01Jul 2025 by Luke McGinnis

There is a God – Music

James Quitman Mulholland
Professor Emeritus at the School of Music at the Jordan College of the Arts, Butler University

My quest for beauty in life began rather early. Of course, the beauty of music, but also the beauty of literature, (poetry). I was an only child; my home was in Laurel Mississippi, (also the home of great soprano and friend Leontyne Price). For entertainment most evenings, my Father quoted poetry and my Mother played the piano and sang. I had a strong boy-soprano voice and soon I began joining in, and at nine began studying voice and piano. I memorized Dad’s favorite poems by rote. At twelve, I began studying composition with a young composer who returned to his home in Laurel after suffering a nervous breakdown while working on his doctorate. He was a “God-send” to me musically. I’ve oft been asked when did I first begin my love for music. I’ve responded that the question is tantamount to asking me when I first began loving my Mother. She, like music, was always there nurturing me with belonging, comfort, and fulfillment, holding me with love.

On the advent of my ninetieth year on this earth, I’ve come to believe that music is the sixth sense. We can live without any of the senses, (sight, sound, taste, touch, and scent), not as happy or content, but we can survive. The same with music, we can live without it, but what a void it would leave in our lives. In addition, music serves as an aphrodisiac for all the other senses.

I visited a friend in Hollywood, a composer who had a movie being screened for which he wrote the music. There were back to back showings with invited guest to see the film with a simple questionnaire to be filled out at the end of the movie. Eighty percent from the first showing gave it a “thumbs down”. I didn’t particularly like the film either. Shortly, they ushered in another audience to see the film. Ninety percent of this audience said the movie was great. What was the difference in the two showings? The first showing was without my friend’s music. I instantly recognized the difference, but still was completely blown away at the difference it made. The poet Heinrich Heine said, “When words can express no more, music begins.”

I feel the text in choral music is sometimes deemphasized, (abused). The poem is the mother of the music. Text should not be treated as an invited guest. The text rules, regardless of all other musical accoutrements. Sometimes, it sounds as if the text is not allowed to get in the way of the music. There’s a simple solution, compose instrumental music. When music becomes the “onomatopoeia” of the text, what a magnificent beauty. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” – Keats.

Inspire yourself with daily knowledge. A philosopher said, “Growing old is mandatory, growing wise is optional.” To be personal, having written over 600 works, I write four hours every day. Last year I finished a two hundred page published memoir and this year (‘24), a three hundred page novel. I’ve rearranged my ”Red, Red Rose” a cappella for my ninetieth birthday that will be premiered by the University of Southern Mississippi Chorale, directed by Greg Fuller and the MENC Honor Choir, guest director, Lynne Gackle in January, ’25).

In the future, find me sitting under a huge oak tree, writing, as I listen to the beginning of the 4th movement of Brahms’ 1st Symphony. I see a mature magnolia tree in full bloom standing next to a withering tree with a wisteria vine that o’er the years has wrapped its sinewy arms all the way to the top, bursting with hanging odiferous opulence. Birds are winging from tree to tree in competition with the Brahms. My two loved ones are sitting on either side of me as the French horn makes its entrance in the Brahms with the most beautiful melody ever written, soaring through this visage – This is enough! This is my sermon. There is a God! Music!

About the author

James Quitman Mulholland

James Mulholland, one of the most published, performed, and commissioned composers/arrangers of his generation, creates three passions – music, text, and life. Children’s choirs, high school ensembles, choral associations, and universities throughout the world regularly perform and commission his choral music. Since 1995, he has received and completed 200 commissions. Over his career, he has written over six hundred compositions. Besides his personal writing, he accepts approximately twelve commissions a year, in addition to his schedule of clinics, workshops, and conventions, while maintaining his primary duties as Professor of Music at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. James continues to inspire countless singers around the globe with his mastery of the compositional craft.

In 1996, he received the Raymond W. Brock Commission, awarded by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). In 1994 he was named Louisiana State University School of Music’s Alumni of the Year. A Dissertation by James David Spillane: “All-State Choral Music; A Comprehensive Study of the Music Selected of the High School Honor Choirs of the Fifty States,” appendix A lists the top five most programmed composers as Handel, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mulholland, and Mozart. He has been awarded the State of Indiana’s highest honor, “Sagamore of the Wabash” and the State of Indiana’s“Outstanding Hoosier.” He has also received Butler University’s Medal of Honor. In addition, he has had three doctoral dissertations written about his music: at Florida State University, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Arizona.

“I started singing at a very early age as a boy soprano and studying voice and piano. Singing and tinkering around on the piano was my greatest joy – particularly, making up my own little pieces. I began studying composition at age twelve, with an outstanding composer. I always wanted to make my own music. I found my greatest love was creating, not interpreting.”

“My Father was a brilliant man – a philosopher – and he had one of the most incredible photographic minds I have ever known. He had literally, hundreds of poems from the British Isles committed to memory. I grew up at his feet mesmerized as he eloquently quoted these great minds and poems. He had a poem and a quotation for every occasion. My Mother was a schoolteacher, who played the piano, and she was always humming or singing, regardless of the occasion. As a result, I grew up with two loves, literature and music. From my earliest memories, music and prose were a part of my daily life and I was in awe of it. As I grew older, I realized in vocal music you could combine these two great art forms. They are equal – poetry and music.”

True to Mulholland’s Irish heritage, his music is influenced by the British Isles’ school of lyricism, which emphasizes the beauty of melody and text. Although he studied twelve-tone row, minimalism, and all the avant-garde techniques, these genres did not satisfy him, they were not his “voice.” His aesthetic is very Romantic. Through his music, he desires to share the beauty of the great poets and give them the recognition and appreciation they deserve. Heinrich Heine, the great German poet said, “When words can express no more, music begins.”