
[00:08:11.958]It worked three times
[00:08:13.426]I submitted three
[00:08:14.844]in like a two-month stretch
[00:08:16.933]and all three of them got accepted
[00:08:18.320]and my teacher was like
[00:08:19.888]"maybe you should have only accepted
[00:08:21.402]one of those, but hey, you accepted all three
[00:08:22.956]now, so you gotta do them!"
[00:08:25.025]But, it was good practice
[00:08:26.803]for me, so I've been able to
[00:08:28.902]now talk about that kind of stuff
[00:08:30.694]for the last three and a half
[00:08:32.826]well, three years, three and a half years?
[00:08:34.251]I guess
[00:08:35.281][Host] So you juggle a varied portfolio of
[00:08:39.684]research and creative activity, don't you?
[00:08:42.232]You already said, you do research, and
[00:08:44.533]you're doing presentations, but you're
[00:08:46.155]also, uh, singing, and conducting,
[00:08:49.264]and writing and arranging,
[00:08:50.687]so, um, how do you balance all those things?
[00:08:54.096][Guest] I get bursts of inspiration
[00:08:57.372]or excitement
[00:08:58.536]at times and I just try to ride that
[00:09:01.206]wave as long as possible.
[00:09:02.779][Host] So do you see composing and arranging
[00:09:05.018]as two different things?
[00:09:06.665]Or do you approach them the same way?
[00:09:08.286][Guest] It depends on the type of arrangement.
[00:09:10.692]Because with spiritual arrangements
[00:09:12.100]I'm literally just taking a
[00:09:13.997]melody and adding
[00:09:15.745]anywhere between three and
[00:09:18.064]eight parts sometimes to that.
[00:09:20.395]Why is it that there are some people
[00:09:23.018]who feel that if you take an
[00:09:24.381]existing melody
[00:09:25.701]that's a folk melody
[00:09:27.837]and you add something
[00:09:29.252]it is less than
[00:09:32.085]when our Renaissance predecessors
[00:09:34.654]would take folk music
[00:09:36.970]and maybe just change the words
[00:09:40.691]and that kind of stuff,
[00:09:41.564]instead of it being about, you know
[00:09:43.361]drinking, it was "Kyrie Eleison"
[00:09:45.987]and that kind of stuff, so it's like
[00:09:47.060]why is it they can do a four-part
[00:09:49.263]motet based on
[00:09:52.036]a folk tune
[00:09:53.260]but someone can do
[00:09:56.033]an arrangement of a spiritual
[00:09:58.624]and it be viewed as less than.
[00:10:01.357]I'm like, it's actually the same
[00:10:02.785]it's actually the same when you break it down
[00:10:05.049]It just all depends on people's perception
[00:10:07.806]of the source material
[00:10:10.040]or how they view that composer.
[00:10:12.156][Host] So a lot of people
[00:10:13.588]have taken spirituals
[00:10:15.153]and arranged them
[00:10:16.308]especially for choir
[00:10:17.931]so what do you feel like you
[00:10:19.913]either bring to it, or, or what do you take out
[00:10:22.806]of those melodies that's unique
[00:10:24.567]and personal to you, what are you
[00:10:26.152]trying to do with them, that is for you?
[00:10:28.609][Guest] Well, you look at the history
[00:10:30.016]of concert spiritual arrangements
[00:10:31.296]over the last 100 years
[00:10:32.627]it went from being
[00:10:34.883]solely about preserving those melodies and
[00:10:38.359]ensuring that the music that was
[00:10:40.204]originally on the plantations
[00:10:41.926]did not just exist in a museum
[00:10:44.971]or in some collection that
[00:10:46.781]is in a library or someone's archives
[00:10:48.865]So that was really why
[00:10:50.761]it was that the first arrangers were doing that
[00:10:53.768]As time goes on,
[00:10:55.487]people have been pretty much using the
[00:10:57.493]same... top 20 spirituals,
[00:11:01.010]it tends to be - that's a gross exaggeration but
[00:11:03.871]some say that there are about 6,000
[00:11:05.604]existing spirituals
[00:11:07.266]but we don't, haven't even used
[00:11:09.231]maybe 1,000 of them.
