University News

James Caldwell, 2009 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer
[Download Print-Quality Image]

James Caldwell Named 2009 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer

February 5, 2009

Share Printer friendly version

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL - - James Caldwell, professor of music composition and theory in Western Illinois University's School of Music, will present the University's 2009 Distinguished Faculty Lecture on "space" as it relates to music.

Caldwell will deliver his lecture, "Musical Space and Musical Expression," at 7 p.m. Monday, March 23 in the College of Fine Arts and Communication Recital Hall, located in Simpkins Hall, on the WIU-Macomb campus. He will address the WIU-Quad Cities campus at 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 31 in Room 102.

"Images and metaphors of space and time permeate the way musicians talk about, think about and listen to music," Caldwell said. "In this lecture for the non-specialist audience, I will explore, with liberal use of recorded examples from a wide range of styles, space as a topic in songs and instrumental music, the musical depiction of space and the empirical spaces in which music is performed and heard.

"Music participates in the way mental spaces are evoked by our experiences and in the conceptual metaphors that are at the heart of the way the human mind works," Caldwell added. "I will suggest some approaches to listening that can help us to understand the role that musical space plays in music's powerful capacity for expression."

Caldwell joined Western Illinois' music faculty in 1985. For the past 22 years he has been co-director of Western's New Music Festival, which has hosted more than 150 composers for performances of their music. In the process, west-central Illinois has established a tradition of support for new music, he said.

For seven years Caldwell has been curator of the annual ElectoAcoustic Music Macomb concert. His compositional output is divided between electroacoustic music and music for instruments and voices. His "Elegy," recorded by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, is available on the MMC label. "Mechanism II" has been released on the "Presence III" CD from the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, and "Hanging with Clifford" is on the "Time Passages" CD by WIU music colleague Bruce Briney.

Caldwell's writings have been published in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy and ex tempore; and his recent composition "Aubusson" was commissioned for and played at the 2008 College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) North Central Division Conference by the Western Illinois University Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

Caldwell served as president (1998-2000) of Western's chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois, Local 4100; and he has held a variety of leadership roles at the departmental, college and University level.

In 2005, Caldwell received the Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Outstanding Teaching Award in the College of Fine Arts and Communication. He has also received three Faculty Excellence Awards and three Professional Achievement Awards.

Caldwell began studying drawing and design at Western in 2004, "as a way to stretch creatively and to reacquaint myself with the experience of being a student." He is in his 10th semester of studio art courses.

A Michigan native, Caldwell earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Michigan State University and his Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees from Northwestern University.

Western Illinois first presented an annual lecturer award in 1969 to honor an outstanding faculty member whose professional development in research or creative activity, teaching and service to the University represent the highest standards of the academic community. In 1998 the award was renamed the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.


Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing