Nabors is a busy young man. And justly so. His appealing music is garnering a flurry of performances around the country, including those by some of the august orchestras at the top tier of classical music. So much so, that his website has announced that he is no longer accepting commissions until he catches up with his work! A native of Birmingham, Alabama, he attended Samford University there, and later went on to graduate studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory, ultimately earning a doctorate in composition there. He writes articulately about his concept of the process of musical composition, and its relationship to the unique nature of every artist. His wry description of his own musical voice—based upon his broad and varied young life is “Americanized Russian-French Bartókian Gospel Jazz.” In addition to venerable composers such as Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Bartók, he cites his admiration for more recent luminaries as Christopher Rouse, George Crumb, and John Corigliano. He further alludes to his early attraction to French music of the early twentieth century, especially the “contemplative” sort. Well, that’s a lot for the listener to digest and identify—but, as is usually the case with thoughtful artists, stylistic influences are subtle and more useful concepts to them than to us. What we will hear in his work is music that is infused with traditional elements, but which is thoroughly founded in contemporary techniques. Challenging but more than accessible to lay audiences in a winning combination.
Iubilo is a brief work, lasting only a couple of minutes, but jubilant it manifestly is, and a perfect opener for a concert. It was commissioned by the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra to celebrate its fifteenth season, and given its world première by them in 2019. Based in Houston, Texas, this renowned professional group has an enviable record of commissioning over one hundred compositions by outstanding composers.
When one thinks of happy, rousing music that sets an uplifting mood for an evening of music, composers over the years have employed any number of gestures to invoke an upbeat atmosphere—old friends that have become familiar musical tropes. In Iubilo Nabors has woven together a raft of these into a scintillating mélange. There’s little here that pays attention to standard musical niceties such as form, main theme, second theme, development, and the like. Rather, the tight musical weft just rips along in a surging tide of “jubilant” ideas, one after the other, painting an epigrammatic evocation of the celebratory mood.
–Wm. E. Runyan
©2021 William E. Runyan