[00:11:10.461]Now, because people sometimes use
[00:11:15.193]the same spirituals, in order to
[00:11:18.496]make it marketable
[00:11:20.181]in order for people to want to do it
[00:11:22.211]you've gotta do something different.
[00:11:24.107]So, it can't sometimes
[00:11:26.200]it can't just be about
[00:11:27.825]the harmonies that they choose
[00:11:29.442]to do or the counterpoint
[00:11:30.982]other times it's about
[00:11:32.071]really changing up the melody
[00:11:33.865]And there are some arrangements
[00:11:36.139]that you might see
[00:11:38.865]half a measure that is
[00:11:40.917]the same as the original.
[00:11:43.316]Well with pretty much all of the
[00:11:46.561]spiritual arrangements
[00:11:47.404]that I've done
[00:11:48.503]I try to keep the melody
[00:11:49.767]all, like 95%
[00:11:52.695]at least close to that original
[00:11:55.736]source material.
[00:11:57.530]And I also want it to still be
[00:12:00.686]prominent, so that people just
[00:12:02.371]always remember this is the melody
[00:12:04.354]instead of always changing it up
[00:12:06.405]I think that's probably
[00:12:08.981]one of the things I've tried to offer
[00:12:10.386]and then also
[00:12:11.844]while I was at UNC Greensboro
[00:12:13.593]I had, I will say an immersion
[00:12:17.268]in ecclesiastical Latin
[00:12:19.597]and just all of the choral music that
[00:12:22.225]has been written using those texts
[00:12:24.575]and that was the first time that I
[00:12:27.312]combined spiritual melodies
[00:12:30.976]with Latin text.
[00:12:32.207]So I've done that kind of stuff
[00:12:35.417]a couple other times
[00:12:36.790]just to see like where
[00:12:38.914]could this go, and
[00:12:39.823]it's really an inspiration
[00:12:42.663]it's inspiration from R. Nathaniel Dett
[00:12:45.991]who was a pioneer in using Black folk music
[00:12:50.208]becuase he said that these melodies
[00:12:53.438]don't have to just be arrangements
[00:12:56.821]not that there's anything wrong with arrangements
[00:12:58.410]but they can also be the source material
[00:13:00.668]for anthems and motets.
[00:13:02.163][Host] Well, talk some more about him
[00:13:03.650]because he's certainly a major focus of
[00:13:05.577]your research, so tell someone
[00:13:08.134]like me, who doesn't know much about him,
[00:13:10.540]what are you finding in there that has inspired you?
[00:13:13.523][Guest] So he taught at Hampton
[00:13:14.753]from 1913 to 1931
[00:13:17.475]When I first started doing actual research
[00:13:20.083]into him, I then found out
[00:13:22.457]that he had written a lot about music.
[00:13:25.302]So 1936,
[00:13:27.012]he published the Dett Collection of Negro Sprituals.
[00:13:30.189]And at the beginning of each one of them there's
[00:13:32.197]a short essay that has some,
[00:13:34.156]talks about some element of
[00:13:35.358]what he calls "Negro" music
[00:13:38.953]um, Black folk music
[00:13:40.708]so understanding the spiritual, development
[00:13:42.345]of spirituals, those kinds of things.
[00:13:44.143]When his choirs would
[00:13:46.439]perform in New York, or when they had their
[00:13:48.887]famed tour of Europe
[00:13:50.787]in 1930, he wrote extensive
[00:13:52.945]program notes so that people could
[00:13:55.164]understand what this music was all about.
[00:13:57.580]They performed music by
[00:14:00.395]our traditional masters –
[00:14:02.218]Brahms, and Byrd, and that kind of stuff, but then
[00:14:04.006]they also would perform
[00:14:05.212]some of the then contemporary
[00:14:07.504]spiritual arrangements by some of his
[00:14:09.492]colleagues, and then they woud also
[00:14:11.991]do a significant amount of his music
[00:14:14.374]- why not? he's there, and it was great
[00:14:16.992]Some of it to applause. There's a piece
[00:14:19.752]"Gently, Lord, O Gently Lead Us" where
[00:14:21.578]they had to sing the song a second time
[00:14:24.978]because the people just would not stop clapping
[00:14:26.984]they were just like, we want it again
[00:14:28.126]we want to hear it again, like
[00:14:29.159]they sang it twice, it was great!
