Music-Hall.net
Title
Robert Arnold Hall, Composer
Description
I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Study, performance, and composition of music has been my full time occupation the past dozen years. I have played wind and string instruments and written music since my teens. I have studied the mechanics and art of composing with several faculty of San Jose State University: Dr. Richard Aldag in composition; Anthony Cirone, former Chief Percussionist of the San Francisco Symphony and now Professor of Percussion at the University of Indiana, in musical notation and percussion; Dan Wyman in orchestration; Don Homuth in cello. Seven years of voice study with Laura Barton has given me valuable insights into writing for the voice, which has been my main focus in recent years.
As a composer I consider myself mainly self-taught, eclectic, and intuitional. My search to find my own musical voice has led to emphasis on attending to my sense of what feels right to me. I explore by "doodling" with sounds, keeping what fits for me, and following where it leads. This process is exemplified by words of writer John Fowles about the creative process : "The only rule is always follow the accident".
My multimedia chamber opera Mrs. Carroll's Alice premiered in San Franciso in April 2005. Other vocal works include over 40 songs; three musical theater works; an unfinished opera, Locust Hill based in the Lewis and Clark Diaries; Nine Eleven, an operatic suite, and a musical Theater work based on Don Marquis' cockroach poet, Archy. With Canadian librettist Rex Deverell, author of over 50 produced plays and operas, I am writing an opera The Gate based on a novel of Nobel Laureate John Coetzee. Instrumental scores include works for solo violin, string quartet, various small ensembles, and symphonic works, many performed. A 2003 recital in San Francisco by Sally Mouzon, mezzo soprano, featured my songs.
Additional Information
- Alice
- Arts
- Blake
- Carl Sandberg
- Carroll
- Clare
- Clark
- Coetzee
- Composer
- Composers
- Composition
- Concerto Cello Percussion
- Conrad Aiken
- Contemporary
- Contemporary Harpsichord
- Dickinson
- Don Marquis
- Elizabeth Costello
- Gilbert
- Haiku
- Harp
- Laughing Tomatoes
- Lawrence
- Lewis
- Lewis Carroll
- Longfellow
- Meriwether Lewis
- Millay
- Moods Cello Piano
- Music
- Nine Eleven
- Opera
- Partita
- Poe
- Rex Deverell
- Robert Arnold Hall
- Rosetti
- Sacagawea
- Sacajawea
- Shakespeare
- Song Cycles
- Songs
- String Quartet
- String Quintette
- Sullivan
- Teasdale
- Violin
- Wtc
- Wonderland
- World Trade Center
- 911
- Concerto cello percussion
- Contemporary harpsichord
- Moods cello piano
- Nine eleven
- Song cycles
- String quartet
- String quintette
- WTC