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I'm a media and stage composer who writes ​music for television, films, and games. I'm ​based in Brooklyn, NY but am originally from ​Missouri. I’m always looking to showcase ​music and artists from the midwest, either ​through incorporating their performances in ​my work or just chatting about music. I am ​always open to collaboration, regardless of ​where you're from!

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The Rapture - An odd little duet with prose by Mel Hornyak

Victoria - A conceptual dance piece written with Spencer Lawson

NYU GMTWP Year II and Art Politics

Caleb Conaway, September 16, 2024

Whoops, I forgot to post on this blog for a year. I was, in all fairness, pretty busy! Grad school’ll do that. I come back to give some updates and then my ​slightly manifesto-y perspective on art. But first, a discussion about the first year at NYU’s graduate musical theatre program.

Thoughts on my first year in GMTWP and on collaboration

Wow, that was hectic.

I was incredibly busy. In the first year, composers have a music tutorial, led by our composition faculty and guest composers, where we discuss how music ​functions in theatre. However, the program’s main focus isn't on learning new music theory—it's about working with dozens of different people and learning ​how to create effective art together.

Every two weeks, you're paired with a new collaborator and given an assignment. Together, you might adapt an existing piece of media for musical theatre or ​write something entirely new. After your initial presentation, you receive feedback from faculty and peers, then a week later, you're expected to rewrite. This ​means that while you're working on a brand-new piece with this week's collaborator, you're also revising last month's project.

With additional assignments for other classes, including writing a song a week for music tutorial and Composer-Lyricist seminar, along with extra ​opportunities and collaborations, my schedule was pretty packed.

One important lesson I learned is how critical it is to set clear expectations with collaborators. I always want to give my partner as much time as possible to ​craft lyrics or scenes they’re proud of, but when that stretches too long, it cuts into my time to write the music. Instead of pulling all-nighters to write an ​"Opus" right before the deadline, I’ve gotten comfortable showing something half-finished.

I’ve also learned how vital it is to communicate my limitations. For example: “If I’m only given two days to write music, I may not have time to teach it to a ​singer, so I’ll have to perform it myself.” This either motivates my collaborator to get things to me earlier ‘cause they don’t want to hear my high soprano ​range or prepares them for the type of work we’ll be presenting. Either way, it takes some of the pressure off me and makes collaborations go a little more ​smoothly.

I think it’s easy to get so wrapped up in wanting to show something good that you hold yourself and others to a standard of perfectionism that constricts ​fun and play. I always try to create a space for people I work with to bring something imperfect to our meetings. The fun part is figuring it out through ​making mistakes and bad choices together. When it gets less fun is when you both treat a draft of a song like it’s life-or-death. There are always revisions ​and future drafts, but relationships can be fragile. Collaborators should treat each other with kindness and grace, or why else would you want to write with ​someone?

Current projects

I got so good at collaboration I’m doing two theses (ha ha)! This is atypical, usually you only do one, but it just worked out that I get to do two incredibly ​different projects with some wonderfully talented book writer-lyricists. The pieces are in early stages, so I can’t say too much, but I’ll try to give a brief ​description. I’m working on a piece about teacher unionization with Simon Lansberg-Rodriguez (link to the puppet show we wrote together for class). I’m ​also composing music and cowriting lyrics with Spencer Lawson for our adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles. We’re ​adapting the story to be set in rural South Carolina in the 1950s, reimagining Dr. Watson as a black woman and our protagonist.

Outside of the program, I’m working on a piece about fringe conspiracy theories, which has led me to research a whole bunch of anti-vaxxer nonsense, ​incel blackpill crap, and hollow earth theory. I’m also arranging and MD-ing for a 54 Below show, I Like It Like That 30th Anniversary Concert, for October ​18th. I’m super lucky I get to adapt some pretty amazing music from latin artists in the 90s to a live performance. You can get tickets here!

What a 24 year old thinks about art

Ok, I am wading into a debate that is common in Art History and Political Science spaces: is all art political? And while no one asked for my opinion, here ​are my two cents:

Art without anything to say is just a product. Abstract artists may disagree with me, but the distinction for me is that abstract art often reflects back on ​the viewer to attach their own meaning, whereas media that’s made without an intention to say something or to be interpreted doesn’t qualify as art.

In political science and sociology courses, we often discuss political theorists like Hannah Arendt who put forward the argument that every action is ​political. I think that some of the examples used to support this claim easily fall into tautology, but I generally agree. I don’t think that everyone is aware of ​their actions as political, but that their actions are political nonetheless.

