Excerpts from STORMWatch #5... April 2000

If this is your first STORMWatch, and you wish to maintain a collection, you can download the previous 4 STORMWatch Newsletters at www.stormworld.com. They are in PDF format. You may also print them from the STORMRom 3.4... soon to come!

STORMWatch is a personal communication accompanying catalogs and recordings. This letter was requested by band directors at the inception of, and the continued evolution of STORMWORKS.

0. In 7 years there have been 5 letters. Communication is infrequent. Please keep materials on file.

1. 0 to 2333 STORMDirectors!

2. Printed Music has undergone 6 complete upgrades: from Handwritten Music to 3458 pages of Score and all accompanying Parts in PDF format for email, CD-Rom production and greater logistics aid.

3. There is now a STORMWORKS® ITALIA and a STORMWORKS® EUROPE. Where I have opted for expediency and logistics freedom in offering a master set of parts without photocopy restriction, Ben Cruiming of The Netherlands has replotted page turns and produces parts on fine quality paper, stapled and bound. European Directors wanting their Music in the American method can contact STORMWORKS® USA, (that's me)... and Americans wanting a Traditional Set of Parts can get their Music from STORMWORKS® EUROPE. The Traditional Sets will also be available via SHATTINGERS at 1-800-444-2498.

4. A Catalogue of all current "Storm" works is enclosed. There's much. Enjoy!

5. You should already have received a formidable tool and introduction to all that is possible in the form of the STORMRom 3.3! If you still haven't investigated this historic document, but were astute enough to keep it... there is much for you to explore, listen to, peruse and enjoy. Soon to come? The STORMRom 3.4! This will come to you free of charge, but if you need a replacement, the cost will be $10.

6. Hours of STORMWORKS Music has now been recorded! In combination with the STORMRom, you now have complete audiovisual access to many hours of Music! To acquire CD's, utilize the enclosed order form or visit www.stormworld.com. Pieces created since the STORMRom 3.3... and there are many... will appear on the STORMRom 3.4.

Stormworks is one work. It begins with The STORMQuest and ends with WAIT of the WORLD. It is a journey with a beginning and an ending which comes back to its beginning.

Do some of you remember how Stormworks began? "Sometimes you must GIVE to the world by Storm."
Boston 1978. Still unpacked, I was practicing the clarinet and watching television. A commercial requesting help for the Special Olympics aired. Filled with boyish enthusiasm and unparalleled naiveté, I decided to send the ultimate Gift. I would compose a piece of Music! Yes! A Theme for the Special Olympics!

With adventure, I descended to the Boston Conservatory Dorm Room Basement, there to find in the 88 keys of the un-tuned piano a Theme worthy of the Special Olympic athletes! This would be my first piece.

I was no pianist, and I recall the chuckles of dorm mates... but I was only doing what Dr. Alan Gillespie had advised me to do 2 years earlier at UCONN where I studied physics. When I asked him, "Dr. G... how do you write Music?", he replied. "Go to a piano and press the buttons you want to hear."

Needing to test my orchestration, I asked Chester Roberts, principal Tuba with the Boston Symphony, and our brass ensemble conductor if he would read down a 16-measure fanfare. My little tape recorder went on. Jaws dropped. "Ahem... very powerful writing, Mr. Melillo."

Encouraged, I proceeded to create my first work for Wind Ensemble. In 3 days, I ventured to the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble rehearsal. "Mr. Corley? Would you please read this piece for me?"

He grabbed the score. In front of everyone, he said, "Where are the rehearsal numbers?!"

I was aghast. Embarrassed. That night, I went home and inserted numbers on the score and parts... every measure.
At the next rehearsal, we read the piece three times. My classmates were very supportive and found it a fresh departure. Mr. Corley loved the orchestration and theme so much, he later conducted and premiered my ONLY FOR NOW, an 1-hour and ten-minute work, but that's another story!

He programmed Theme for the Special Olympics at the next concert. Mr. Corley let me conduct. Wow! Big applause. The composition majors hated me. Funny how some things never change.

So, with tape and score carefully, artistically packaged, I mailed out the Theme for the Special Olympics! Enclosed, was a letter. I wanted no royalties, no payment of any kind... THIS was my gift. This is what I could afford to give.

That was 21 years ago.

Just today, after speaking with a telecommunicator from the Special Olympics about the events of the past, I tracked down that same old cassette recording and once again sent out into the storm, the Theme for the Special Olympics.

For those of you have heard the STORMWORKS... Chapter Three CD, let me assure you... the Theme for the Special Olympics is like one of those pieces.

