Composer of the Month: Philip Cashian

Philip Cashian's music has been commissioned, performed and broadcast worldwide - recent performances have included the Ojai Festival (California), Musikmonat (Basle), Cleveland Performing Arts Series, the St.Paul Chamber Orchestra, BCMG, Aldeburgh Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the BBC Proms as well as performances in Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Holland, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand and China. Philip Cashian’s Dark Inventions will be performed by the ensemble Dark Inventions at the next Late Music concert, Saturday 2^nd May at the National for Centre for Early Music.

Steve Crowther: Can you describe the work to us?

Philip Cashian: It’s in five sections; the first is a solo for alto flute, the second, waves of minimalistic-like textures, the next section is a low line that slowly rises, growing all the time, then a cello and piano duo and finally a dark coda built around the amazing sound of a low 5 octave marimba.

SC: Do you write at the piano, do you pre-plan? Can you describe the compositional process?

PC: I write mainly at the piano but, since Gary Carpenter told me about Wallander Note Performer (which is superb), increasingly also on the computer using playback. I pre-plan to the extent that I know the overall feel and character of a piece - like a snapshot- before starting it. I accumulate lots of sketches and fragments before actually starting to write. I hate scratching around for ideas once I’m writing a piece.

SC: Is it important to know the performers? Do you write with a sound in mind?

PC: I’m writing a piano concerto for my friend Huw Watkins at the moment. If it was for another pianist the piece would be completely different. Of course once the piece is written any pianist could perform it but thinking about Huw’s playing whilst I’m writing it directly affects the choices I’m making. Yes, I always write with a sound in mind.

SC: How would you describe your individual ‘sound world’?

PC: Last year I had a review in Tempo magazine for the recent House of Night CD and there’s a paragraph which I think describes my music very well: Several Cashian hallmarks emerge in the course of this CD: bold melodic gestures for instruments in unison; a kind of 'broken machine' texture in which uneven rhythms lumber almost out of control; motor rhythm sections pointing up a relationship with minimalism; and contemplative passages, akin to Morton Feldman, in which musical objects are carefully placed in 'static fields'. Above all there is a brisk intelligence behind the music, unsentimental certainly, but never arid.

SC: What motivates you to compose?

PC: That’s very difficult to answer. I’ve accumulated lots of ideas that I want to hear and articulate in all sorts of different ways and contexts. Also, trying to correct the errors I can hear in previous pieces. I can’t not compose - which I can’t explain.

SC: Which living composers do you identify with or simply admire?

PC: Harrison Birtwistle

SC: If you could have a beer and a chat with any composer from the past, who would it be and why?

PC: Stravinsky, do I really need to explain why?

SC: Now for some desert island discery – please name eight pieces of music you could not be without, and then select just one.

PC: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, Birtwistle: Silbury Air, Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, Sibelius: Symphony No. 5, Schubert: Death and the Maiden Quartet, Bach: Goldberg Variations, Ligeti: Violin Concerto, Radiohead: Kid A (the whole album)

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

SC: …and a book?

PC: Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children

SC: …a film?

PC: Pulp Fiction

SC: … and a luxury item?

PC: an iPhone 

Late Music 2015 featured composer: Judith Weir

Judith Weir's interests in narrative, folklore and theatre have found expression in a broad range of musical invention. She is the composer and librettist of several widely performed operas whose diverse sources include Icelandic sagas, Chinese Yuan Dynasty drama and German Romanticism. Folk music from the British Isles and beyond has influenced her music for solo instruments, and she has had strong links with performers from non-classical traditions.

In July 2014 she was appointed to the 388-year old royal post of Master of the Queen’s Music, in succession to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Judith Weir’s music will be programmed throughout the concert series, with a new piece being premiered by the Albany Trio on Saturday 6^th June.

Steve Crowther: Can you describe your music to us?

Judith Weir: I’d say the musical events in it are clear, but it’s not simple. I enjoy fast tempi and rhythmic subtlety. The character/world of the instrument or the voice is something I try to emphasise; I like virtuosic energy, the sense of the instrument or voice doing what it’s really built to do.

SC: Do you write at the piano, do you pre-plan? Can you describe the compositional process?

JW: Conceptual thinking (it can be very vague at first) is important – in the back of my mind I’m asking myself some questions about why I’m writing the piece, for what outcome. I start sketching – just scribbling really. Somehow this activity clears my mind, I start to concentrate and after a while I can see which material will be useful or important in the piece. After that I might start building up lengths of melody or chords to form a short section of the composition. When I get to this point I do need to use the piano a bit to check pitches. From here onwards I write many more versions of the material which have progressively more detail in them.