As artists, what we do is a political act. Some artists I know come from privilege and can pursue their art with a safety net. I know artists who had to fight ​tooth and nail to make their art. Both of these are examples of people acting politically. Our choice to make art is informed by our ideologies and our ​societal circumstances, therefore much of the art we make is also informed by those things.

Therefore, I think when we make art from the self, from our understanding of who we are, we usually have something to say. With any project I approach, I ​am really aware of what message I want to send and how it fits into our current politics.

Switching over to talking about AI: AI-generated products don’t come from a sense of self or an ideology. Sure, you could argue that a person who uses ​CHAT-GPT to make a book acts politically when they formulate the commands they give the language model. But the line-to-line decision-making, the ​actual process of generating the book is done without ideology or perspective. Media made this way goes beyond a “tool in an artists toolbox” once it ​removes all the artists’ decision-making in process and generates a soulless, artless, apolitical product.

Yes, there are nuances, yes, this is a blanket statement, yes, there are creative uses of AI. The vast majority of AI generated “art” don’t fall into the ​“nuanced, creative” category.

Wrap up

I hope this year that I make good art. But beyond that, I hope I make art that is meaningful. I also hope you like it! See ya.

Caleb

A NOTE ON CRITIQUES AND SECOND OPINIONS

When it comes to getting feedback on your work, it's important to remember that you're not in this alone. I mean, sure, you're a genius and all, but even geniuses need a second opinion sometimes. Otherwise, you might end up in a weird little bubble where you're the only one who thinks your ideas are amazing.

It’s also important to show your piece to different people. I showed the song to composers and writers I know, and I also showed it to my mom. My mom liked the lyrics, but she pointed out that the original strings and drums I’d written for the piece were too peppy and plinky - it didn’t match the tone of the piece. She was right! She’s not a musician, but non-musicians are who you want to appreciate your music if you want to make it accessible, and that was definitely the goal with my piece.

Never take a critique personally! So, take those critiques with a grain of salt, but also with an open mind. And if you approach every interaction with the assumption that the other person has good intentions, you'll be less likely to want to tell them to take a hike. Their goal is not to hurt your feelings, but to make your piece as good as it can possibly be! If you approach all interactions, both professionally and personally, assuming the other has the best intentions, it makes it much easier to stay level-headed and not have your feelings hurt.

ART

I reached out to a graphic designer friend of mine, Jack Fagan, to do the art for this piece. Jack is talented and has a really playful, goofy side that I wanted him to bring out in this artwork. I think he achieved it perfectly. Follow him on instagram at (@mhost_of_gob_barley)

This weekend, I attended NYU’s graduate musical theatre writing applicant’s weekend virtually on zoom. I was paired with two people, Susan Li and Athena Regis, to write a scene song based on one of ten prompts. The one we chose was “this was one of those times lying was justified.” This is the song:

Sheet Music

Level-setting.

We were divided into our roles. I was the composer, Susan was the lyricist, and Athena was the book-writer.

We decided that we should not give suggestions to one another unless directly asked to. That’s because we wanted to preserve our unique creative identities within the work. For example, if Susan wrote the lyrics and told me “…and I was thinking it should go like this,” then hummed a melody, I would never get that tune out of my head and would write something that didn’t necessarily come from me.

We also set a timeline. One brainstorming session, Friday night, the night we got paired, and three meetings Saturday, each with a different goal. I’ll detail those meetings throughout the post.

Brainstorming (7pm-9pm)

We brainstormed a couple concepts, including:

1. A teacher runs into a student at a grocery store that says she changed their life. She doesn’t remember who he is but pretends she does.
   
2. A first date that’s not actually a first date: only one of them thinks it’s a date.
   
3. A parent gives a child advice on how to make a relationship work through white lies.
   

Originally, the song was intended to be a comedic and have a “sweet” moment. We thought the third idea would fit this goal best.

Since I wasn’t in charge of the plot, Athena and Susan brainstormed more while I fiddled at the piano and wrote some motifs for what a “sweet moment” might sound like. I also made dinner and watched some TV!

When I checked, the plot had changed. No longer was a father giving advice, he and his daughter were keeping secrets from each other because the don’t want to hurt one another.

Athena plotted some of the emotional beats and Susan thought of some good lines. It seemed like everything was going well, so I went to bed because it was later for me than it was for them.

Theme-writing and Melody (8am-10am)

When I woke up the next day, just about all the lyrics to the song were done. The plot had changed a bit, and it was no longer a super comedic scene, it was more of a dramatic duet with a touch of comedy and a little sweetness. This called for a ballad.