[00:14:31.506]Another account, when they were in Europe,
[00:14:33.174]they were in Vienna
[00:14:34.977]and they were visiting Salzburg Cathedral
[00:14:39.915]and there was a guide who
[00:14:42.385]just said, you can come in but just know
[00:14:45.226]that people are praying
[00:14:46.384]and just make sure if y'all sing anything
[00:14:48.503]don't sing any of that jazz music
[00:14:49.957]Now, you're looking at a group of
[00:14:52.722]all Black students, so of course
[00:14:54.890]he just assumed that that's all that they did
[00:14:56.695]I don't remember seeing that they
[00:14:58.923]actually ever sang any jazz in that choir
[00:15:00.923]they probably didn't
[00:15:01.942]but they did end up singing a
[00:15:04.080]setting of "Ave Maria" and
[00:15:05.927]the guide was just like "Oh, man,
[00:15:08.359]that was beautiful, I've never
[00:15:09.145]heard of that, whose was it?"
[00:15:10.110]And Dett, because the service was still
[00:15:13.346]going on, he was just like
[00:15:15.457]"That was mine", he said it really quietly
[00:15:18.188]and I'm sure the guide was a little shocked
[00:15:19.691]because he was used to hearing "Ave Maria"
[00:15:21.539]settings by white men
[00:15:23.250]and now you look at this very dark-skinned
[00:15:25.196]Black man, and you're just like, whoa,
[00:15:26.696]I didn't realize that you could write
[00:15:27.705]something like that
[00:15:28.583]So it, I mean, so many things
[00:15:31.423]just about him as a human
[00:15:34.511]as an educator, a conductor
[00:15:36.771]a musician, I mean he wrote
[00:15:38.720]an entry for a music encyclopedia
[00:15:42.114]that was all about Black music
[00:15:44.324]and he talked about some of
[00:15:45.351]his then contemporaries, like
[00:15:47.240]Samuel Coleridge Taylor, who people were
[00:15:49.420]looking up to and even Black poets
[00:15:50.999]that people needed to know about
[00:15:52.940]because some composers had
[00:15:54.410]been setting their poetry
[00:15:55.695]and the like, I mean he
[00:15:57.176]actually, he wrote a book of poetry
[00:15:59.720]that was published in 1911
[00:16:01.059]so he knew how to write, not only music
[00:16:03.147]but just put words together
[00:16:05.834]and he was a fantastic
[00:16:07.592]pianist as well
[00:16:09.070][Host] One of your research areas
[00:16:10.537]you list as "non-idiomatic choral music
[00:16:13.608]of Black composers". Explain what you
[00:16:15.263]mean by "non-idiomatic" in that context.
[00:16:17.752][Guest] So when we, when most people think
[00:16:20.117]about Black composers
[00:16:21.718]they tend especially in choral music
[00:16:24.896]they tend to think about
[00:16:26.524]jazz and spirituals, um
[00:16:28.990]gospel can be kind of included with that
[00:16:31.790]not that it's necessarily choral music
[00:16:33.626]but it's the fact that
[00:16:34.403]choral ensembles do perform gospel
[00:16:36.671]So those are the idiomatic
[00:16:39.298]styles when it comes to
[00:16:40.963]classical music and
[00:16:42.343]it's happening more and more now
[00:16:46.162]but not too long ago
[00:16:48.501]when people were first thinking of Black composers
[00:16:50.548]they weren't thinking of the
[00:16:51.801]traditional concert music
[00:16:53.104]the symphonies, anthems, motets,
[00:16:55.243]piano pieces, all those kinds of things
[00:16:56.554]and it takes me back to
[00:16:58.513]when I was in grad school the first time
[00:17:00.754]and was showing a friend a score
[00:17:04.328]of a cantata by Adolphus Hailstork
[00:17:06.239]and we were flipping through it and
[00:17:08.125]I was explaining to him all the three movements
[00:17:10.027]and he was excited about it
[00:17:11.141]he was like "Yeah, this sounds great
[00:17:11.893]I would love to do it"
[00:17:12.734]but he looks on the back page
[00:17:13.682]and sees a Black man: "Ohh, I can't
[00:17:15.900]do this because I don't sing gospel."
