The 1st of November needs a special STORMLog entry. Let’s call it “Trial by Storm vs. Genius.”
Because it’s potentially meaningful to Composers and Music Educators, I’d like to share… or rather confess… my first experiences with writing. This excludes the very first time I tried notating the Theme from Star Trek as a 6th grader.
On STORMDate 1 November 1974, I arranged “This Is It!” for our SRO (Standing Room Only) Senior Show at Greenwich High School in 1975. Yes, a nice 50th anniversary. Somehow, I was “elected” to serve as Conductor and Director for our pit Studio Orchestra and chorus. As classmates brought me their songs, it fell to me to arrange everything for a combined Jazz Ensemble and Orchestra.
I had no idea how to arrange. As a physics-major wannabe, I had never taken advantage of the TREMENDOUS Music Theory classes, taught by fantastic Teachers at GHS. I was just a guy who played trumpet.
To get in the spirit of this “confession,” put yourself in pre-YouTube-ville. “How do you write Music?” “How do I arrange Music?”
Not using the word lightly, we had GENIUSES in that ensemble. The stories I can tell you about the people who could improvise fugues, the kids who went on to play with Miles Davis and the Tonight Show Band, the classmates who could sit at the keyboard and play ANYTHING by ear. It went on and on.
But I wasn’t one of them!
So I went to one of those true geniuses — violinist Anthony Princiotti — and asked, “Ant… how do you write music?”
He said something I would later hear again from Dr. Gillespie at UCONN:
“Just write down what you hear.”
Simple. Terrifying. True. So, naturally, I misunderstood it completely.
Here is where composers cringe. I figured composers must play all the instruments. That’s how they knew what to write! So I picked up my trumpet, played and notated the first trumpet part… kept that in my head… then played and notated the second… then the third… all the way through four trumpets and four trombones.
When I reached the saxes, I stopped — and taught myself to play saxophone. Then I did it all again, five parts this time.
Talk about a MINDSTORM! One of the ways I taught myself to play the instruments so quickly was later developed into the “LET’S FIND OUT” Teaching Suite!
For years, I cursed my own history. “Why didn’t I learn to play the piano!” Etc. Etc!
But here’s the lesson. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. That whole “Trial by Storm” provided me with an intimacy in writing and teaching instruments that might not have been.
My first film score used the same “re-invention” approach. When I started the Film Scoring course at SUNY Purchase, I employed the same philosophy. Rather than give a calculator to a beginner and say, “Here is how you do math,” I said, “Let’s invent a system.” If anyone from that class is seeing this post, they are smiling because the deeper the struggle, the deeper the understanding, the better the payoff.
Fifty years later, I still believe it. Everything happens for a reason. As a Teacher, I had so much more patience for my kids. When they said, “Mr. Mel! You’re a genius!” I would say, “I know geniuses, and I ain’t one of them! But EVERYONE has a genius.”
“Well then, what’s your genius, Mr. Mel?”
I’d laugh. “My genius is the ability to compensate for having no genius.”
There are all sorts of “dues.” I’m glad I learned to write the way I did. And with that in mind, go and listen to that 2 November post again…
Enjoy & Godspeed! S
#arranging
#history
#GreenwichHighSchool
#filmscore
#DietrichBonhoeffer
#InTheDarkestDarkness
#ChorusAndBand
#Chapter55
#WayOfTheWanderer
#ChristophScheibling
#DasMusikkorpsDerBundeswehr
#BläserphilharmonieOsnabrück
#JensSchröer
#history
#heroes
#faith
#StephenMelillo
#Stormworks
#Music
#musiceducation
#musiceducationmatters
Here is the 2 November 2025 Post:
It’s fitting that on “All Souls Day,” 2 Nov, four (4) pieces were completed, including In the Darkest Darkness Shines Your Light. At the end of the premiere, the ovation goes long enough to present the story, the meaning, the joys and sorrows of this work in a text scroll. The Music is inspired by and dedicated to the Eternal Memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
I am including 2 YouTube links.
Godspeed! S
In the Darkest Darkness Premiere with Bläserphilharmonie Osnabrück, Commissioned & Conducted by Maestro Jens Schröer. https://youtu.be/bPUZpeIT5-Q?si=krOjINvCLcJT2h53
In the Darkest Darkness with Das Musikkorps der Bundeswehr, conducted by Christoph Scheibling, in 360 surround. https://youtu.be/eB1i7x99bFw?si=UbOzxxklz74pGmTj