Dennis Pitman profile picture

Dennis Pitman

...Forever may just be starting tomorrow...

About Me

I am currently a student of composition at the University of North Texas. I just completed my sixth semester of study and will be completing my degree some time in the next year. I intend to go to grad school following the completion of my degree and hopefully earn both master's and doctoral degrees in music composition. I am finally getting to the point where I need to both find a school at which to continue my education as well as start to find a clear musical direction.As you can tell from the pieces included on my works list, I have written for a wide range of instruments, in an array of styles, though there are many media and genres with which I still wish to experiment.I currently have completed ten compositions and have at least a dozen others in the works for eventual completion, the details of which will be posted on my blog.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 4/10/2006
Band Website: pitmanmusic.com
Influences: My influences are my teachers and peers, who introduce me to various composers that have an impact on my writing. In my writing, I have been able to identify qualities of Frank Zappa, John Zorn, Karlheiz Stockhausen, Gyorgi Ligeti, Edgar Varese, Steve Reich, Claude Debussy, Joseph Schwantner, Toru Takemitsu, Thomas Newman, John Williams, Frederic Chopin, Morton Feldman, John Cage, etc. Even so, I rarely attempt to incorporate other composers' ideas in my pieces verbatim. It is my goal to absorb and incorporate aspects of all my favorite composers into an amalgamation that will become my style. Much like a jazz musician learning to improvise, I intend to do this by learning the "licks", or ideas, of other composers so that they may become tools to producing my own voice.
Sounds Like: Usually, Debussy, Schwantner, Takemitsu, but at times, Cage, Zorn, and pretty much anybody else is within the realm of possibility.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

New Piece and New Plans

Within the next week or two, I will be completing a piece for solo clarinet.  To be completely honest, this is the most emotionally detached I've ever been while composing a piece, so the result ...
Posted by Dennis Pitman on Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:05:00 PST

Proposals for Future Projects

Alright, in the last post I talked about my plans for summer.  I finally sat down and figured out what I intend to do in the foreseeable future.  I have enough projects planned to keep me bu...
Posted by Dennis Pitman on Mon, 14 May 2007 01:39:00 PST

End of Another Semester

Ok, the semester is almost over, so it is now time for me to talk about what I accomplished and what my plans for summer are. This semester I successfully completed three projects, each with a perform...
Posted by Dennis Pitman on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:09:00 PST

About time

It's about time I actually write something on here.  I gave up blogging on my personal myspace page because I figured out that it causes personal problems if you write too much about you life on ...
Posted by Dennis Pitman on Sat, 30 Dec 2006 12:12:00 PST