Michael Mranti

Welcome!

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:23:00 -0400

Hello Friends!

I’m so glad you’ve found my tumblr. My mission as a composer is to create honest music that can be appreciated not only by the connoisseur but also the novice listener. The classical music tradition is meant for everybody! So no matter what your background, I hope you can find something on this site that resonates with you in some way. To help you navigate through the treacherous waters of this page, I’ve given you some links to help you find your way around…

Thanks for visiting my page!

Best,

About Michael

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:04:00 -0400

Michael Mranti (b. 1988) is a Kansas City based composer of new music. Described as “magical and lovely” by composer Nico Muhly, and “bursting with excitement and emotion” by composer/violinist Christian Ryan, his music continues to garner the attention of virtuosic performers and classical music audiences. Drawing heavily on the influence of popular music, jazz, world music, film scores and contemporary art music, Michael’s music has earned numerous awards both regionally and nationally including from the New York Art Ensemble, The Federation of Music Clubs, and from the family of composer Claude T. Smith.

Michael’s music career began while still in his mother’s womb. Instead of the prescribed Mozart, his mother played Beach Boys to her unborn baby because classical music was not nearly as cool. After six years of banging on anything he could find with wooden kitchen spoons, and singing made up melodies at the top of his lungs, his parents decided to channel his musical energy into piano lessons.

Frustrated by the task of learning to read music (when all he wanted to do was play), Michael completed his first composition for solo piano within a month of starting piano lessons. After performing this piece for his second grade music class, the need to compose became a permanent fixture in Michael’s life.

In high school, Michael switched to jazz specific lessons with internationally known jazz-pianist Joe Cartwright. At sixteen, he formed his own piano trio and started booking gigs at many historic Kansas City hotspots including Jardines, The Phoenix Piano Bar, The Drum Room, The Blue Room, 12 Baltimore, Californos, and many others. Although composing remains his central focus, Michael still plays regularly at many of these venues and has since worked with many great artists in the field including Grammy-Winners Dave Samuels, Anthony Hamilton, and Roy “Futureman” Wooten, as well as Electric Violinist Tracy Silverman and Prairie Home Companion’s Butch Thompson Trio.

At present, Michael is working on a commissioned work for Wind Ensemble that will be premiered at Carnegie Hall in NYC in April of 2011. He has also been commissioned to write a concerto for Electric Violin and Orchestra, and a new work for solo piano to be premiered at the Contempuls Festival in Prague, CZ by virtuoso pianist Pierre-Arnoud Dablemont.

If you are interested in performing any of Michael’s works, please e-mail him directly at michaelmranti@gmail.com. He is also available for commissions, residencies, or working with your ensemble!

What I Am Working On...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:08:00 -0400

I’m currently finishing up scoring my piece, “Through Bright Eyes” for Wind Ensemble which will be premiered on April 24th, 2011 by the Winnetonka Pride Band at Carnegie Hall
I’ve just started work on a piece I’m really excited about for french pianist Pierre-Arnoud Dablemont. The piece is a 15-20 minute work for solo piano that involves playing the piano with tennis balls! The work is turning out to be very dramatic and shifts a lot between musical extremes- loud and soft, high and low, violent and beautiful, rhythmic and melodic. The piece will be premiered in April, 2011 at a french keyboard festival and then again at the Contempuls Festival in Prague, CZ.
Fundraising has started by violinist Christian Ryan to commission a concerto for Electric Violin and Orchestra from me. Also interested in the piece is one of my favorite violinists- Tracy Silverman.
USC Film Student Morgan Dameron has asked me to score her senior thesis project which is a short film that will feature a highly electronic score.

List of Works

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:00:00 -0400

Large Ensemble

Through Bright Eyes (2010) for Wind Ensemble

Chamber Works

The Cinnamon Peeler (2009) for Bb Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, and Piano
Little Monsters (2010) for Flute, Bb Clarinet, Violoncello, and Piano
Foliage (2008)for 14 players

Solo Works

Oceanography (2009) for Solo Piano
A Frumious Toccata (2010) for Solo Piano

Fixed Media

Gymnopédie (2010)

Chorus

There’s Beauty in the Deep (2010) for Mixed SATB Choir

Gymnopédie (2010) for Fixed Media As a pianist and a composer,...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:43:37 -0400

Gymnopédie (2010) for Fixed Media

As a pianist and a composer, the repertoire I encounter in my piano practice often weaves its way into the pieces I compose. When I first began learning the Gymnopédies of Erik Satie many years ago, they left a lasting impression on me that continues to grow. Their delicate gestures and short forms have had a huge impact subconsciously on my style, and in this particular piece I deliberately took an active role in allowing them to guide my compositional process.

The piece begins slowly, almost unsure of itself, filling the silence with the opening harmony. This harmony becomes the foundation of the piece, constantly working itself out and growing in the process. I have this picture in my mind of this harmonic cell blossoming and opening up like a flower as we work towards the end of the piece. This idea of the harmony “blossoming” is echoed as the work progresses by the small movements and articulations of the bells, singing bowls, and gamelan.

What I hope to have created in the end is a small and delicate piece of music- both serene and slightly eccentric- that whispers into the listener’s ear similar to the way that the Gymnopedies of Satie whispered in mine many years ago.

