Last year, composer Owen Meldon, an OH alum, sat at his desk and decided to create a new piece of music. Meldon was working on his senior recital at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when he shifted his focus to create something new to relieve stress.
“I spent the three days after my recital just de-stressing, detoxing myself, and just writing a band piece,” Meldon said. “I was bored in my apartment, and I was messing around on my keyboard, plunking up random things.”
The plunking then turned into Meldon’s award-winning piece, “Circlesong.” The OH Wind ensemble premiered “Circlesong” at their spring concert in full circle fashion on May 6.
“I ended up writing the first little thing that became the genesis of this piece…I was drawing circles with my hands [to] think about [the] melodic contours,” Meldon said.
The song reflects Meldon’s trials and errors between his last recital, as the circles represent creating a draft, then returning to the beginning.
“‘Circlesong’ feels like a very motivational piece to me. It’s all about going in circles, yet somehow it is able to build upon such a simple motif and create a feeling that I can only describe as some sort of euphoria,” said OH senior Harley Engdahl. “All in all, the piece takes you through a journey of trial and error, introducing more ideas and more tension, until the goal has been met.”
Apart from “Circle Song,” Meldon has created many projects in different musical mediums. From orchestral to modern, Meldon has attempted it all.
Over the COVID-19 quarantine, Meldon created two albums named “Professor Quigley” in 2020 and “Professor Quigley 2” in 2022. The music ranges from experimental electronic and techno sounds in songs like “!llus!on,” and slower ballads like “Mad As A March Hare.”
“Both of these albums are just products of their time. Especially the first album, [which] was all because of COVID,” Meldon said, “Both of my albums, I’m proud of just existing period, because I spent countless hours, nights, and other people put in time and effort into them.”
Meldon’s style of music caught the attention of many as his cover of Elton John’s “Bennie And The Jets” has garnered over 15K streams on Spotify.
“Would I do it again? Maybe. I’m not saying no, [but] now [his musical talents] are calling for something else,” said Meldon. “Making [band] pieces are few and far between, especially around here, and that’s my niche.”
Meldon is one of the only band composers in the Oswegoland area who has been viewed as beneficial for Wind Ensemble members, as it provides exposure to them in the field.
“It is cool to see how [Meldon] went from a high school student to a successful composer in our community. Working with any guest artist or composer is always beneficial to a band because it allows us to get feedback from a professional who has spent a long time studying music,” said junior Leah Nachtigall.
Through Meldon’s visiting Wind Ensemble, students got a glimpse of how pieces are composed and created in real time.
“You don’t have to have the whole song written at once. When Meldon was writing this song, the first part he wrote was the percussion part,” said junior Gabriel Velazquez. “Just put what’s on your mind on the paper and see what it turns out to be, you never know where it’ll go.”
Meldon’s music continues to impact and move both musicians and listeners. He tells a story in every project he creates.
“I might look at [the albums] 10 years down the line and go, ‘that was undeniably me’…[and] I feel like [that’s] true for everything.”
Hi I'm Chayse! I'm a Senior at OHS and this is my first year on the 42Fifty team. When I'm not at school, I participate in activities such as BIONIC, Commotion, SOTC, and many various Honor Societies! You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