And now for a sojourn into the ways of the world the sisters at Corpus Christi School in Port Chester, NY didn't prepare us for. It didn't then, nor does it now, mean a thing. It doesn't matter that the piece is empowering and inspiring. It is irrelevant that I want nothing for it! It means nothing that the piece is truly worthy of the Special Olympic Athletes.

That is why I say, "even GIVING requires extraordinary effort!" Sadly, the world is much more willing to be "taken" by Storm. Hard for me to understand then, it remains a mystery even now.

I had written 404 pieces before I applied the word Composer to my name. That is the reverence I have always held for Music, its History, its ability to heal and to give and to touch and inspire. I believe this Music deserves to be "out there"... in print, for you to make a choice?

THOUSANDS of people, and many of them are not band people have been touched by this Music. If it were left to the publishers, those many, many people from all around the world would not even know it existed!

Please don't listen to me. I despise having to assert myself... and consider it "the extraordinary effort" that GIVING requires. Instead, listen to the Music. Listen to the Music rejected by the publishers... and ask, Why? That question, as you ponder it, brings you to some of the meaning in STORMWORKS. Godspeed.

When sending out the STORMRom 3.3 in 1998, I realized that it was pushing boundaries.

Those who weren't quite technologically ready in the past have a new chance to obtain a truly valuable resource. Watch the mail for the STORMRom 3.4 which will come to STORMDirectors and OFFICIAL STORMDirectors soon.

What's on the STORMRom 3.4?

3458 pages of Score to aid you in making informed decisions for your situation.

3 free pieces for you to print and make use of.

Excerpts of all currently recorded STORM Music.

The SCALEWORKS Video Teaching Scenario.

All of the STORMWatch Newsletters.

A Printable Catalogue, an Interactive Research Catalogue and many Useful Resources.

Composers Calendar for 2001-2003.

Much more.

In a deceivingly small package you will have in your possession a valuable and pervasive resource from which to investigate, explore and interact with over 11 hours of Music for Ensembles of the 3rd Millennium. Enjoy!

An old upstate New York auditorium 1980. I sat alone watching a man work with high school kids. We were there for the All-County band rehearsal. He was there to take them on a journey.

I had never actually met him. I never learned his name. His voice was like that of a Bass Clarinet and I never saw his face. He wore a white dress shirt, loosened tie... and spent a great deal of Time tuning the band and developing its warmth.

Everything he said seemed so filled with wisdom and logic. Wide-eyed, I stayed away from the donuts in the other room, watched, listened and learned.

When I returned to our basement band room the next day, I immediately began an absolutely detailed and relentlessly dedicated devotion to tuning in the manner of the nameless, faceless man. I had become his apprentice.

In fact, his tuning process later that year, led me to compose the FUNCTION CHORALES, which to my mind were a logical extension of his work. I formalized the tuning concept into a procedure and immediately applied it with my students.

For 13 years, across three full-time programs and many other involvements , I continued to teach and develop and instill ideas which I had seen in the one rehearsal with the unnamed man in the white dress shirt... sleeves rolled up!

Then in 1993, Valentine's Day, I was in Morehead, Kentucky, there to conduct the university band. Other guest conductors worked with varied ensembles. I longed to see them work.

Through dimly lit corridors, I found myself once again, alone, in a distant auditorium. There, a man in a white dress shirt was taking the high school kids through the cycle of 4ths. But it was so much more than an exercise. You could sense the "plan". The kids kept improving with each request, each respectful plea for Music.

I immediately thought, Wow, this band sounds so warm and full. What a Teacher! Forever the student, I stayed and watched, listened and learned.

Later, I met the man. He introduced himself as Ed Lisk. As an excuse for not having known his name, I offered my previously monk-like Life. "I wish I had known you when I was teaching," I said. "I needed you."

He was incredibly kind and humble and when we shook hands, I knew that he was the mentor I had always hoped for through years of college and grad school and more than 13 years of high school teaching.

Time passed, and much to my surprise I would receive letters from Mr. Lisk! It was either 2 or 3 years later when I sent to Ed Lisk my FUNCTION CHORALES.

He called, intrigued and generous with his support. When he saw the page on Tuning, he said, "Where did you teach?" "What years?"

Eventually, like two ships that had passed on a distant night long, long ago, we tracked it down. Yes, the man I had seen as a first year Teacher... the man who had basically inspired the next 13 years of teaching... that man was the same man whom I had met at Morehead State University with Dr. Frank Tracz and Dr. Jack Stamp in 1993... when STORMWORKS began.

It was Ed Lisk!

