Dr. Robert Gifford, host of KRCU’s Strike Up the Band, recently sat down for a conversation with composer, publisher, and music educator Joe Pappas.
Gifford:
This is Robert Gifford, your host for Strike Up the Band. I am thrilled to have as a guest this week composer, publisher and music educator, Joe Pappas. So, Joe, it's a great pleasure to welcome you to our show.
Pappas:
Well, thanks, Bob. I really appreciate this opportunity to discuss not only my music but a little bit about the movement with band music and my involvement with it since I was a young pup myself.
Gifford:
What has been your own personal musical journey that has led you to become a music educator, composer, publisher?
Pappas:
Well, I guess it was my interest, you know, in playing music at an early age. I started playing trumpet in third grade. I studied privately for two years. Instead of going right into beginning band in fifth grade, the band director here at Festus Public Schools was Huey Moore, and Huey moved me right on into the elementary band in sixth grade. So, I was actually a year ahead of my actual grade, and that gave me some enthusiasm as far as preparing for the future. Actually, I wanted to become a veterinarian. And when it got time for my senior in high school, the counselor called me and he said, “Hey, what are you going to do with your life?” I said, “Well, I'll be a veterinarian.” He looked at my transcript and he laughed. He said, “Well, do you have anything else you can do?” And I said, “I guess music is my next best thing.” And so that's how I ended up getting involved with music. But it's something that I've only looked back once, turning away from my music education and almost went into real estate development. And that lasted about 30 minutes with my dear friend Jim Arnold down there in Scott City. But, after that, it's been music straight ahead.
Gifford:
Well, it's interesting that you mentioned the veterinarian angle, because I just realized that you're an excellent taxidermist. I'm assuming that since you couldn't help them while they're alive, you figured I'll take care of them afterwards, or something like that.
Pappas:
You know, I have heard those jokes about me doing that, you know, over the years. I had to laugh at it because there was some veterinarian, a famous veterinarian, who became an excellent taxidermist for that same reason. I really never thought about that. I just enjoyed capturing the beauty of the animal. And it was a good sideline when I was teaching and something to kind of take me out of the educational side of it, or the classroom, if you would, and allow me to release tensions and everything else and just get away from it. Because, as we know, in the classroom today, it's becoming so demanding. Back then, it was demanding, but not like it is today in dealing with parents and students and especially the administration. So, it was a welcome thing for me as an artist.
Gifford:
So as a composer, what is your motivation for a new work, and what is your compositional process?
Pappas:
Well, you know, it has varied over the years. The one thing constant has been that I don't try to make one piece sound like another piece. So many composers get in that rut. I remember talking to Robert Sheldon one time. Rob W. Smith, excuse me. He said the big thing was, somebody will want to commission you a piece, but they wanted it to sound like a previous piece that you had written. He said that's the biggest problem he has, is that so many of them overlap. That's something I've tried not to do. I mean, I've written over, probably, 200 band compositions, and I've tried to…there's only two that I think are very close in sound, but the rest of them are entirely different. Back in the old days, when I first started writing back in college and everything, I'd wake up in the middle of the night with these ideas, mostly rhythmic ideas, and I would get up, start writing, and then I would want to continue copying parts off and I'd finished about 6:30 a.m. I’d wake up about 2:00-2:30 a.m., and finish about 6:30 and take it to school so I could hear it. You know, those were the BC days. You know, before computer. So, I really didn't have an opportunity to, you know, to hear them as I wrote them. It was just what I was hearing in my head. And of course, later on in life after marriage, I got into a little problem because I'd wake up in the middle of night, start banging the piano and waking the wife up. But those days have gone by and thank goodness for the computer which allows me to put my headphones on and do what I need. So, my process is, basically, I hear these things--a lot of times it's when I'm driving down the road with no radio on or anything else-- and I'll grab my phone, or if I have my little portable recorder, I'll start singing into it and come back home and transcribe it then into notation.
Gifford:
Yeah, well, that's really interesting. And, so, a related thing in my mind is, how do you come up with titles?
Pappas:
Wow, that's an interesting one. This is something, as a publisher, I fight with composers a lot of times. I think one of the important things is to find something that's going to be attractive to the eye, not necessarily to an ear, because people will see a title and they'll pass over a lot of times, because it may be something cutesy or artistic and everything else, but it has nothing to do with the piece. I always try to find something that calls out to me. It might be the melody that, just like in a lot of the country western songs, the melody is actually dictates the title. And I try to do that, and then I think also about how some other composers have done that. I think you and I had that conversation way back with Barnes. He took titles from golf courses and subdivisions and everything else for his major works. And I've kind of done the same thing, you know. I’ll drive by and see a name on the street sign, or see it on the golf course, or see it on a mall or something and wow, there’s a neat one. I did that just recently, a couple years ago, with a piece that had an oriental flavor to it, and I saw it up there on the sign at a Japanese restaurant. You just never know.
