Since fall of 2020, Jeff Mavros, executive director of Admissions at Illinois State University, has been hosting The State Show, an informational program about all things Illinois State on YouTube. When the show kicked off its second full season this week with special guest President Terri Goss Kinzy, it debuted new theme and segment music composed by an Illinois State student.
Several months back, the show’s producers contacted the School of Music about the possibility of creating some music to accompany the show. Eventually, word got out, and Dr. Matthew Smith, associate professor of Creative Technologies in the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts, volunteered his students. Smith teaches Sequencing and Digital Audio to undergraduate and graduate students, only some of whom have a background in music. The class is part of a growing new sequence called audio and music production, and throughout the semester, students worked on a number of projects creating electronic music.
“It took about two weeks for this one,” Smith said. “It’s one of many projects we do during the semester. We’re creating music using a digital audio workstation (DAW). This is all original music, and they’re not all necessarily musicians.”
Smith, a classically trained musician, said his students worked with sound in two different ways: using previously recorded sound called samples; or using virtual instruments in the DAW that can play specific musical notes. The work is usually done with a synthesizer that creates sounds from scratch on the computer. Smith described the music as having an electronic sound.
Because the assignment for The State Show asked for a theme song, it was limited to producing a piece of music that was a maximum length of 30 seconds. Smith said his students were up to the task, adding that after years of teaching the class, he’s still surprised and impressed by what they create.
“This is one of the best classes I’ve had,” he said. “We had six grad students, and that raises the bar for everybody. We also had more music students than usual, so that also raises the bar. They’re totally into it. Some of them come from music composition, so they already know how to compose music. They kind of learn from each other as well.”
The original request was for one piece of music to be used as the show’s theme music, Smith said. But once the music was sent over for review, the show’s producers liked what they heard and decided they’d like to use three pieces: one for intro, one for segment, and one for the outro.
“After that, they said they were planning to use a lot of it,” Smith said. “They’re going to use as much as they can.”
The students whose music was chosen have been waiting for the new season to see if their pieces will be used in the show. The State Show chose 16 pieces of music created by 11 students for consideration in upcoming shows. The students are: Ty Bloomfield, Elliot Butler, Reed Cavi, Ian Cooper, Mike Endres, Noah Marney, Kyle Olalde-Welling, Josh Palomar, Noah Renken-Kapatos, Cole Richey, and Kirsten Townander.
Townander, a triple major in music composition, flute performance, and music education, saw her music used for the first show. After watching on YouTube, Smith said it looked and sounded great.
“They seamlessly used Kirsten’s music in a few different spots,” Smith said. “I’m happy with how it came together.”
A senior, Townander hopes to teach and continue composing and performing. She enjoyed Smith’s class and praised him for his knowledge and patience and said it was a challenge since she had no experience composing electronic music. But she had a strategy, and it paid off.
“I wanted to create something that was ear-catching from the first second, since it had to be brief,” Townander said. “I also knew I wanted it to sound lighthearted and comedic to match the satirical, self-deprecating nature of The State Show.”
To that end, she chose to incorporate sound effects like a sitcom laugh track and a cartoonish whistle to go for a “humorous vibe.”
The remaining students’ music is still in the running to be used on future shows as production needs vary from episode to episode.
Endres, a music composition major, is interested in composing for television, movies, or video games. He said the class was one of his favorites of the semester. Students learned how to make and manipulate sounds using the virtual synthesizer.
“The uniqueness comes from our tastes and backgrounds and from what we were internally going for in the piece,” Endres said. He added that he was curious how the show might incorporate such a variety of new music, especially from his perspective as a new media composer.
Endres is classically trained and plays clarinet and piano. He said the difference from composing traditional music was learning how to make sounds via the virtual synthesizer. The assignment also required each student to use a unique sound that they created or one created by a classmate.
“We were making our own synth sounds and figuring out where to use them and then manipulating those sounds to get it the way you want it,” he said.
In the end, Endres said the experience made him feel like he’d been hired to write a piece of music much like a professional.
“It definitely was really cool, getting kind of commissioned to competitively write something for a project,” he said. “It was cool working on something that was used like this.”
Townander said she was gratified but also pretty surprised to hear her music on the show.
“I had a lot of fun with this project, and it is really neat to see it pay off in this way,” she said. “I really was honored to have been selected.”
