Steve
Crowther: Can
you tell us something of your background?
Nicola
LeFanu: I was born in Essex, but I
am not a typical ‘Essex girl’ because my parents were both Irish. My father was
a librarian (there are a lot of literary LeFanus) and my mother was the
composer Elizabeth Maconchy.
SC: Can you
describe String Quartet no4. to us?
NL: String Quartet no4 is pretty short – about nine
minutes – but its economy makes it quite intense. I wrote it in June in the
high Pyrenees and I really enjoyed composing it! It was inspired by a poem by
the Russian Andrei Voznesensky – ‘with the open eyes of their dead
fathers/towards other worlds they gaze ahead/children who..’
SC: Do you write at the piano,
do you pre-plan? Can you describe the compositional process?
NL:
I write at the piano and/or my desk; then I go to the computer and there is a
revising and editing stage as I put the piece into Finale. Yes, I do pre-plan,
though with luck the music takes over and shapes the plan anew.
SC: Is it important to know the performers? Do you write with a sound in mind?
SC: Is it important to know the performers? Do you write with a sound in mind?
NL:
I always prefer to know who will be performing and write for them – character
and sound; and also where – the audience and the acoustic for the premiere
concert make a difference; though it is always the hope (and usually the case!)
that the new work will be performed many times and in many places.
I
have known the Bingham string quartet since the nineteen eighties, when they
recorded four of the Maconchy quartets for CD.
SC: How would you describe your
individual ‘sound world’?
NL: I
usually say ‘lyrical and dramatic’, but I don’t know if that is helpful…
SC: What motivates you to compose?
NL:
I always want to… it is what I like doing best, even though it can be
maddening, elusive..and always hard work. But always worth it.
SC: Which living composers do
you identify with or simply admire?
NL:
I probably have most in common with the New Zealand composer Gillian Whitehead;
not least, we share an addiction to composing opera. But as to British living
composers, I still admire Birtwistle very much and there are a number of
younger composers whose music I like, and try and keep up with.
SC: If you could have a beer
and a chat with any composer from the past, who would it be and why?
NL:
Holst, because my father said talking to Holst made you feel more alive.
SC: Now for some desert island
discery – please name eight pieces of music you could not be without, and then
select just one.
NL:
Living composers is too difficult to choose, though that’s what I listen to most..
For
composers from the past, the list might change a bit day to day, but right now,
it is:
Bach
– Goldberg Variations; Mozart – The Marriage of Figaro; Beethoven - Csharp
minor string quartet op131; Schubert – Quintet in C for strings; Schumann - Dichterliebe (or Liederkreis!);
Janacek – Katya Kabanova; Stravinsky – Petrushka; Maconchy – The Land , suite
for orchestra.
Stravinsky
– Petrushka is the one.
SC: …and a book?
NL: Thackeray,
Vanity Fair
SC: …a film?
NL:
a Buster Keaton - could be ‘The General’
but I do love ‘Neighbours’.
SC: … and a luxury item?
NL:
Black chocolates
