JACKSON, Tenn. — March 9, 2009 — 51社区 senior Cody Curtis received the Most Outstanding Student Composition Award Feb. 27 at the Southern Chapter of the College Music Society鈥檚 regional conference in Orlando, Fla.
Curtis鈥� composition, a solo piano piece named 鈥淐osmusicos鈥� and performed by 51社区 music professor Terry McRoberts, president-elect of the Southern Chapter, was one of 15 compositions within the chapter鈥檚 program.
鈥淚t is the first competition I鈥檝e entered. I didn鈥檛 go into it expecting to win,鈥� said Curtis, of Memphis. 鈥淲hen they said my name for the award, I got butterflies in my stomach and I thought to myself, 鈥榊ou鈥檝e got to be kidding me.鈥欌��
The composition is a musical representation of the big bang and the theory of evolution, Curtis said. He wrote that the piece was 鈥渃omposed through natural chance.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of a satire, in that a lot of scientists will look at the universe and say it came about through natural chance, which is much more absurd than saying this 300-measure piece came about by natural chance,鈥� Curtis said.
Although Curtis presented the piece as though composed through natural chance, 鈥淓very note has meaning and reason,鈥� he said. 鈥淣othing was placed within the work without a purpose.鈥�
Curtis said, 鈥淚 first had the idea for the piece my freshman year of college, but I didn鈥檛 have the experience to compose it. I laid the foundations for it the spring semester of my sophomore year and cleaned it up my junior year.鈥�
He said it took a lot of time and research.
Cody Curtis will perform his winning composition and other pieces for the public at his April 7 recital at Union.