SC: Is it important to know the performers? Do you write with a sound in mind? What motivates you to compose?

JW: Knowing the performer is my great motivation. That person’s sound, their approach and the brief they have given me (even if unintentionally) is my clue to creating the music. Music for me is a live activity, a social gathering and I feel my job as a composer is to facilitate that, as a colleague to both performers and listeners.

SC: Which living composers do you identify with or simply admire?

JW: I listen reasonably widely and often – I get sent and given a lot of music, I like to keep up with music by my friends and ex-students or people I’ve recently encountered – so it is a constantly changing diet, not based on any particular contemporary figures or movements/tendencies.

SC: If you could have a beer and a chat with any composer from the past, who would it be and why?

JW: I don’t get the impression that many of these people were friendly beer-drinking types. At present I’d appreciate talking to Bartok – ask him about the maths in his music, and his experiences as a folk-music collector.

SC: Now for some desert island discery – please name eight pieces of music you could not be without, and then select just one.

JW: Picking eight titles would cause me an endless crisis of comparison. Cutting to the chase, the ‘just one’ is the St Matthew Passion.

SC: …and a book?

JW: You would want a fairly long book, so perhaps Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec.

SC: …a film?

JW: Something singalong I think, so maybe Everyone Says I Love You, the Woody Allen musical.

SC: … and a luxury item?

JW: A well-stocked deli.

Launch Day programme: Steve Crowther in conversation with David Power

Steve Crowther: David, you have programmed a launch day for the 2015 Late Music concert series which will take place at the Unitarian church in St Saviourgate on Saturday 28^th February 2015. What can we expect from this day?

David Power: The day will comprise two events. A lunchtime concert at 1pm by Sounds lyrical and an evening multi-media event at 7pm by the Vestiges group. Both events are free and there will be wine, juice and nibbles. The idea is that Late Music followers can come along to a relaxed environment, meet their friends at the start of the new season, have a drink – or two! - and hear and see a variety of interesting work.

Steve Crowther: What can we expect from the Sounds lyrical lunchtime concert?

Well, Sounds Lyrical is a group of local poets and composers that I formed a couple of years ago. They are myself, David Lancaster, Tim brooks and Peter Byrom-Smith (composers) and Alan Gillott, Rose Drew, Lizzi Linklater and Andy Humphrey (poets). The idea is that the poets and composers work together to create new songs and these songs are then performed in both concert settings and at poetry events. The poet reads their poem and then this is followed immediately by a performance of the composer’s setting of that poem. In this concert we will be presenting 5 Sounds lyrical pieces this way. We will also be playing songs by Britten, Schubert, Gershwin, Kurt Weill and Gerald Finzi so it will be a fascinating and varied lunchtime concert.

The performers are Josephine Peach (piano) and the excellent young baritone Ben Lindley. The concert is free and starts at the Unitarian Church in St Saviousgate at 1pm on Saturday 28^th February.

For more about Sounds Lyrical, please visit http://www.soundslyricalproject.org.uk/

Steve Crowther: In the evening of the Launch Day, we have a multi media performance by Vestiges. What can we expect from that?

Vestiges is a combination of music, art and film. The music is a joint seven track pre-recorded composition by myself and David Lancaster. My contribution is eight short two track electronic pieces which are relatively dramatic in character and are played through speakers on the stage pointing out to the audience. They are punctuated by silences, sometimes of several minutes. David Lancaster’s piece is a five track work, more ambient in character and more continuous. We now have wireless speakers for David’s music so there are all sorts of new options as to where we can place these. The duration of this overall piece is variable but, in the Late Music launch day concert, we will play it for about 40 minutes.

The art will be by Linda Ingham. We are still working on the film as our usual film contributor – Annabel McCourt - isn’t available.

The Vestiges performance will be topped and tailed by piano music played by Edward Caine. These will be extracts of pieces that can be heard later in the 2015 Late Music Series so they form ‘tasters’ of what is to come, so to speak, and will include music by Schoenberg, Messiaen and Ligeti.

For more about Vestiges, please visit http://vestigesofspirituality.com/

Steve Crowther: How did Sounds Lyrical and Vestiges come into being.