There’s Beauty in the Deep (2010) for Mixed SATB...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:24:00 -0400

There’s Beauty in the Deep (2010) for Mixed SATB Choir

Premiered by the UCM New Music Choir

Lyrics by John G. C. Brainard (1796-1828)

There’s beauty in the deep:—

The wave is bluer than the sky;

And though the light shine bright on high,

More softly do the sea-gems glow

That sparkle in the depths below;

The rainbow’s tints are only made

When on the waters they are laid,

And Sun and Moon most sweetly shine

Upon the ocean’s level brine.

There’s beauty in the deep.

A Frumious Toccata (2009) for Solo Piano Dedicated to pianist...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:43:00 -0400

A Frumious Toccata (2009) for Solo Piano

Dedicated to pianist Amanda Arrington for her continued collaboration and support.

This short, angular work came about as a reaction to a grave incident involving my external hard drive and an immense amount of lost data. Still fuming over my electronics, I banged on my piano all night and this toccata is the result.

The Cinnamon Peeler (2009) for Bb Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello,...

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:18:00 -0400

The Cinnamon Peeler (2009) for Bb Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, and Piano

Winner of the Hatz Special Recognition Prize by the National Federation of Music Clubs
Honorable Mention of the New York Art Ensemble Young Composer’s Competition

Two years ago, a friend of mine shared with me her favorite poem. That poem was “The Cinnamon Peeler” by Sri-Lankan born writer Michael Ondaatje. On the surface, “The Cinnamon Peeler” is a highly erotic poem that deals with the idea of love leaving its aromatic traces on a person’s skin. However, below the surface it reads like a lonely poem of fantasy and longing. I get an image of the narrator sitting alone in a brightly lit kitchen late at night, a glass of wine in one hand and a pen in the other scribbling away this poem. It is this dichotomy of very complicated emotions that has caused “The Cinnamon Peeler” to bury itself into my subconscious, peek it’s head out every once in a while, and finally inspire this piece of music.

In conceiving this work, I decided to use the single tetrachord (0,1,3,5) and its various subsets as the harmonic basis throughout. I chose this tetrachord because of the “dreamlike” and “yearning” qualities that I heard in its sound. The piece opens with the violin and cello, sustaining various tones of this tetrachord before the piano comes in with a severe and insistent rhythmic motif. This continues while the clarinet and violin share a duet passing the melody back and forth, much like the cinnamon dust being traded between our poem’s lovers. Many of the motivic elements heard will linger throughout the piece, suggesting the lingering smell of cinnamon.

The piece begins to build toward its first major climax through the use of slowly developing triplet figures and a nostalgic melody. It suddenly bursts forward with an unyielding rhythmic figure in 7/8, hinting at the overwhelming frustration that the man feels as he “buried his hands in saffron, disguised them over smoking tar…” After this climax, the piano takes over which coincides with the change of perspective to the woman in the poem. The bass part in the piano brings forth a simple song-like melody and is soon joined by the other instruments with ideas heard throughout the piece as the woman joyfully accepts her role.

“I am the cinnamon peeler’s wife. Smell me.”

-MM

Through Bright Eyes (2010) for Wind Ensemble Commissioned by...

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:04:00 -0400

Through Bright Eyes (2010) for Wind Ensemble

Commissioned by Mrs. Patricia Setser and The Winnetonka H.S. Pride Band on their second performance at Carnegie Hall (April 24th, 2011)

~~From an e-mail dated August 13th, 2010~~

Hi Mrs. Setser,

I wanted to fill you in on the piece because at this point all the notes and rhythms are done, and I am just starting the process of orchestrating.

When I started working on this piece, I wanted to compose a piece that would celebrate your talented kids, and your successful career as musical director. I wanted to write something fast, technical, and flashy. (This of course being guided by the naïve notion that fast music is always more impressive and makes me, the composer, look way super talented somehow.) I planned out the entire piece as I always do, and got to work. But as I started to write, the music coming out sounded dishonest and amateurish to my ears. In fact, it sounded quite square. What followed was the most insufferable writers block I have ever experienced. I wondered why this piece was not working for me and finally I realized what the problem was.

Last spring, my grandma, my childhood dog, and my friend’s daughter all passed away within a month of each other. The timing of this was terrible as I had finals to deal with and the stresses that come with being a college student. I pushed my sadness aside and focused on my classes. Pretty soon it was summer, and as I started writing what was supposed to be a fun overture, I kept feeling like composing music was the last thing I wanted to do. There was no spark in the notes. I felt no personal drive to work on this piece.

In reality, the problem was staring me in the face. What I needed to compose was not a fast and technical work, but something that dealt with the depression and grief I was feeling after losing so many close personal relationships. So I set aside my original plans and started over.

What I have created is a musical room- a space where I can go sit in the corner to both grieve and remember. The chords are lush, sometimes very thick and densely voiced, and other times very open. Although written in metric time for the sake of organization, the feeling is very free and open- as if these notes are hanging in the air, and given room to breathe. The piece’s title refers to how each of my loved ones lived their life. Sharing their joy with the people around them. Optimistically meeting each day “Through Bright Eyes.”

It is such an honor to have the Winnetonka Band premiere this for me. It is easily the most personal and honest piece I have written so far, and I know you will give it the delicate touch it needs.

Best,

MM