|
CCA Composer of the Month – OCTOBER 2013
YOUR FEATURED COMPOSITION(S) OF THE MONTH:
[Click on the titles below to access the recording links]
Threnody & Invocations to Archangels
INSTRUMENTAL AND/OR VOCAL RESOURCES USED:
Threnody: bass clarinet, piano, percussion, cello.
Invocations to Archangels: SATB a cappella
FIRST PERFORMANCE DETAILS – IF RELEVANT:
Threnody: Zwolle Conservatory, Netherlands, 1996.
Invocations to Archangels: Leicester, 2004.
PERFORMERS ON YOUR RECORDING – IF RELEVANT:
Threnody: Students from Zwolle Conservatory & Birmingham Conservatoire
Invocations to Archangels: Kingfisher Chorale, cond. Giles Turner.
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?
Threnody. My time since becoming conscious of a desire to compose, before and during my Conservatoire years, was hugely taken up with exploring vast oceans of music by composers I hadn´t known about. Giacinto Scelsi was one of those. His extraordinary project to open up single notes I found at the time to be truly fascinating. Naturally I had to try my hand: Threnody was the result, which seems to have acquired a meaningful life . . .
Invocations to Archangels. SPNM send out an invitation for pieces to be included in a recital by the Orlando Consort (counter-tenor, 2 tenors & baritone) in a Wren Church in London. The Orlandos were looking to expand their usual early music repertoire. The remit included some allusion to the Orlandos ´home´ music. As it happens, that Wren Church was at the time hosting an exhibition by an Eastern European painter whose theme was angels. So, after deciding to move to the higher angelic level (!), researching, then writing the text, I allowed memories of Josquin des Pres to wander around the back of my head as I composed the piece (I used to play a lot of early music). SPNM didn´t like it - they never were on the ball as far as I was concerned - but the Orlandos loved it, took it to Dartington where they were teaching that summer, and premiered it in the closing concert. Later, BBCr3 broadcast it. Later still, I made a choral version for the Kingfisher Chorale, which I prefer, musically and philosophically (archangels are held to be responsible for whole tracts of time and humanity, whereas angels look after individuals). Here are my words for it:
Uriel, Uriel, Uriel, Fire of God,
Aid us at our waking and at our rising up:
Fill us with your fire that we may face our day
And live our lives, Uriel.
Gabriel, O messenger, O man of God,
Flow through us at the noontide
That we may feel, and hope.
Ah, Gabriel,
As you protect all sleeping babes
Nurture with your loving care
Our unawakened selves, O Gabriel, Gabriel.
Angel of the spirit of Man, namèd ´God heals´,
Mediate at our eventides (Raphael, Raphael)
Resting from our journey.
Raphael, help us as we strive
To weigh up day and night,
To balance all our lives.
O Raphael, breathe into us,
O Raphael, the healing breath of God.
Míchäel, Míchäel,
Leader of the Heavenly hosts,
Guardian of the faithful,
Be with us at our sleeping.
Míchäel, in this your era, grant us dreams
That we may wake to use our thoughts
With wisdom and with care,
In harmony with all humanity.
Archangels, Archangels,
With all your angel hosts,
Your healing work through us
That we may dedicate our lives in this sad world,
To healing hates and fears.
Archangels.
WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD PROGRAMME NOTE FOR THIS WORK (OR THESE WORKS) WHICH EXPLAINS THE STRUCTURE, USE OF MELODY AND HARMONY AND ANY TECHNICAL POINTS RELATED TO THE PERFORMERS?
Any programme note advancing technical matters is in my opinion a bad programme note: why, I contend, should composers feel that the structures of their music require verbal expounding? That was the (in my view) risible stratagem of the priests of high modernism and their followers, who realised, whether they admitted it or not, that they had lost the plot with listeners. That was in the 1950s/60s, and still appears occasionally. It really speaks to an overly intellectual approach to composition, hence is quite properly DEAD.