I got the idea for Sounds Lyrical at a Late Music ‘song day’ a few years ago. I approached some composers and poets and told them my idea. After some discussion, we were up and running. Shortly afterwards, we did a guest spot at the Ryedale Book Festival to a markedly larger audience than we could have expected for a contemporary music concert and our work was very well received. We knew then that we were onto something and it went from there. Last year we got an Arts Council grant to do 4 concerts at the Basement at City Screen plus a one hour radio show on Leeds East FM. The next Basement concert, by the way, is on Thursday 5^th March.

Vestiges came about through discussions between Annabel McCourt and myself. Annabel is a very gifted film maker whose work ranges from gritty social realist work with hard-to-reach people right through to art house work. I have supplied music for the soundtracks of a number of Annabel’s short films but we had never conceived a project together from scratch. For Vestiges, we wanted to do multi-media work in churches. We got a grant and undertook a short tour of northern English churches presented Vestiges. It went very well and, in total, just over 3,000 people came

Steve Crowther: What are the advantages for a composer of working collaboratively with artists in other art forms?

I have found that I really enjoy collaborative work. The different artists bring such different ideas and different perspectives. Sounds Lyrical and Vestiges have stimulated me to write some of my best music to date. I also find collaborative work attracts markedly larger audiences than I am used to when performed in contemporary music concerts and it is very gratifying to have my music appreciated by larger audiences who do not have a specific interest in contemporary classical music.

Composer of the month: Eve Harrison

“A sensitive and refined imagination” Eve’s music features in Michael Hall’s forthcoming book British Music Theatre. John Casken and Anthony Gilbert supervised her MusB (Hons) and MMus respectively. Eve’s critically acclaimed chamber opera Hera’s List toured to Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2012 and she was awarded first prize at Heriot Watt Composer Competition. Shapeshifters was premièred by the Hebrides Ensemble as part of the prestigious composers’ course at St Magnus International Festival, Orkney in 2013. Recent commissions include National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Big Noise - Sistema Scotland, Durham Brass Festival and Phoenix Clarinet Quartet with vocal sculptor Jason Singh (PRSF). Eve co-directs performer and composer collective Sounds of the Engine House who recently toured the north of England, co-produced by Sound and Music. Her new piece of music theatre, commissioned by the Bridgewater Hall, was part of this touring programme of music by living composers. This year, in collaboration with BREAD Arts, Eve was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta as part of Blue Touch Paper to develop an engaging piece of contemporary music and light artwork that invites an audience to interact and participate using their smartphone.

In addition to her own composition Eve is a passionate educator and leads composition and song writing workshops for Opera North’s Youth Company, In Harmony Liverpool, Manchester Camerata and Yorkshire Young Musicians, amongst others. She is also a keen trumpet player, performing both orchestrally and with Balkan Stomp band The Rubber Duck Orchestra.

www.eveharrison.co.uk

Eve Harrison’s New Work will be premiered by the Ebor Singers, conductor Paul Gameson, at the next Late Music concert, Saturday 4^th October.

Steve Crowther: Can you describe the work to us?

And Now, Exhale… responds to an evocative text by my collaborator Bruce Arthur and has inspired a colourful palette of vocal textures and resonances to heighten the poets’ response to an experience with nature. When discussing his text Bruce describes a huge sense of relief  and unburdening whilst walking along the coast in Sunderland. I'd like to find some of that lightness in contrast to the dark and percussive weight of an oppressive figurative and literal ocean. I hope to provide the audience an immersive and spacial journey, bringing to life both the emotional and aural sensations captured in the text.

SC: Do you write at the piano, do you pre-plan? Can you describe the compositional process?

EH: I usually plan an harmonic outline, often graphically representing dramatic tension and texture. I’ll do some work at the piano during this stage until I’ve established my framework then work away from the piano, writing by hand at first and once I feel I have a good grasp of my material I’ll move to notating on Sibelius.

SC: Is it important to know the performers? Do you write with a sound in mind?

EH: I think it’s extremely important to be familiar with the skills and strengths of the performers to get the most out of the opportunity to write for them and to give them the opportunity to communicate what you’ve written. In addition, as a trumpet player, I’ve always valued enjoying playing the music put in front of me and this stays with me when composing, but there are always exceptions…

SC: How would you describe your individual ‘sound world’?

