Randall Standridge (b. 1976) is a prolific American composer from Arkansas. His music, now numbering more than 150 pieces for wind band alone, has been performed all over the US and internationally. All of it is available through his publishing company, Randall Standridge Music, which also features the music of dozens of other composers. He is also a marching designer, arranger, guest conductor, and speaker who has been especially outspoken about mental health issues, particularly through his unBroken Project. After composition studies (bachelors and masters) at Arkansas State University with Tom O’Connor and Tim Crist, Standridge began his career as the band director at Harrisburg (AR) High School. He left this position in 2013 to pursue composition full time. See more about him at his website, the Wind Repertory Project, and Alfred Music.
Standridge wrote Four: On a Remix of Beethoven in one epic session in January, 2015. Its inspiration came both from his enduring love of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5, which is based entirely on a famous four-note motive, and the group that commissioned it: the Four States Bandmasters association. He explains it all thoroughly in the score:
Since my earliest days as a musician, I have loved the music of the masters. Mozart, J.S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Copland … as a teenager, these names held the same place in my heart that my friends had reserved for the pop idols of the day, and none more so than Beethoven. When I received my first CD player (a Walkman!), my parents agreed to buy me one CD. I walked straight to the Classical section of Wal-Mart and found a recording of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. That evening, alone in my bedroom, I listened to the symphony over and over, lost in Beethoven’s world of gigantic symphonic forces and obsessive use of motive. It left a mark on me as a composer that I am grateful for to this day.
I had been toying around with the idea of using the main motivic idea from the first movement of Symphony No. 5 for quite some time when I received a commission from the Four States Bandmasters Association, a group of music educators from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Given the geographical terrain, it would have been logical to base the piece on Southwestern themes, but I didn’t want to be predictable or to play it safe. Then, I remembered my idea regarding Beethoven’s four-note motive (four states—four notes!), and I knew this was the piece I wanted to write.
Four: On a Remix of Beethoven is divided into four sections: a powerful and exciting introduction, a playful gigue in compound meter, a lyrical third section, and finally an angry dance in 7/8 that leads to the finale. The original symphony is heard twice, early in the work and near the end, but otherwise I have simply taken Beethoven’s four-note motive (sometimes called the “fate motive”) and created new musical ideas based on this one idea.
One final note about this work, though some of you will not believe me. Sometimes an idea takes hold of a composer’s imagination so fervently and so completely that you have no choice but to continue writing. The first draft of Four: On a Remix of Beethoven was written in a feverish bout of inspiration from 8:00 a.m. on January 13th, 2015 and was completed at 4:05 a.m. on January 14th, 2015, roughly a 20-hour period. I simply could not stop. I have, of course, gone back and made some minor tweaks, but I would say 95% of that original draft, written in a burst of joy and inspiration, survived my editing. It was a thrilling moment in my compositional career, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the master, whose music continues to inspire and enlighten me to this day.
Listen and follow along with the score below:
There is more information about this piece at Standridge’s website, J. W. Pepper, and the Wind Repertory Project. Of course, you should also listen to Beethoven’s original, presented here with Herbert van Karajan leading the Berlin Philharmonic:
Also, it’s worthwhile to understand that Standridge is not the first to remix Beethoven’s Fifth: