Blog

22 May 2024, Article
It's About Being A Tree
One question I'm frequently asked is "What is this piece about?" It happens to be one of my least favorite questions, too (along with "What were you thinking of when you wrote this?"‐-which compares composition to painting the likeness of a bowl of fruit arranged on a draped table--and "What does this piece mean?"‐‐a question of hermeneutics that I have little patience or concern with, but which can be summed up by stating my belief that music does communicate meaning but it is a musical meaning, one that ...

07 Apr 2020, News
New Commissioning Project for Band Students
Playing music together is an important social and creative part of life for our band students. The isolation created by the Covid-19 outbreak has suspended this activity and has severed personal interactions that are so vital to their well-being. Eventually--at some point -- our students will return to their schools and our bands will once again play live concerts in front of live audiences. However long that takes and however many are infected, everyone has already been impacted by this pandemic, ...

22 Jan 2020, News
I Won a "Best of Yukon 2020" Award!
I just found out that my online publishing site, Jazz Charts Online , won an award for the best Music Sheet company in Yukon! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jazz Charts Online Receives 2020 Best of Yukon Award YUKON January 15, 2020 -- Jazz Charts Online, an online sheet music publishing company owned and operated by Joseph Hasper, has been selected for the 2020 Best of Yukon Award in the Music Sheet categor y by the Yukon Award Program. Each year, the Yukon Award Program identifies companies ...

16 Apr 2019, News
Spring Updates!
Joseph Hasper had several world premieres of his musical compositions this spring: In February his brass quintet Winter Suite was performed for the first time by the Youngstown Fine Arts Brass Quintet in Arnold Recital Hall. In March the Grove City College Wind Ensemble performed Freedom Is A Thorny Crown, a piece Hasper composed expressly for that group. Hasper’s orchestral composition Suite for a Short ...

19 Jan 2019, News
Upcoming Premieres
After a busy and productive December I now have the scores finished for two upcoming premieres. "Ignotibus Manibus" (The Unseen Hand) is an orchestral piece that I'm very excited about because it uses some interesting stochastic processes. That is, there's no way of telling beforehand how the piece will turn out, and no two performances are ever the same! For wind ensemble, I'm fortunate to have friends in the Northwest Passage Trumpet Trio who have asked me to write a piece for them. The result is a ...

27 Aug 2018, News
Orchestra Piece Being Recorded
I just found out my orchestra piece "In The Air" is being recorded by the NEO Sound orchestra in October! This is the final movement of the symphony I wrote for my doctoral dissertation at the University of Oklahoma, and this is the first performance of the piece.It's humbling, frustrating, puzzling, and astonishing to follow the trajectory of a composition. This one was composed six years ago, and leaves the first three movements still looking for a premiere performance. My teacher Marvin Lamb used to ...

21 Apr 2017, News
Spring Composition Classes Come To An End
On Thursday, April 13, seven of my composition students at Kutztown University gave a recital of their works--and it was a fantastic experience for them. Students were responsible for not only composing finished works worthy of public performance, but also finding performers for their own pieces, preparing parts for each instruments, rehearsing the ensemble, and conducting the performance (if required). Without exception each student did a masterful job with each phase of the project, and I'm really ...

15 Jan 2017, News
Viola Solo Premieres in Bucharest
I just found out my solo viola piece, First Quandary, is being played by Cornelia Petroiu on February 26! Composer's Voice presents the World Premiere of PUZZLE-GARDE - Cornelia Petroiu, viola. Cornelia Petroiu in cooperation with Vox Novus, the voice in contemporary music, published a call-for-scores calling for pieces composed on the theme “PUZZLE-GARDE.” Cornelia Petroiu selected 16 works, composed specifically for this daring new-music project. The selected works are: Tractate – ...

25 Oct 2016, News
New Jazz Combo Charts To Warm Up The Winter
Two brand new jazz combo charts were added to my MusicaNeo catalog today! The funk groove Three Hundred Thousand Degrees can now be viewed in two different lineups, one for combo with three horns (trumpet, sax, trombone) and one for combo with two horns (trumpet and sax). The sax part is scored for tenor sax but includes an alto sax substitute, so you can use either horn without sacrificing a thing. The rhythm section calls for guitar, piano, bass, and drums. (On the recording I only went ...

21 Oct 2015, News
Patriotic and Americana Songs Added
Three arrangements for my friends in Illinois, "The Sound Hounds", are ready on MusicaNeo: America The Beautiful - for solo voice and combo in a straight-ahead legit version. Scored for vocals, alto, tenor, bari, trumpet, trombone, and full rhythm section. Armed Forces Salute - an instrumental medley of Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard songs. Straight-ahead legit arrangement for alto, tenor, bari, trumpet, trombone, and full rhythm section. Kathleen Mavourneen - vocal solo with ...

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