EH: I’m interested in colours/timbre, spacial placing of sound, modes,  transcribing birdsong and the phoenetic sound of text, non-Western rhythmic patterns and harmonic fields. I find it a difficult thing to describe so here are some words that other people have used:

“witty” “vivid” “imaginative” “impressive instrumental colours and dramatic pacing” “meticulous”

SC: What motivates you to compose?

EH: As a child I painted and worked with clay a lot: my dad is an abstract artist and I think I soaked up that kind of experimentation and curiosity in building layers. There is something of this in my love of composing. I also love telling stories but am not very good at doing so verbally! Through music I have a way and this comes through increasingly in both my vocal and instrumental writing.

SC: Which living composers do you identify with or simply admire?

EH: Harrison Birtwistle, Charlotte Bray, Mira Calix, Gary Carpenter, Anthony Gilbert, Roger Marsh, Anna Meredith, Matthew Sergeant, my colleagues at Sounds of the Engine House Steven Jackson and Ben Gaunt and numerous others whose names escape me at this particular moment.

SC: If you could have a beer and a chat with any composer from the past, who would it be and why?

EH: I’d probably be absolutely terrified but it would have to be Olivier Messiaen. His work with birdsong and instrumental colour have been extremely influential in my development as a composer. Chaser with Ligeti please...

SC: Now for some desert island discery – please name eight pieces of music you could not be without, and then select just one.

EH: Messiaen - Chronochromie for large orchestra

Ligeti - String Quartet No. 2

Lutoslawski - Grave for cello and piano

Birtwistle - Punch and Judy

Toru Takemitsu - Rain Tree Sketch II

Ravi Shankar/Alla Rakka - Three Ragas

Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring

Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire

Tricky to choose but I'll go for the Takemitsu!

SC: …and a book?:

EH: Haruki Murakami: The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

SC: …a film?

EH: Persepolis

SC: … and a luxury item?

EH: Decent coffee and associated paraphernalia please!

Composer of the month: James Williamson

James Williamson studied composition at the University of Huddersfield and Royal Academy of Music and is now working towards a PhD in Composition at the University of York. He has had performances and collaborations with ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, CoMA London, Aurora Orchestra, Galliard Ensemble, Croation Philharmonic Orchestra, Österreichischen Symphoniker, Rhodri Davies, Barry Webb and Franko Bozac. He was commended for his Aurora Orchestra commission Chamber Concerto for the RAM Eric Coate’s Composition Prize. James won the inaugural Lunar Saxophone Quartet New Music Award in December 2007 with his piece In Memoriam. This piece is recorded on the LSQ’s album ‘Flux’ and was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction. Franko Bozac and the Österreichischen Symphoniker recently performed James’ accordion concerto The Hole of Horcum in their most recent “International Series” season, in Linz. The concerto has recently been broadcast on Radio 3 Belgrade, Serbia.For more info visit: jameswilliamsoncomposer.wordpress.com

James Williamson's Staten Crossing I-VIII will be premiered by Delta Saxophone Quartet at the next Late Music concert, Saturday 6th September.

Steve Crowther: Can you describe the work to us?

James Williamson: I visited New York with my wife for the first time just after Christmas this year, as I was best man for a friends wedding in Central Park. I’ve always been fascinated with buildings and structures (perhaps because my dad was a builder) and I was in ore and overwhelmed by these magnificent skyscrapers around me. We did lots of touristy things including taking the Staten Island Ferry to get a chance to see the Statue of Liberty. One thing that struck me as we left the dock from Manhattan was that these huge structures that dominated us as we walked next to them, and could only see an aspect of, suddenly came to full view and complexity. Equally on the return, as we approached Manhattan, these buildings grew like giants. It was this play of perspective that inspired the piece and its title.

I am increasingly interested in creating small fragments or cells and using to these to create pieces with longer durations (although this piece is only about 5 minutes). Therefore the piece has eight movements, which are basically a set of variations based on one simple melodic phrase that you will hear in the very first movement.
SC: Do you write at the piano, do you pre-plan? Can you describe the compositional process?

JW:I guess my compositional process changes every time I start a new piece and I must say, that I find composing a very difficult process. Sometimes I’ll have a strong sense of what the piece will sound like in the end, which can be a luxury as the piece can come together very quickly allowing me to get on with next project. However more often than not, I’ll start and have no idea where it is going. This can be extremely frustrating at times as its like getting blood out of a stone. I usually start be improvising on my old out-of-tune upright piano to work out chords and melodies etc. I can spend hours and hours doing this. Once I’ve got my ideas in place (melody, sonority, discourse etc), usually on a couple of sheets of A3 manuscript, I tend to work through them using the manuscript like an artist would use a palette (not to sound too cheesy) to start sketching out the piece. Once I’ve written out the piece in full by hand and whack it on Sibelius and then try and iron out the creases and get a very rough idea of how it might sound, using a lot of imagination.
SC: Is it important to know the performers? Do you write with a sound in mind?

