Gregory Joseph Menillo

This month we are featuring Gregory Joseph Menillo as our Composer of the Month. Read below for his bio and short description on “Epitaph,” Menillo’s quintet that we performed back in June.

Gregory Joseph Menillo is a composer and conductor based in New York. He completed a bachelor’s degree in Music Theory and Composition at New York University, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Music Composition at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Gregory is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, where he teaches harmony, counterpoint, and sight-singing.

“I like to think of Epitaph as more of a piece for wind quintet than wind quintet proper. The piece was written for members of the Argento Ensemble in 2011, through the auspices of the Queens College New Music Group, for a concert of new works at the CUNY Graduate Center. Since the ensemble was assembled specifically for the occasion and didn’t have the experience of playing together as one finds in established quintets, I decided not to write the kind of multi-movement work which treats the instruments in the usual way. Starting from the knowledge that the intended performers typically play together in a larger ensemble, I began to think more orchestrally. I began sketching a series of five-part chords in different inversions, which suggested the idea of blending the various instrumental colors in interesting ways. This was a particular challenge considering the diverse dynamic profiles and timbres of the five instruments, and it forced me to compose somewhat differently. The chorale which opens the work came first, and it is the backbone of the entire piece. A very short melody in the horn is heard soon after, and the remainder of the work is largely an attempt to reconcile this interjection with the opening chorale, which returns consistently throughout in different guises.

The title occurred to me after I had completed the piece, which was on November 2nd, the liturgical holiday of All Souls Day. This coincidence influenced me to hear what I had just written as a kind of abstract narrative akin to that of the mind processing grief. I now hear the work as a meditation on grief, perhaps touching upon some of the different shades of emotion we experience as we come to terms with death and attempt to rationalize it within the framework of our existence.”