TITLE: Ascension (1998)

COMPOSER: James Mobberley (b.1954)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

James Mobberley has recently been named Curators' Professor of Music at the Conservatory of Music of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he also founded the Conservatory's Music Production And Computer Technology (M-PACT) Center, and serves as Coordinator of the Composition Programs.  He was the Composer-in-Residence for the Kansas City Symphony from 1991-99, and holds this same post with New Ear, Kansas City's professional ensemble for new music performance.  Major fellowships include the Rome Prize, the Guggenheim Foundation, Meet the Composer's New Residencies program, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  His music has received over 500 performances on five continents, and appeared on a dozen recordings, including a recent all-Mobberley orchestral release by Albany Records. 

MOVEMENTS: One

PERFORMANCE TIME: 8' 30"

INSTRUMENTATION: 22 Instruments and Tape

• 1 Flute/Picc, 1 Flute/Alto, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb, 1 Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 2 Trombones, 1 Bass Trombone, 1 Tuba, 3 Percussion, Piano, Stereo Electronic Tape

EDITIONS: Available for Purchase

• Published by Cautious Music, PO Box 32493, Kansas City, MO 64171
• Currently available from James Mobberley - mobberleyj@umkc.edu

COMPOSITION SKETCH AND MUSICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Ascension was composed for Gary Hill and the UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble.  It is dedicated to my college roommate Kenneth Wayne Hill, who was killed in action in the Persian Gulf in April, 1998, shortly before I was scheduled to begin this work.  It is also lovingly dedicated to his family and to our mutual friends.  Kenneth's volatile, hilarious, energetic, and complex personality formed the basis of my musical ideas, while my own emotional reactions to the news of his death and to the heroic and poignant events surrounding the last day of his life, which were released by the U.S. Marines only very slowly and ultimately in incomplete form, shaped the work's structure. 

Kenneth's life was often marked by tremendous obstacles, but my lasting memory of him is one of a spirit impossible to keep down.  I imagine his life and his death as one grand ascension.

- Note Written by James Mobberley

SELECTED RECORDINGS

• Currently available from the James Mobberley- mobberleyj@umkc.edu

RELATED WEBSITES:

University of Missouri at Kansas City - http://www.umkc.edu