Andrew Downes - Blog

Andrew Downes - CCA Composer of the Month – DECEMBER 2013

Andrew Downes - CCA Composer of the Month – DECEMBER 2013

Andrew Downes - CCA Composer of the Month – DECEMBER 2013

CCA Composer of the Month – DECEMBER 2013

 

Images top to bottom: Andrew Downes Paula DownesDavid Trippett; Sarah Mondon; Joanne Jefferis then the five YouTube videos of Songs from Spoon River on Paula Downes’ website [accessible by clicking the title here]

 

YOUR FEATURED COMPOSITION(S) OF THE MONTH:

 

Songs of Love and War  Five of my song cycles, filmed and performed by Paula Downes and friends. 

Available on DVD  (price £20) via my website at www.andrewdownes.com.

They can also be viewed as separate short films on YouTube.  The cycles concerned are:

Old Loves’ Domain,

Songs from Spoon River

Lost Love 

Songs of Love &

Finished Fields.

The poetry of two of the cycles (‘Old Loves Domain’ and ‘Lost Love’)  is by Thomas Hardy; that of ‘Songs from Spoon River’ [Rebecca Wasson; Dora Williams; Russian Sonia; Ollie Mcgee & Sarah Brown] is by Edgar Lee Masters; that of ‘Finished Fields’ is by Wilfred Owen, whilst that of ‘Songs of Love’ is by four female poets: Emily DickinsonAnne BradstreetElizabeth Barrett Browning & Eliza Acton.

 

INSTRUMENTAL AND/OR VOCAL RESOURCES USED:

Lost Love is for soprano voice, flute, cello and piano.  All the other cycles are for soprano voice and piano.  The pianist on all cycles is David Trippett.

 

FIRST PERFORMANCE DETAILS – IF RELEVANT:

Old Loves’ Domain - première October 1985 BBC Radio 3 by John Mitchinson (tenor) and Michael Pollock (piano).

Songs from Spoon River  - première in July 1990 BBC Radio 3 by Sarah Walker (mezzo-soprano) and Roger Vignoles (piano).

Lost Love - première in St Columbia Church, Birmingham on March 20th 1978 by Catherine James (soprano), Patricia Bird (recorder), Jean Gubbins (viol da gamba) and David Walters (harpsichord).

Songs of Love - première University Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA on February 1st 2007 by Paula Downes (soprano) and David Trippett (piano).

Finished Fields - première St Mary’s Church, Weymouth, Dorset on November 12th 2008 by Jonathan Pugsley (baritone) and Duncan Honeybourne (piano).

 

PERFORMERS ON YOUR RECORDING – IF RELEVANT:

Lost Love performers are Paula Downes(soprano), Sarah Mondon (flute), Joanne Jefferis (cello) and David Trippett (piano).  All the other cycles have Paula Downes (soprano) and David Trippett (piano).

 

 

OF THE WORK(S) YOU HAVE SELECTED FOR THE COMPOSER OF THE MONTH FEATURE, WHAT WAS THE SOURCE/INSPIRATION/COMMISSION WHICH SET THIS PIECE OR THESE PIECES IN MOTION?

These song cycles have been composed over many years, but they’ve now been brought together in a set of exquisitely crafted films by my daughter Paula Downes.  She went on a film making course in New York, and this certainly bore fruit in the level of professionalism and imaginative interpretation of the songs.  I would love CCA members to see them!

 

WHEN DID YOU FIRST START COMPOSING AND WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PIECE?

I started composing when I was 6 or 7 and wrote my first piece on paper at the age of 8.  It was a little Madrigal type song in 3 parts called It Was a Lover and His Lass.

 

WHO WAS IT THAT FIRST ENCOURAGED YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR INTEREST IN COMPOSING AND HOW DID THEY HELP?

My father showed interest, although as a professional horn player, he didn’t understand how composers work.  When I improvised on the piano to start a piece, he told me I should be practising scales!  I joined a choir called the Midland Boy Singers in 1961, and the couple who ran it, Alvena and Peter Grant, greatly encouraged me to compose vocal/choral pieces for the choir to sing.  We performed one of my pieces      O Magnum Mysterium in 1968 in the Wigmore Hall, London.