JW: I don’t think it’s necessary to know the performers but it certainly helps. The more you can work closely and collaborate with the performer the better the piece you can potentially write. It can be a great learning curve for both parties as you can learn from each other’s strengths. If I am lucky enough to write for a particular ensemble or soloist, I do try and write with the sound in mind. A good example of this was working with a fantastic accordionist friend of mine Franko Bozac on my accordion concerto ‘The Hole of Horcum’. In the pre-compositional process we sat for hours in rehearsal rooms exploring the instrument and trying to get as much out of the instrument as possible and learning that it’s such a versatile instrument. In the end I managed to write a piece that really shows of the performer and the instrument by only using simple techniques that are actually very “simple” to play but sound incredibly difficult and complex to the listener.
SC: How would you describe your individual ‘sound world’?

JW: I always find this question very hard to answer when asked as I think my pieces tend to change each time. However, there is one running theme, which is ‘static’. My pieces, particularly more recently (although a couple of odd ones from the past) tend to circulate within their own harmonic and rhythmic juices and don’t really go anywhere in a traditional teleological manner of guiding a listener toward particular points of climax. This doesn’t really answer the question of sound, but I think it gives an idea – I think I’ll leave this question and rather let the listener decide. I guess it’s often easier to look in from the outside rather than in from the inside (that makes sense in my head). One critic described my music as “rich and sexy”, so I think I will go with that…

SC: What motivates you to compose?

JW: I ask myself this question everyday. As I said earlier, I find composing really difficult at times, but I think what really motivates me is when I hear the piece being performed in concert, it gives me real buzz. I also like the idea of leaving some sort of legacy behind and that me music will (hopefully) outlive me and continue to live on. This is what I find fascinating about buildings, that someone has built this amazing structure and years later it is still standing, living, breathing and being used, just like my dad’s buildings do to this day.

SC: Which living composers do you identify with or simply admire?

JW: Whilst at Huddersfield University, composer Bryn Harrison gave a seminar about his music and I was hooked. I was so intrigued by his music and philosophies, I asked him for a few lessons when I had finished my studies and he was very happy to oblige. So I had a few lessons for a year before I went on to the Royal Academy. I learnt so much in such a short time and I am still thinking about these lessons today. I should probably mention Salvatore Sciarrino too, I love his music. His sound world is so beautiful and unique, it’s like a living organism.  

SC: If you could have a beer and a chat with any composer from the past, who would it be and why?

JW: Morton Feldman. We’d probably have a cigar too. I’d like to think we’d hang out in a trendy New York loft or some dingy bar somewhere, maybe start off in the bar. I love his music and take great inspiration from him. I’ve just finished reading his collected writings and lectures “Give my regards to Eighth Street”, he has such a great sense of humor and a sense of what music and art is about, and I find his digs against Boulez very amusing (I should say that I like Boulez).

SC: Now for some desert island discery – please name eight pieces of music you could not be without, and then select just one.

JW: Toughy, there are many but at the moment –

Miles Davis - ‘So What’

Gregory Porter - ‘No Love Dying’

Faure - ‘Lebera me’ (the baritone solo from his ‘Requiem’)

Feldman ‘String Quartet no.2’

Enno Poppe ‘Kielshrift’

Sciarrino ‘Lo Spazio Inverso’

Elton John ‘Your Song’ (Ellie Goulding version as this was my first dance at my wedding)

Dowland – ‘Flow, My Tears’

As a romantic (my wife would disagree, haha) I would choose ‘Your Song’. I imagine being deserted on an Island would be pretty tough, so I would like to be reminded of that happy time and that would get me through.

SC: …and a book?

JW: "The Hundred year old man who jumped out of the window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson. A very funny read! Although I might be inclined to take a recent purchase of a John Cage collected writings and lectures book. If I’m stranded for long enough I may start to understand what on earth he is on about.

SC: …a film?
JW: The Goonies. "Goonies Never say die!"
SC: ...and a luxury item?
JW: A tuned!! piano. As well as being able to write music, I might be able to learn to play it properly too.