What to write in a programme note is a vexed question, as we know. I tend to the side preferring to tell a story: what inspired the work; is there a story in the music; what specific influences were driving it. Hence the programme notes I would produce are already indicated above - though perhaps leaving out some of the references to SPNM.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST START COMPOSING AND WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PIECE?
In my mid-forties during a period of redundancy, and while recovering from severe mental trauma (a break-through, actually). First piece worthy of still recollecting was a small ABA form piano piece celebrating the birth of a friends baby: ´An Air for Little Olga´
WHO WAS IT THAT FIRST ENCOURAGED YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR INTEREST IN COMPOSING AND HOW DID THEY HELP?
Friend & colleague Mike Bardsley, harpsichordist, at that time Head of Music at Chipping Norton School. He looked at some trivial try-out pieces for the instruments I then played, and cryptically said "You should continue!". It was enough. Composer and Holst scholar Raymond Head, another friend, not long after gave a valuable critique on a more ambitious composition. There were encouragements from several ´names´ later, including John Joubert and Jonathan Harvey.
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?
There is an entire trajectory through my life of the composers and their works I have encountered, in various ways, and the influences so derived. It is not possible to make a ´once-for-all´ choice: it´s history - a single choice, or even a group choice, would be misleading. I was asked recently who was my favourite composer. After a mental run-through of the many I could ascribe meaningfulness to, I realised there was only one possible answer: me! If anyone wants to know, a list of influences (at c.8years ago) is in Chapter 2 of my Dissertation, which can be found on my website.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD YOUR MUSIC BEFORE?
I may say [assuming a prior conversation to understand the persons general experience of what kinds of musics] "for you it is a tabula rasa. You do not have a suitable ´template´ in your musical understanding which my music can be fitted to. Your only recourse is to listen with open mind, not expecting anything familiar, and listen again, and then again. Comprehension will come - and hopefully appreciation." Anybody wanting instant gratification, is lost, IMO!
WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS ORIGINAL IN YOUR MUSIC?
The short answer is ´that which erupts´, whatever that may imply. The long answer is not possible in words, because as Mendelssohn remarked, words are far less precise than music, and I refuse musical analysis: that´s for academics and those who have no musical soul. Curious how the movement of the word ´original´ from it´s meaning of origin, what came first (the original human, Adam, etc) to currently implying ´new´ or ´unexisting prior to´ has actually in the context of artistic creation completed a full circle, implying ´this creation has origins no other has´ - or that is so asserted.
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?
The ego must be set aside, or the work will not be worth anything: long practice has resulted in a species of instant meditation where the intellect is still available to provide the craft element, but is not dominant. Paper & pencil in the morning, the score making software in the afternoon. I DO NOT compose on the piano (as Berlioz did not), or with the use of any musical technology except the score software.
WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
A fourth string quartet, initiated by a dream. May include Himalayan singing bowls as a complementary, quasi solo part. [If I had good recordings of earlier string quartets, one of them would have been chosen as featured composition - rather bad luck on that front, unfortunately.]
A project to create a CD of three of my string quartets (not room for all four) awaits so far denied funding.
Also a book, but that has no direct connexion with music.
TO FINISH, WHO OR WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE:
GENRE OF MUSIC?
Can´t choose: changes chronologically and geographically. Could say ´mine´, though appreciation of Indian classical forms seems abiding.
INSTRUMENTALIST?
Pablo Casals
SINGER?
Changes with mood and age: Wendy Nieper mostly these days (or Marion Griffin). As for dead singers: Maria Cebotari, Torok Erzsi, Maria Tanase.
CONDUCTOR?
Steven Lloyd-Gonzalez
CHAMBER ENSEMBLE?
Different ones for different musics: a large and vexed subject.
ORCHESTRA?
Possibly the one I happen to be listening to (with a great number of exclusions). Of course all the old great ones, with their greatest conductors.
CONCERT VENUE?
Again, horses for courses.
PIECE OF MUSIC
Quel horreaux! far too many to attempt a choice: too many variables. At risk of apparently excluding many works from all ages, I suspect I will never give up going back to the Beethoven last quartets.