This time on Notes from the Fires, host John Rabe talks with 82-year-old guitarist, bandleader, composer, and arranger Bruce Lofgren.
credit James Vincent
Lofgren, who lost his home in the Eaton fire, has legit links to KC & the Sunshine Band and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. He composed for Buddy Rich, and has written about 2,000 arrangements for singers, radio and TV ads, industrial and feature films, and TV themes.
We love Lofgren’s listener-centric approach to composing:
Overly intense music – without any contrasting moments – bores people. If the music is too predictable, they also become bored with it. If the music is weird at every turn, listeners decide they can’t win the game, and give up trying. I say let them win some of the battles. Let the listener correctly predict the next note, but give them the surprise of an unexpected harmony supporting that note. Try inverting the melody so it’s recognizable, but different. Make every little surprise take the listeners to a better place than they expected to go. And leave them with the (correct) feeling that they themselves - through the effort they made in following and listening - created the beautiful meaning of the work.
To close out the episode we hear Vince Mendoza's To The Edge of Longing (edit version) (from the album “Freedom Over Everything") performed by Czech National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vince Mendoza featuring soprano, Julia Bullock.