Gifford:
Okay, so maybe it's not as scientific as we like to think. Sometimes, it just sort of happens. Well, when you write for young bands, what are some of the challenges that a composer has to face when he's writing something for younger players?
Pappas:
Well, I think the biggest thing is, is putting it in perspective to not only the level of the player but the quality of the program. I know there's some major composers today that tell me they're like…when they have to do a young band piece, they have to sit in…it feels like they're sitting in a closet. They're very limited. I think that that's a good description of it. I have never really felt that. I felt like it was something that just came easy to me. I know John Edmondson and I talked about that years ago, and John Edmondson was probably one of the finest writers for young bands back in my days of teaching. It was basically one of those things that you just hear it. It comes to you. The thing is…you don't want to make it too thick. You want to make it accessible to the players. You want the facility, in other words, the fingerings and everything to lay just so well that they don't have to fight it. And then the final outcome is, you know, a good piece that flows well, and people can go away remembering it.
Gifford:
So, what is involved in being a music publisher, and how did you get started?
Pappas:
Well, getting started was the easy part. You know, a good friend of ours who had a publishing company on Cape Girardeau, had it going, and it kind of didn't evolve as quick and as well as they had hoped, so I got my rights back and I thought well what am I going to do with it? Everybody told me, encouraged me to go ahead and self-publish. So, I did, and I talked to a good friend of ours, Jim Cochran, who owned Shattinger Music at that time, and Jim gave me some insight. He told me just, you know, move ahead with it and find out the parameters and what it takes, you know, as far as copyrights and everything else, which I pretty well had a good idea. Then, also, the other side of it was the marketing end of it, which, you know, take some business skills. I've had, you know, success with my taxidermy business. But other little things helped, like watching my mother, you know, have her own business when she was, you know, working as a beautician. So, I had an idea on how that all worked, and just putting it together and make sure that you don't overdo or overspend, I should say, what you take in. I think that's what happens with so many young companies. They try to go too big too quick, and I think that's what basically happened with our publisher friend we had previously…where I got my rights back from. So, I think having those things and knowledge and some common sense helped me develop a good, small company like this. I did consider and had done jazz band and concert band as well as string orchestra things. But our friend Jim Cochran said, “Why don't you stay with solos and ensembles? Because there's a major need.” And he said you've got some good things going on out there. That's where I'm at right now. I've kind of done away with large publications and have other publishers to take the pieces that I write and publish them. I keep my concentration on the solos and ensembles as a business.
Gifford:
Well, that's yeah, very, very enlightening. You are respected throughout our state for your years as a music educator. How does this background or area of expertise influence your other lives of composer and publisher.
Pappas:
Wow. Well, I think it's just the fact that I've been encouraged by a lot of people. I feel so blessed in delving into the profession. You know, when I really got serious about the writings, when I first started teaching down in that little cotton field town of Bell City down in the Bootheel, and I was trying to find literature for my 26 students to play at contest. You know, as long as the expectations, you go to contest, and you do what you have to do. But I felt like the music that was already out there was above the students’ level, because it was grades seven through 12 when I first started. That's how I really started writing band literature for young bands. Most of my students were middle school age and with one year experience. So, that kind of helped me develop into what I did. As far as the respect and everything from colleagues throughout the state and becoming a mentor for the younger teachers, I have found that that's been very easy. I don't know how it happened. It was just kind of like I was a magnet, and all of a sudden, everybody just showed up and word got out that I was doing things for younger groups, trying to promote music education through performance, actually. That was one of the things that I feel has been a contributor to my success. I just received a commission the other day--yesterday, matter of fact--for a group that's getting ready to perform an MMEA this January. And, you know, I didn't go solicit it. It just fell in my lap, and that seems to be what happens a lot of times. I guess I'm my worst salesman when it comes right down to it. I, you know, I enjoy the opportunity to write for people and do things, work with the bands and everything else. I'm not the kind to go out there and blow my own horn. I just, I feel like, that if I do something and it's good enough, it'll take care of itself. That’s the same way that I've kind of premised my business on, as well.
Gifford:
We have been honored today to visit one of Missouri's most important composers, publishers and music educators, Joseph Pappas. Well, I want to thank you for spending your time with us, and you're welcome back anytime. So, if you think of something that would make a great show for band fans, let me know you.
