Past
Q & A
How do you pronounce your name?
It's pronounced "SPAY-tuh."
What was the first instrument you learned?
I started on clarinet it’s still my best instrument. I also play a little piano, which helps me out when writing music. In college, I gained proficiency (or at least a functional understanding) on all the instruments. I have a hard time with the brass instruments, so they’re my weakest. As for the strings, my hands are a little too big to be good at violin, but they're just right for viola and 'cello. I own a viola and, though I don’t play at a concert-level, I’ll often pick it up to figure out bowings and fingerings as I write.
Who/what inspires your music?
I enjoy learning about history and other cultures, so they influence my music a lot. Visual art, movies, and TV shows inspire me. People have said that my music sounds like movie soundtracks or video game music, which I take as an enormous compliment. I enjoy traveling and some of my travels have led directly to music. I try to keep myself open to inspiration and not limit my sources of creativity.
Mostly, though, it's the students who play my music that inspire me. I always try to put myself in their shoes and write something that I would enjoy playing. I also like to think about the teacher's perspective and fill in the gaps in the orchestral catalog and write the music that isn’t available to string students.
What story does Gauntlet tell?
Students have told me that they hear everything from battling knights to space battles in “Gauntlet” and it’s become their soundtrack to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones and more. People often ask what the story is behind “Gauntlet” and I really didn’t have one in mind, beyond abstract emotion, color, and movement. While a lot of my music conveys a certain mood or evokes a certain place or culture, none of my pieces are programmatic. That is, they don’t tell specific stories. I think it’s great that “Gauntlet” inspires peoples’ imaginations —one of the hallmarks of successful art is that it invites a variety of interpretations —and I encourage everyone to come up with their own “Gauntlet” stories.
What is your best/favorite/most memorable publication)?
“Gauntlet” was my first published work and remains my most popular, so I'll always be grateful for that. People tell me that I should write more pieces like “Gauntlet,” but I’m not sure how I bottled lightning with that one – it’s the product of a very specific state of mind I was in for two weeks in 1997 when I was listening to equal parts of Shostakovich and Metallica. More of my fast-tempo minor-key pieces have been published since, but “Gauntlet” remains a favorite.
I’m always trying to improve my skill as a composer and, looking back, I can see that I’ve improved a lot since “Gauntlet.” “The Blue Caves of Zakynthos” and "City of Steel" are good showcases for my compositional skill - they're filled with lots of technical detail.
Who are your favorite composers?
I fell in love with Mozart at an early age and how effortlessly beautiful his music is. My favorite is the Marriage of Figaro overture. The film soundtracks of Danny Elfman have moved me in a profound way and continue to be an influence- you can hear it in a lot of my music. I especially love his main title music to Beetlejuice and 1989’s Batman.
My all-time favorite composer, though, is Igor Stravinsky. His music continues to astound and inspire me. “The Rite of Spring” is my favorite piece of orchestral music and The Rake’s Progress is my favorite opera.
There are lots of other composers that I love, like Vivaldi, Boccherini, Debussy, Adams, and Poulenc, but I keep coming back to Mozart, Elfman, and Stravinsky.
What's on your playlist right now?
I like to listen to music during my workouts and while driving, so the frequent tempo and mood changes of classical music don't work so well. I’m a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest, so those songs always get lots of play (my top five for 2024 is Poland, Austria, Norway, Croatia and Italy). I also keep up with a lot of podcasts.
What's the biggest mistake you've ever witnessed at a concert?
I have a pet peeve about tempos. Young musicians - and even some teachers - brag all the time about how fast they can play, but most pieces aren’t supposed to be played fast. All the nuance and emotion and expression are lost when you tear through a piece as fast as possible. Rushing the tempos is disrespectful to the composer because it misrepresents his or her work and to the audience because it’s denying them a meaningful concert experience. Any experienced musician will tell you that slow music is much more difficult than fast music –technical skill doesn’t demonstrate ability as much as good musicianship. I put metronome markings on all my scores and I want them to be heeded.
What advice do you have for aspiring composers and teachers?
Composers - like all artists - are storytellers. If you have the skill to tell an engaging joke or anecdote with contrasts, timing, characterization and building to a satisfying conclusion, it’s a skill that translates to any art form. Keep writing with the goal of making something better than the last thing you wrote. Whenever possible, have other people play your music. There’s usually a difference between what it sounds like in your head and what it sounds like when others play it. Having others play your music will give you an objective idea of how you're doing and if you're communicating musical directions clearly.
My advice to teachers is that the best way to motivate students is to give them music at their level that they enjoy. I believe that, as a composer, I’m like a cartographer - I lay out a musical landscape in absolute terms. The conductor and teacher’s job is to be a tour guide through that landscape – to lead the students through the landscape, interpret it, and bring it to life. The map is always the same, but every teacher will take a different path and every student will take something different away from the journey.
Do you have a question for Doug Spata? He loves hearing from students, teachers and audiences!