93-04-09:  Shatin's Music Ranges from Jeffersonian Ideals to Coal Mines


     Commissioned by the University to compose a commemorative
score to mark the 250th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth,
music professor Judith Shatin began the task by perusing
Jefferson's writings and documents. The cadence, the meaning, the
words of the Declaration of Independence created sonic images to
her and she based her work on those images.

     "I can imagine sound in my mind. It feels natural. The
contemporary resonance of the Declaration of Independence
inspired me to compose a piece that seeks to embody the shape and
flavor of its text."

     Following an academic procession down the Lawn and a keynote
address by former Soviet Union president  Mikhail Gorbachev, Ms.
Shatin's creation, "We Hold These Truths," will premiere April
13. She conceives of it as a celebratory piece and hopes it will
unfold on Founder's Day with a "majesty of tone and a quality
that reflect the power of the text."

     The work is composed of three parts -- chorus, brass quintet
and tympani. Providing those parts will be Coro Virginia,
directed by U.Va. conductor Donald Loach, and the Brass Quintet
of the U.S. Army Band. The timpanist will be Conrad Alexander,
a music department lecturer and member of the Charlottesville and
University Symphony Orchestra. "The three components vividly
underscore the interplay between the Declaration's words and
their importance to our lives," Ms. Shatin said.

     "Composing feels like a typical part of my life's texture,"
she said. "Music gives me so much -- a sensual pleasure, an
intellectual pleasure, an emotional pleasure. It engages me. I
relate to it on all levels, and I view it as a striking way of
communicating with people."

     She is composing another piece she hopes will communicate
a way of life, thanks to the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Arts
Partners Program awarding Shepherd College a $115,000 grant to
support a two-year retrospective of Ms. Shatin's work that will
culminate with the premiere of a composition titled "COAL." She
wants the music to convey what it feels like to a be a miner.

     Ms. Shatin will go into coal mines this spring to record
sounds of workers. She plans on combining the sounds with
electronic and choral music and Appalachian instruments, such as
the banjo and fiddle. "I am pleased to be combining mountain
instruments with new-fangled technology," she said.

     She is also researching the history and conditions of
mining, investigating the range of products that come from mining
-- everything from aspirin to perfume -- and interviewing West
Virginia residents to gather folklore about miners. The finished
piece will premiere April 24, 1994.

     Ms. Shatin began playing the piano when she was four and
took up the flute around nine. She began composing piano pieces
in her early teens and also became interested in writing poetry.
But it wasn't until she was an undergraduate at Douglass College
that she realized she could "take the creative process that goes
into poetry and turn it into music. I'm very interested in
creating musical shapes like that of a narrative."

     She had what she calls a revelation at the Aspen Music
Festival the summer after she earned her bachelor's. "I
experienced the intensity of music making and realized I wanted
to pursue it to the fullest." She earned her master's degree at
The Juilliard School and a Ph.D. from Princeton University, where
she first became interested in using computers with music.

     Since coming to U.Va. in 1979, Ms. Shatin has worked to
establish a computer music program. The Virginia Center for
Computer Music is a state-of-the-art facility that has MIDI-based
work stations and a network of NeXT computers that allow the
exploration of digital synthesis. The University's Board of
Visitors recently granted the music department an Academic
Enhancement Award in recognition of the program's quality. Ms.
Shatin has been composing with computers since 1987. "Music is
going through a revolution with the application of new
technology. It's an exciting time," she reflected.

     As part of the retrospective of her work in West Virginia,
Ms. Shatin is participating in four one-week residencies at
Shepherd College and in the surrounding community. The first one,
"Stories in Music," took place last fall and focused on her use
of literary and dramatic programs. The second, "Music, Nature and
the Spirit," ended April 4 and culminated with a flute concerto
with the renowned Stephanie Jutt.

     Ms. Shatin will complete another residency closer to home
in June. She will be composer-in-residence for the Albemarle
Chamber Music Festival in U.Va.'s Helms Theatre. During the
week-long residency she will give talks, and two of her works,
"Gabriel's Wing" for flute and piano and "Glyph" for solo viola,
string quartet and piano will be performed.

     Ms. Shatin has also received a National Endowment for the
Arts award that supports two more projects, one for the San
Francisco Girls' Chorus and the other for the Kronos Quartet.