Jay Beyond Words
composer and teacher
   
   
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Beyond Words
 

Music is a means of communication—a way of touching others more deeply than is possible with mere words. Sometimes words have inspired me to write. I have borrowed the Psalms, Dante's sonnets, and even my maternal grandmother's autograph book from the late 1920s, but in each case the narrative is not solely reliant on words.

Music connects with both intellect and emotion, and conveys ideas, feelings, virtues, collective memories, and the like. I often seek to make musical communication even more meaningful by finding connections with the past and weaving those elements into the fabric of a new work. From popular songs of my youth embedded in the texture of a saxophone quartet, to melodies for a tango derived from the numbers of Fibonacci's famous series, or even the spirit of discovery and perseverance of Galileo in a work for orchestra (with some of the scientist's brother's lute music tossed in the mix as well), those connections enrich our shared experience and embellish the musical story...even without words.

 
New Horizons
 
Walls Ph.D. Graduation
 
Walls with mentor, Joseph Klein (left), and colleagues, Da Jeong Choi (far left) and Paul Thomas (right) at the University of North Texas commencement, May 2011.
 
Love and Immortality
 
Jay Alan Walls was among four winning composers selected by the Lewisville Lake Symphony to participate in their Love and Immortality project. This initiative promotes the commission of new chamber and symphonic works in honor of loved ones.
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SPOTLIGHT


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Tango UNT/ SMU contest winner. Read more >
Hear excerpts: Listen >

Galileo's Eyeglass
Celebrating Galileo's astronomical discoveries of 1610. Read more > Hear excerpts: Listen >

Dante Sonnets
Read more > Hear excerpts: Listen >