John Kenneth Graham

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Composer John Graham rehearsing one of his works.

American composer John Kenneth Graham (born July 26, 1955 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana), studied at Southeastern Louisiana University and Louisiana State University, and writes orchestral tableaux of American legend and folklore. A traditionalist, his most representative works include the first four symphonies of a nine-symphony cycle. Other works include a Festival Mass in C Minor for choir, pipe organ and chamber orchestra, First Piano Concerto, numerous works for percussion and several large works for symphonic band. The recent performance of Lines After Bidart While Watching Television, arranged upon a poem by John Mulrooney, featured symphonic band and full choir with alto solo and is a commemorative to those who served in the relief of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Graham's aesthetic relies upon the use of tonal harmony, with poetic applications of both form and style. The crucial effort is always in the storytelling, which is why almost all of his music has some literary basis.^{[citation needed]}. Graham's main serious influences include Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Giovanni Gabrieli, Beethoven, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Respighi, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives and John Adams. His influences from various contemporary popular artists are considerable, primarily rock, progressive jazz and American folk music. He is a member of the international Delian Society.

Graham's music is organic, built up from motifs representing various emotional and philosophical constructs which hail back to the Latin Liber Usualis of 1896 and even historically to ancient Greek and Hebrew hymns. This emphasis upon motivic development is evident in Graham's compositional approach, yet the emphasis of his work is targeted mainly to the poetic and prosaic nature of whatever is the program subject at hand. The symphony is the principal form used by Graham for purposes of shedding light upon this universal musical understanding, yet in his other works one can detect the same style of craftsmanship.^{[citation needed]}

Graham has also written commemorative works for special occasions. In 1983, he conducted the Baton Rouge Concert Band in a performance of his symphonic poem Freedom's Defense for the occasion of the dedication of the Fletcher-class, WWII destroyer USS Kidd. This particular work included use of the actual guns aboard the vessel, reminiscent of Beethoven's Battle Symphony.^{[citation needed]}

His planned symphony cycle, consists of nine works, each of which conform to a separate area of the United States at different seasons of the year. Four of these are complete, First Symphony (northeastern Missouri in the spring), Second Symphony (southeastern Iowa in the summer), Third Symphony (about Yellowstone National Park during the fall), and Fourth Symphony (the Dakotas during the winter}.^{[citation needed]}

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[edit] References

Louisiana Naval War Memorial. 1983. Program notes for Freedom's Defense, included within program booklet for USS Kidd dedication and formal opening, August 27).
Price, Anne [Advocate arts critic]. 2002. "Graham's Composing Takes Him All over Country". Sunday Advocate Magazine (Baton Rouge), (January 27).
Stuart, Carol. 2006. "A Workingman's Composer". Livingston Parish [Louisiana] News (February 16).
Zwerneman, Lynette. 2005. "Park Band, Choir to Perform Local Composer's Piece Tonight". Livingston [Montana] Enterprise (May 17).