I originally wanted to talk about the influence of jazz in church music: what aspects does it change, and what stay the same; however, I felt this may be too broad, so my wish is to focus on analysis of one piece specifically: What A Friend We Have in Jesus, a gospel prelude by William Bolcom, and how this piece serves as an equally powerful reflection on its text just as any Bach chorale prelude would. This piece is one that I\u2019ve become more and more familiar with over the past 5 years because the organist that I\u2019d like to work with in graduate school, Dr. David Higgs, has the definitive opinion on this work. He and William Bolcom have worked together closely on the technique and nuance of this piece, with Bolcom revising different aspects of the piece per Higgs’ suggestions. I\u2019ve heard Higgs play it in several concerts, I\u2019ve had a lesson with him where we focused on this work, and I\u2019m playing it in a student recital tomorrow.<\/p>\n
My goal in this paper\/podcast is to uncover how it serves the texts with a strong analysis. As far as researching goes, because there isn\u2019t any written research available that I could find specifically of the piece, I need to find sources that explain Bolcom\u2019s background as a composer, and what influenced his compositional style to see if his jazz writing is authentic to jazz heritage, or if it is jazz music run through a \u201cclassical\u201d filter. I\u2019ve reserved some books about the history of jazz music in the church, and jazz\u2019s impact on religion to see if there is a connection there; if there is, I may want to modify my thesis to include this as an intermediate evolutionary step between Bach and Bolcom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I originally wanted to talk about the influence of jazz in church music: what aspects does it change, and what stay the same; however, I felt this may be too broad, so my wish is to focus on analysis of … Continue reading