[00:17:17.220]When did I say this was gospel?
[00:17:19.136]Educators have a responsibility
[00:17:21.991]not just to teach the music but
[00:17:23.434]to teach about the people who have
[00:17:24.938]written the music.
[00:17:25.947]Because perceptions can be reality for some people
[00:17:30.651]and you can't fault someone for something
[00:17:34.495]that they don't know because
[00:17:36.107]they didn't know that it existed
[00:17:37.404]You don't know what you don't know
[00:17:38.563]So why would they go
[00:17:39.575]seek those kinds of things out
[00:17:40.975]so I never get upset
[00:17:42.611]when people say that kind of stuff
[00:17:43.961]I just see it as a challenge
[00:17:45.547]and as a way to open their eyes
[00:17:48.861]to this wonderful world
[00:17:50.706]of music that has been
[00:17:52.457]neglected by so many.
[00:17:54.836]I mean we're thinking about
[00:17:56.466]about textbooks
[00:17:57.878]I've had so many people who're just like
[00:17:59.404]it's difficult to talk about this music
[00:18:02.581]because we don't know what music there is
[00:18:05.600]because there's not one resource that has
[00:18:07.871]or even in some of the larger resources
[00:18:11.015]there might be a page
[00:18:13.429]that references this kind of stuff
[00:18:14.951]out of 200, 400 pages
[00:18:18.444]And then also because people
[00:18:21.153]did not learn about it when they were in school
[00:18:23.403]they then don't perform it when they
[00:18:25.052]get their own ensembles, which
[00:18:26.511]means that we don't have enough
[00:18:27.589]recordings of this
[00:18:28.601]Like, do we really need another recording of
[00:18:31.132]Elijah or Brahms's Requiem
[00:18:33.031]I don't think so, I mean
[00:18:35.580]it's nice that people still want to do it
[00:18:37.157]because it is good music
[00:18:38.079]I'm not going to say that it's not
[00:18:39.541]but there's so much more music that needs
[00:18:42.440]to be recorded so that people will
[00:18:44.698]know about it.
[00:18:46.468]This is a great time
[00:18:47.679]for all of that, like while we can't
[00:18:50.030]do as much as we want
[00:18:51.736]we have time where we can
[00:18:53.298]focus on filling in
[00:18:55.755]the gaps in so many areas
[00:18:59.510][Host] Well, thank you so much
[00:19:00.553]for talking to me today about
[00:19:02.077]your research and creative work
[00:19:04.249][Guest] Thank you
[00:19:05.681][Host] It's a pleasure to have you here.
[00:19:07.155][Guest] Pleasure talking.
[00:19:08.684][Host] If you'd like to learn more
[00:19:10.964]about Marques's research, performing,
[00:19:13.681]writing, and arranging, visit his website
[00:19:15.880]at mlagmusic.com
[00:19:19.222]You've been listening to
[00:19:21.936]ArtsCast Nebraska, a podcast
[00:19:24.427]production of the Hixson-Lied College
[00:19:26.536]of Fine and Performing Arts
[00:19:27.844]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
[00:19:30.026]This episode was recorded and edited
[00:19:32.398]by me, Chris Marks, with technical assistance
[00:19:35.153]from Jeff O'Brien at the
[00:19:36.437]Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.
[00:19:39.223]Special thanks to Kathe Andersen
[00:19:41.489]and Ella Durham.
[00:19:42.892]For more information about the college,
[00:19:45.081]please visit arts.unl.edu
[00:19:48.344]Thank you for listening
[00:19:49.811]and remember to support the arts.

Marques Garrett | Episode 2

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Marques Garrett | Episode 2

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