Music is often referred to as a “universal language” because it can transcend cultural barriers and provide clear communication between people with different spoken languages. However, cultures around the world define music and use it in many different ways, and some cultures do not even have a word for music because it is so much a part of their daily living. Thus, the question remains: Is music a universal language? Do you think music can overcome barriers such as language, time, geography, and culture?
Jack Benson has received several commissions for musical arrangements and compositions from churches, schools, universities and professional performance organizations. Several of his works have been performed throughout the country. Catalyst for Trombone Choir, was premiered by the University of Houston Trombone Choir and performed at Potsdam University in New York. He has served as composer in residence for the musical organization Scordatura where he composed numerous works that were performed on countless occasions. Fringe, commissioned and premiered by Aura (Moores School of Music contemporary ensemble), received over twenty-five performances in 2011, most notably by Duo Scordatura. In that same year, he was also commissioned to compose three tangos for young violin students for the benefit concert, Tango for Toys, for the Texas Children’s Hospital of Houston. In 2017, his sonata in three movements: Tightrope was premiered by Duo Scordatura at Carnegie Hall in New York. “Guns blazing” is how Tightrope is described by Andrew Sigler in his article Sounds Heard: Duo Scordatura, The Act of Loving You and Ritual in Newmusicbox.org.
Mr. Benson completed his Bachelor of Arts in music composition at Lamar. He has studied with notable composers William Latham, Martin Mailman and Merrill Ellis at the University of North Texas; Nick Rissman at Lamar; and Robert Smith, Robert Nelson, Michael Horvit and Marcus Maroney at the University of Houston. He received his master’s in music composition and his doctoral studies from the University of Houston. Mr. Benson is an instructor of theory, orchestration, form and analysis, computers in music and music appreciation. In 2014, he co-authored the textbook, Music: Our Cultural Evolution, which is the adopted text for Lamar’s music appreciation classes. In addition, he developed and administers distance learning courses for music appreciation, and has his own commercial recording and production studio.
Mr. Benson’s compositional influences include a wide spectrum of composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Christopher Rouse, Magnus Lindberg, Michael Torke and Louis Andriessen. The uniqueness of his musical language combines post-minimalism with the influences of rock and jazz elements, interlaced with chromatic textures.
Robert Culbertson, a native of Rockford, Illinois, began playing the horn at the age of twelve. He later received degrees in music theory and composition, and horn performance from Northern Illinois University (1968, 1974) and the University of Texas (DMA-1990). His principal teachers were Wayne Barrington, former hornist with the Kansas City and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, and Dale Clevenger, principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Culbertson served as principal horn with the Symphony of Southeast Texas, 1974-2014, and has also served as principal horn with the Lake Charles (Louisiana) Symphony Orchestra and the Rapides Symphony Orchestra in Alexandria, Louisiana. He has performed with the Texas Opera Theater and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, as well as other orchestras and musical ensembles in Southeast Texas and Southwestern Louisiana.
He has served as Chair of the Music Department on two occasions (1993-1997, and 2009-2012), and has taught courses in Music Literature, Humanities, Music Appreciation, and Music Theory, as well as Applied Music (horn and other brass instruments).
Dr. Culbertson has authored two educational textbooks, “The Basics of Music” (Kendall/Hunt, 1991), and “Music: Our Cultural Heritage” (e-book, Great River Press, 2015), (co-authored with Jack Benson, fellow faculty member at Lamar University).
Unit 1
Chapter 1: The Language of Music
Chapter 2: What is Music?
Chapter 3: Elements of Musical Sound
Chapter 4: The Performing Media
Chapter 5: Listening for Meaning and Understanding
Unit 2
Chapter 6: Middle Ages
Chapter 7: Renaissance Period
Chapter 8: Baroque Period
Chapter 9: Classical Period
Chapter 10: Romantic Period
Chapter 11: 20th & 21st Century (1900-Present)
Unit 3
Chapter 12: The Music of West Africa
Chapter 13: The Music of India