 

WHO DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR GREATEST INSPIRATIONS IN TERMS OF THE MAJOR COMPOSERS AND WHICH OF THEIR WORKS HAS INFLUENCED YOU THE MOST AND WHY?

I think the anonymous composers of mediaeval plainsong have influenced me most in terms of their wonderful line and sense of space. Monteverdi, Bach, Brahms, Sibelius and Vaughan Williams are composers who spring to mind because of their passion, energy, sense of line and space and wonderful gift for melody which, for me, is the one essential parameter in music.  I find that without melody, music cannot, for long, communicate with audiences.  I am also strongly influenced by music from other cultures, particularly Raga Sangeet, the music of north India.  Using ragas together with western modal influences enormously extends the range of melodic sound worlds which one can dip into as a composer. I have also, in some works such as New Dawn and Symphony No. 4, been influenced by Native American musical idioms.  However, the greatest influence and inspiration of all over all these years has been my wonderful wife Cynthia who has encouraged me to work through any ‘blockages’ I have in the creative process.  If she doesn’t like something, she tells me, and why, and I always trust her.  She set up our publishing firm Lynwood Music in 1978, and it’s now thriving, selling my music all over the World to Amazon, music shops and individuals.  She’s amazing!  And a very fine viola player to boot!

 

 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD YOUR MUSIC BEFORE?

It’s a style which strives very hard to communicate with people from all backgrounds, whether musical or not. Because of that, it is primarily a melody-based style, together with some strongly defined elements of multi-rhythm, again influenced by medieval European music and Raga Sangeet, as well as some elements of African music. 

 

WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS ORIGINAL IN YOUR MUSIC?

I think the synthesis of ‘Englishness’ and non-western musics together with a passion to communicate. 

 

HOW DO YOU WORK? WHAT METHODS OF CREATIVITY AND WORK ETHIC DO YOU HAVE? DO YOU SOLELY USE MUSICAL TECHNOLOGY OR DO PAPER AND PENCIL STILL FORM A PART OF YOUR PROCESS?

Since being in a wheelchair, I am slower and more cumbersome in a practical sense. However, my methods are much the same as before.  I usually imagine an overall scheme for a piece, which provides a starting point, but otherwise I never stick to it!  Much of my composing or working out goes on in my sleep, I think, because I usually have the next section of the piece composed in my head before starting to write at 8.10am precisely each day.  The music is structured organically, each idea growing out of a previous one, rather like a plant with its branches and sub-branches, each of which can be traced to the main trunk.  I sometimes scribble ideas on paper, but I usually write straight into Sibelius.  I’ve recently moved from the original Sibelius 7, acorn-based from 1995, to the new Sibelius 7 – a major shock to the system!!

 

WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?

I’ve recently completed a commission for the Francis Brett Young Society for a setting of his long poem The Ballad of St Kenelm.  It is due to be performed at three music festivals in 2015.  At the same time I composed a setting of the Jubilate to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Callington Singers in Cornwall.  They commissioned it, and the première took place at Menheniot Parish Church, Cornwall on October 26th this year.  I have now been commissioned by the celebrated girls’ choir Cantamus to compose a setting of DH Lawrence’s poem Butterfly. This is to commemorate the passing of their wonderful founder and conductor Pamela Cook OBE.  The première will take place in Nottingham on July 5th 2014. 

 

 

To finish, who or what is your favourite:

 

GENRE OF MUSIC?

               Romantic opera, Plainsong and Indian music

INSTRUMENTALIST?

               Nikhil Bannerjee (sitarist), my daughter Anna Downes (violin)

SINGER?

               Leontyne Price (soprano)Jussi Björling (tenor), my daughter Paula                        Downes (soprano)

CHAMBER ENSEMBLE?

               Brahms Trio, Prague

ORCHESTRA?

               Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

CONCERT VENUE?

               Dvorak Hall, Prague

PIECE OF MUSIC?

               Bach St Matthew Passion