I wrote a melody lead sheet and plugged in chords. This was the scariest part of the process because I could’ve gone in any direction. Infinite choices are debilitating. But sometimes, you just have to make choices and stick with them in order to avoid creative paralysis. If it sucks, you can just redo it later. But a lot of the time, your creative instincts don’t suck!

First, I wrote the melody for the chorus. Duet-writing is tricky, and the choruses have to sound satisfying and purposeful. I traded the melody between the two singers, gave them a line where they moved in different directions to show the growing distance between them, then brought them to octave unison on “close your heart, it all goes away” - the mantra that informs both their actions. I saved writing the final chorus till when I had more of the song mapped out because I knew it had to stick out.

Then, I mapped out the verses, because I wanted them to slightly contrast each other. When Hazel (the daughter) sings, she has a downward-moving motif. When Martin (the father) sing, his motif goes upward. They also have certain beats they have to hit that had to be emphasized, like when it’s revealed that Martin thinks of Hazel’s boyfriend as a “sonuvab***h.” I made sure to note those moments to leave space around them when I wrote the piano part. Throughout, I used melodic material from the chorus to inform my choices in the verses.

Much of the pre chorus and bridge writing went the same. I tried, when reaching a new verse, chorus, or pre-chorus not to copy and paste the what I did in the previous verse, chorus, or pre-chorus. I tried to keep things fresh by expanding on some melodic ideas or varying some rhythms and harmonies.

This is what I showed to my collaborative partners at our first meeting. They liked it and told me they wanted some breaks to intersperse dialogue. I also brought up some possible lyrics changes for singability and rhythm.

Instrument writing and refinement (10am-12pm)

For the next hour-and-a-half, I wrote the piano part. This was my favorite part of the process because I love chord voicing and writing rhythmic piano parts. Since it was a ballad, I really leaned into lush, full chord voicings. However, I had to create dynamic contrast and a build throughout the piece, as well as infuse the piece with tension. I relied on sus chords, whose character is neither major or minor, in early parts of the piece to insert a feeling of ambiguity. I also tried to keep the early part of the piece fairly open, with chords remaining sparse and rhythmic lines less busy.

I knew I wanted a pedal tone in the chorus, the driving “E” that gets played almost every beat that sits as the tonal “home” of the piece. Not only does this increase rhythmic information, making the chorus more exciting, there is symbolic meaning in never quite leaving “home.” I waited till the final chorus to start using the real low parts of the piano. I wanted to create a really big, strong sound there.

I showed this at our next meeting, I had yet to write an intro or any vamps for dialogue, and was given some lyrics to change.

Final touches (12pm-3pm)

Susan changed some lyrics to create variety within the choruses and I created space for dialogue. Then, Athena mentioned that she wanted Hazel to sing a little in the introductory dialogue, so I had to figure out an intro and where the song should start.

I wrote a sweet, bright intro based on the chorus that begins off of the cue “How was prom?” And plugged in the dialogue. In our final meeting, we reviewed all out materials, made sure they all matched, and then I got ready to record.

I had originally wanted to add drums, base, and some strings, but then thought that a good piece doesn’t really need much more than a melody and some piano to sell itself. If you’re proud of what you wrote, there’s no reason to cover it up with anything. My philosophy is that production should never outshine the words and melodies you wrote, and you don’t want to seem like you’re compensating for poor lyrics or melodies with tons of different parts. So I stuck with piano and vocals.

Recording (8pm-10pm)

I had reached out to a current NYU GMTW student, Paige Menneci, who had volunteered to sing for people’s projects. I recorded the piano, myself singing (and poorly acting), and sent a demo and sheet music.

She got to it at 9:30 my time, sent me a recording around 9:45, and it blew my socks off. She’s that good.

Production (10pm - 12am)

I played with some differently-produced versions of this song, showed my collaborative partners, then called it at midnight. I went straight to bed.

What Do You Do?

Caleb Conaway, February 1, 2023

When we first meet someone, the question "what do you do?" is often one of the first things we ask. Now, let's be real, this isn't just a casual chat starter, it's code for "what do you do for a living?" It's a sneaky way for folks to size up whether you're rich or broke, interesting or boring, and whether you have any common interests. Basically, it's all about judging a book by its cover, or in this case, judging a person by their 9-to-5.

However, I'm not a fan of this question. I've held many jobs, such as an educator, food server, graduate student, youth pastor, and more, but none of these define who I am entirely.

I find joy in writing music, acting, singing karaoke, playing trivia, running, reading, analyzing data, and more. I value spending time with family and friends, expressing love to my partner, and going to church. My W-4 doesn't fully capture who I am.