Kamille Austin's Composition, "Take the Field"

WILBERFORCE, OH - Central State University junior honors student Kamille Austin is a Music Education major from Cincinnati, Ohio. She chose CSU because of its location and because the school was interested in her as whole student. She said the school gave her a full ride between volleyball, band, and academics. She is a member of the Honors College, a member of the Invincible Marching Marauders, a member of the Robeson Chamber Winds, a drum major, a recipient of the About Love Beyonce Scholarship, and a previous volleyball team member. She has been on the Dean's List, participated in honors recitals for music majors, was elected as a CSU drum major, and received one of the Music Department’s highest awards for her composition of the work, “Take the Field.”

Austin composed the musical piece as part of an in-course honors project under the supervision of Professor Hal Melia. Below is her explanation of her most recent composition:

“Take the Field,” is the title of my spring semester honors project, but what could be described as a ‘simple title,’ has so much value to its name. “Take the Field” is a classical composition that I transcribed for a saxophone quintet, orchestra, and in the future, a symphonic band. For the fun of it, I might even transcribe it for a full orchestra (band and orchestral instruments combined). My first goal for “Take the Field” was to create a saxophone quintet that could potentially get performed on stage in the Small Robeson Auditorium. The inspiration for this work started when my classmate Marvin and I were in our evening marching band class during the fall semester. The band was holding a concert F to see how our intonation was, and Marvin then played a concert A♭ on top of that F, making the sound of a minor 3rd. That was all I needed to hear for my brain to elaborate and write up a score that I felt embodied the difficulties of combat.

Being a busy college student, I went into my music notation software Note flight and created the project template. I basically just added an F-minor chord so that several weeks into the future, if I heard it, my idea would then pop up in my head and come back to me, and that is exactly what happened. In the middle of the spring semester, war had started between Russia and Ukraine. Now, I am not into social media, but I do have a news app that keeps me updated on global issues. I read these articles to know what is going on. I saw the photos of children being separated from their fathers and grandfathers, innocent civilians covered in blood, holding one of their eyes that was injured by the bomb that had just struck, buildings destroyed from brutal invasions from the Russian army, and there was so much more that I could never finish explaining. I would not say that the war between Russia and Ukraine inspired me, but I would say that the tension gave me reason and capability. It gave me a way to express how I would feel if I had to take the field and fight for my life – even in this era where the last I had heard of an actual war breaking out was in my high school history class.

Although I like my entire composition, I have a few spots that I would like to highlight. The 5/4-time signature section where the tempo picks up is the thrill and hustle of the piece (2:00). Also, the section where each instrument has 8th notes sounding at the same time is where I was trying to imitate what I thought crying instruments sounded like (1:27 and 4:40). Lastly, I like how I ended the piece because I chose to finish with the pure sound of an inverted major 9 chord, symbolizing hope and having faith that things will optimistically play out in our favor.

When people ask me who my biggest musical or artistic influences are, they think I am going to say someone famous, but my biggest artistic influences are my classmates right here at Central State and my amazing and talented professors that I strive to learn from every day. What makes me a better musician is being completely vulnerable and learning to become a better person while accepting myself in all aspects. Everything else – the inspiration, the drive, the skill, comes on its own. That is what motivates me to write, play and teach.

Like I stated previously, “Take the Field” was meant to be orchestrated, but ended up getting transcribed for saxophone, but all versions that I have created and will create will be equally okay, but don’t tell my other transcriptions that the orchestral version is my favorite. I hope that when you listen to “Take the Field”, you can feel the imagery that I was trying to instill. If not, when you listen, imagine your own take on it. It is your freedom of expression.