One Hit Song, for orchestra, is named for the bit of advice my grandfather always gives when the conversation turns to my career in music. He imagines, in a best-case scenario, that I might compose something like the next “White Christmas,” and become the next Irving Berlin. “One hit song,” he’ll say, “that’s all you need” (because you can live off the royalties for the rest of your days). In my particular field, however, even a best-case scenario is unlikely to bring that kind of commercial success. One Hit Song, for its part, explores several of the musical styles my grandfather might have had in mind, mixing them freely within my own (somewhat) more modern idiom.
For source material, I wanted to feature a tune—a not-so-hit song, if you will—so I turned to an artifact from my past: a music writing book for children, my name proudly handwritten across the cover. When I rediscovered the book a few years ago, I had no recollection of owning it, let alone writing original compositions in it, yet there they are: three pieces—if you can even call them that—written, by my best guess, at the age of about seven or eight. (Previously, I thought my earliest composing had been done in high school.) The “tune” in One Hit Song is “Hipity Hop” [sic], whose simple melody and phrasing, if perhaps juvenile, make it a suitable chameleon for my blending of musical styles.
One Hit Song was written in 2015 in Bloomington, Indiana, and later won the Composition Competition at the 2015 Miami Summer Music Festival. It was premiered by the Miami Summer Music Festival Orchestra with conductor Michael Rossi at the New World Center in Miami Beach, Florida.
Recording: Miami Summer Music Festival Orchestra; Michael Rossi, conductor (Miami Beach, Florida, 2015)
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