Inaugural music composed here

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  • Kerry Archer of Murphy is very proud of his daughter, Dr. Kimberly Archer, who composed “Fanfare Politeia” for the inauguration ceremony.
    Kerry Archer of Murphy is very proud of his daughter, Dr. Kimberly Archer, who composed “Fanfare Politeia” for the inauguration ceremony.
  • As seen in the video streamed for the event, “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band performs Dr. Kimberly Archer’s “Fanfare Politeia” during the prelude of the 59th Presidential Inauguration.
    As seen in the video streamed for the event, “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band performs Dr. Kimberly Archer’s “Fanfare Politeia” during the prelude of the 59th Presidential Inauguration.
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Murphy played a small role in the pomp and circumstance surrounding the inauguration of President Joe Biden last week in Washington.

While she was visiting her father, Kerry, for the holidays, Dr. Kimberly Archer was asked to compose a fanfare for the ceremony by Col. Jason Fettig, conductor of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band. She is a composer and music professor, while her father is a local church pianist as well as a retired business owner and teacher.

“To have had her here with me in Murphy as she wrote the piece warms my heart,” the elder Archer said.

She had 10 days to write the completed score and all the parts for the individual performers, something that would normally take 6-8 weeks.

“I actually delivered everything in eight days, but it was intense work and not much sleep,” Archer said.

She said being removed from distractions in her Illinois life and having a quiet environment to work in helped.

“My dad’s daily routine is much more spacious than mine is, and that’s always helpful in the creative process,” Archer

said. “In years past, I’ve gone down to the coffee shop across from the movie theater downtown to read and do work.

“I would have liked to this time around –  somehow I do my best work in local coffee shops. But Illinois has tighter restriction for COVID than North Carolina does, and it’s so ingrained in me now that indoor spaces are a risk, I would never have been able to relax.”

She titled the piece “Fanfare Politeia,” saying it celebrates the traditions of a free and fair election, and of a peaceful transfer of power. Politeia is a Greek word used by Plato for political thought.

The 3-minute piece was played by the band at about 10:40 a.m. Jan. 20, as Biden’s motorcade entered the U.S. Capitol grounds.

“It was stunning to hear ‘Fanfare Politeia’ performed today,” Archer said that night. “I knew what the gravitas of the occasion was when I first started writing, of course, but there’s something very different about being present in the moment. …

“Col. Fettig talks about the Marine Band’s playing for the inauguration as ‘providing a soundtrack to history,’ and it felt like that to me, hearing my music as the soundtrack to the arrival of the next president. Also, I have to admit, my first thought when I heard the announcer read my name at the Capitol grounds was, ‘Wow. My dad just heard that.’ ”

Archer, a professor of music composition at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has been working as a composer for about 30 years. She formerly taught music theory and orchestration at Western Carolina University from August 2004 through May 2005 as well as teaching at Bowling Green State University.

Archer met Maj. Ryan Nowlin, who works under Fettig today and first let her know that she would be contacted by him for the honor, when he was a graduate student at Bowling Green. She’s written a few fanfares, which are shorter pieces, but most of her work lately has been in the 20-25-minute range.

“Most of my work is writing for bands of the same size and instrumentation as The President’s Own, although it’s widely accepted that the Marine Band is the best band in the world,” she said. “I very fortunate and humbled that Maj. Nowlin and Col. Fettig trusted me to participate in this historic day, and grateful to have experienced something so powerful and rejuvenating to me personally as an artist.”