Le Mars composer makes musical notes come alive

David Moore, of Le Mars, composes music for full concert bands along with smaller ensemble selections. Moore, also a band instructor, will begin teaching fifth through 12th grades in Marcus this fall. [Click to enlarge]

David Moore began writing melodies as a teenager.

"I started dabbling when I was in high school just kind of messing around," the Le Mars man said. "I actually did a couple of arrangements for my jazz band experimenting a little bit."

Since then, a band instructor by day, Moore has composed full concert band and smaller solo, piano and ensemble pieces.

His music varies from soft, flowing piano waves to the crescendo of brass.

Moore's first piece published was in 1996. It was a Spanish-style full concert band piece.

"I wrote that for my students at Gehlen (Catholic School)," Moore said. "That was my first teaching job."

After spending the last nine years as a band instructor in Homer, Neb., Moore will begin teaching fifth through 12th graders at Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Schools in Marcus this fall.

But Moore, owner of Moore Music Publishing, will continue to compose and arrange music most of which he does during the summer and school breaks.

Writing music has changed since he started in the mid-1980s when he used pen and paper.

"When I was in high school, software wasn't very advanced back then," Moore said. "It was quicker and simpler to do it by hand."

Now, he said, a lot of the work doesn't have to be written because it is detailed through the computer, which saves time for the composer.

"Anybody can be published because you can make your own music look like the stuff that comes from the big publishing houses," Moore said. "It's become so easy and so prevalent."

But it's not that easy to please the audience.

Moore said he has two types of musical works he has successfully published throughout the years.

About half of them have been ones he just wanted to write that fit a certain niche and the others have been selections he's been commissioned to do in a specific style for a designated group.

Moore's music ranges in levels of difficulty from that suited for high school concert band to selections geared toward professionals.

For example, Moore composed "Small Town Sketches" for the Le Mars Municipal Band's 100th anniversary in 2006.

"That piece was difficult because it was for my peers, but I knew the strengths of the band because I have been playing in it so long," Moore said. "There are few high school bands that could play that piece."

One level of difficulty Moore has yet to breach is to compose music for beginning players.

"It's a lot more challenging than it appears on the surface because there are so many limitations that to come up with something that really hasn't been done before or sounds unique in some way is very challenging, but I would like to try that as my next attempt -- if there is a next attempt," Moore said.

The type of work he is composing or arranging, which is taking another writer's ideas and changing the style of the music, determines how Moore goes about writing.

Sometimes he gets a melody in his head, other times he searches for ideas or he may find a chord progression or a series of harmonies that sound good.

"I don't typically just start with a blank sheet," he said. "I have to have an idea of a structure or a form."

But there are times when he's just sitting at the piano messing around and something comes out that he likes.

"There's no one way I write," Moore said. "I guess whatever suits the piece or the situation."

Along with composing his own music, he also does music typesetting, where he does all the computer work for somebody else.

"I'll work for other publishers," Moore said. "They send me the music and I'll write it. It's sort of a sidebar to my writing."

For Moore, the process of composing music isn't always fun or easy, but the results are worth it.

"I like reaping the benefits of having written a piece and seeing it being enjoyed by kids or students by musicians and by the audience," Moore said. "To me that's probably why I do it more than anything else."

The one thing Moore wants people to realize is that not all composers are dead. Many like him are out there today trying to make a name for themselves.

"It's just like any other industry," Moore said. "Finding your niche and getting in with the right people and maybe getting discovered."

Moore said he will continue writing music something his wife, Kathy, said is "very exciting and makes him a very interesting person."

"It's kind of comforting to know that some of my music that I've written a long time ago, by my career standards, is still out there and it's still being played," Moore said. "If I write one piece that has an opportunity to be played by people and it's enjoyed, then that's successful."