Anna Meredith is a composer
and performer of both acoustic and electronic music. Anna's music has
been performed everywhere from the Last Night of the Proms to
flashmob performances in the M6 Services, Soundwave Festival to
London Fashion Week, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to the Ether
Festival, and broadcast on Radio 1, 3, 4 & 6.
She has been Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, RPS/PRS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA, the classical music representative for the 2009 South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and winner of the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.
She has been Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, RPS/PRS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA, the classical music representative for the 2009 South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and winner of the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.
Anna’s string quartet, Songs
for the M8, will be performed at the next LM concert (Saturday 7th July)
by the Ligeti String quartet.
Steve Crowther: Can you describe
the work to us?
Anna Meredith: Songs for the M8
was a commission for the Presences Festival in Paris and premiered by the
Quatuor Renoir – it’s 5x 2min miniatures – each one very much in its own mini
world . The idea behind the piece was a sort of homage the frequent teenage car
journeys me and my friends would make between Edinburgh and Glasgow – along the
M8. As motorways go its pretty
exciting with lots of bit of large scale public art including sheep on a grass
pyramid and a giant face made out of pipes. But to be honest its more about awaking into a different
moment or world from the one before.
SC: Do you write at
the piano, do you pre-plan? Can you describe the compositional process?
AM: I plan
everything out on blank paper first – drawing a big graphic sketch to map out
the contour or pacing of each piece plus any adjectives or moods I’m aiming for
along the way. Then it’s a matter of zooming in to fill in detail – this
working out phase can sometimes be at the piano but more often just striding
about my room singing tunelessly…
SC: Is it important
to know the performers? Do you write with a sound in mind?
AM: I definitely write
with a sound in mind and certain pieces have been very influenced by a
particular performer’s skills and way of playing (obvious example being Shlomo
and the Concerto for Beatboxer) but I also think it can be a good counter to
this to let the material be the most important thing and if you need to write
relentless nightmarish scales or patterns then it can be easier to just be
ambitious with what you want ,accept that players might end up cursing your
name but believe in the effect you’re trying to create.
SC: How would you
describe your individual ‘sound world’?
AM: Guess it depends
from piece to piece. Its amazing how differently people hear the same material
so the same piece might be described as ‘gorgeous’ ‘horrendous’ ‘repetitive’ or
‘complex’. There are definitely
certain scales, chords and rhythms that I find myself coming back to a lot and
the word ‘bombastic’ tends to be used a lot – but not in this piece!
SC: What motivates
you to compose?
AM: On a mundane
level, the most important day to day motivation will be a deadline. Hate them
but can’t live without them! On a more creative level it’s a real mix from
mundane every day objects like car indicators or bits of found text to
something more amorphous like trying to create a certain atmosphere or energy.
SC: Which living
composers do you identify with or simply admire?
AM: Most important
composers to me are my composer friends. Namely, the other members of the
Camberwell Composers Collective – Mark Bowden, Chris Mayo, Emily Hall and
Charlie Piper. Along with a handful of other composer mates they’re the people
I send my pieces or ideas to and are always helpful to bounce ideas around or
just put it all in perspective a bit.
On top of that I’m a massive Gerald Barry fan. I quite often ask young
composer ‘what would Gerald Barry do?’ if stuck on a bit of a piece – he always
surprises me.
SC: If you could have
a beer and a chat with any composer from the past, who would it be and why?
AM: Um, tricky, maybe
Janacek? Looks like he’d have some good stories and be a genuinely interesting
and fun person to share a crispy beer with.
SC: Now for some
desert island discery – please name eight pieces of music you could not be
without, and then select just one.
AM: Lawks. Such a
nightmare as you know you’ll change your mind tomorrow – so for today….:
Sibelius 7th
Symphony
Gerald Barry – Importance of
Being Earnest
Matt Rogers – Specialized
Emily Hall – Befalling
Beethoven – 7th
Symphony
Michael Gordon – Decasia
Messiaen – Quartet for the
End of Time
James Blake – James Blake
Just one is frankly unfair –
maybe the Beethoven?
SC: …and a book?
AM: Loved Cloud Atlas.
SC: Film?
AM: Love a good
sci-fi action bonanza so I reckon it’d have to be District 9.
SC: … and a luxury
item?
AM: I love roller coasters – especially
suspended or flying ones so I’d like some kind of portable ingenious
self-assembling coaster – if you could get onto that that’d be great. Thank
you….