Why do I tell you this? My friends, if you ever have the opportunity to have Mr. Lisk come to work with your students, please do so! Ed Lisk does something in and for Music which I have never seen before. He describes the not describable.

It is quite remarkable. Ed Lisk is to Music what Lao-Tze is to the Tao. He describes the processes of Music in simple and elegant ways. His text, "INTANGIBLES OF MUSIC" is to my mind, an impossible book, an inspiring paradox which nevertheless communicates the unspeakable in Music! He takes the intangible and makes it something you can touch and feel and come to know.

Ed is a Hero of Music Education, and to my mind, one of the American Knights. He has inspired my Teaching... and now, not some Time in the unforeseen future... is the best Time to stop and pay homage. Thank you, Ed. Thank you for being a model for all of us. Thank you for your great and giving efforts.

Because of the word-of-mouth approach and the resolve to stay away from marketing entities, it's only me and a small force of conductors from around the world who can tell you about this recording. If you don't yet have it, you need to hear it, and I urge your investment in it. Many reviews and comments about the CD may be found at the STORMSite, but I wanted to include this review for your perusal. Again, "They Say it Best". When I can I will rely upon the generous words of others to get the message out there.

... and my friends, STORMWORKS... Chapter TWO: WENDE, is now recorded and ready to go. This is another recording you should know about. Wait until you hear this! Hopefully, the words below will inspire you. Godspeed!

FUNCTION CHORALES are utilized by hundreds of directors who GET meaningful RESULTS. See their testimonials on the STORMRoms and at the STORMSite. Years ago, it was beyond my comprehension that I would be asked to do clinics... around the world... on Function Chorales, simply because I longed to hear ensembles play in tune. I will soon create a CD-ROM with a video of how to employ Function Chorales.

SCALEWORKS: If you are taking longer than 1 lesson period to have your middle school students learn how to teach themselves how to play 15 Major Scales... Perfectly..,. in 15 minutes... you're unknowingly misusing Time! Realistic Goals as recently demonstrated with a middle school band in Pennsylvania: The band should play 15 major scales in less than 40 seconds as part of the daily warm-up. The individual record to break for 15 major scales played in one direction is... get ready for this... 9.6 seconds. This was achieved by a high school flutist in one month after SCALEWORKS. Many middle-schoolers from around the country are playing their scales in less than 18 seconds. Though I have put the SCALEWORKS procedure on the STORMRom 3.3 and 3.4, I will soon create a more pervasive version for CD-ROM This CDR will contain implementation and follow up teaching strategies. Remember, when the kids have learned the 15 Major Scales on that single sheet, they have actually learned 136 modes, all major and minor triads and 7th chords... and much, much more.

THE TREATISE ON RHYTHM: Well, we timed it at Hofstra University. It takes 36 minutes to teach someone how to read ALL rhythms. That's only because we were working at a leisurely pace. I will try to track down a video that was made of 5th graders undergoing this approach. Future Music Educators (college students) were watching the procedure in Missouri. They shook their heads when 5th graders read, with complete understanding, rhythms that they could not decipher as sophomore Music majors! The Rhythm Readers is a download from the STORMSite... but this is NOT the technique. It is simply a follow-up tool. A student should be able to read the entire booklet after 1 lesson in Rhythm Reading, which at worst, will occupy 1 period of 1 day of their Music Education experience. I will soon create a CD-ROM with a video of how to employ THE TREATISE ON RHYTHM.

PAD BASS and ORCHESTRATION for BAND of the 3rd MILLENNIUM. I realize that this is something that takes Time. After 7 years, I am still demonstrating this when I have the opportunity. Those conductors who have seen and heard the correct implementation of this new orchestration are forever "hooked" and make long-lasting changes to their warming-up, tuning, intoning, and actual Music-making practices. I wish I could devise a means of having you interact with each other. Any ideas? For instance, I have heard one of our military bands employ the PAD Bass on all of their recordings... whether it was written for or not. Hopefully, other composers will begin to implement this new tool and instrument. Until then, there is over 11 hours of Music for you to explore and connect with your Musicianship training. I would suggest a continued listening to the fine STORMWORKS recordings as well as a more detailed reading of the score notes and related information on the FAQ's section of the STORMSite.

If anyone has any suggestions for additional Teaching Tools, please let me know. The reason for these tools is simple. Like you, I long to hear Music beautifully rendered. For Musicians to accomplish this, they must be given tools. The tools of choice must be expedient, efficient, make little demands on individual schedules, demonstrate easily discernible results, and make a logical and significant connection to much-improved Music-making. What inspires students best is a plan that produces results. Maximum efficiency with Minimum effort.