Breaking Down the Walls - Composers and Performers Collaborate

So, it's Tuesday evening and I'm pretty tired.  I should be in bed, but it's Pancake Day and I just had to pop around my friend's for some sweet fillings.  Being in university full-time seems quite odd, especially as I'm usually only in on a Tuesday and Wednesday for a couple of hours most weeks – and this is a week in which I'm finalising an arrangement for a Jonathan   concert at All Souls Langham Place.  I spent a total of ten hours composing music yesterday, and something similar so far today.

But all is well, as the creative process has been entirely worth it.  We've been inspired by a set of songs written for string quartet by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet: a batch of pieces inspired by the so-called 'Juliet Letters', which are relatively poppy and conservative in style.  No sul pont. or any extramusical effects here – more a crossover between a batch of Haydn and Mozart quartets and a poppy arrangement for a rock artist.  Their originality, however, is in the use of the string quartet as a sole accompaniment to such a unique artist as Costello.  His (at times almost Dylanesque) voice provides part of that crossover magic, making its case for blending with its 300-year-old backline.  And while the pieces seem so conservative at first glance, their poetical beauty and melodic effortlessness provoke me to surrender and just enjoy such a fine batch of songs.

For me, part of the challenge of this project is that whole barrier that exists in western culture between the composer and the performer – traditionally, the composer writes and the performer plays the piece, but Colab, our conservatoire's new and daring annual collaboration project, knocks down the wall and puts the performer at the heart of the compositional process.  This makes my job all the more difficult – in this context, surely my job becomes much less important.  Fears of simply being forced to transcribe ideas for five days loom in my mind.

It was not to be.  Today, we started penning some ideas down.  Words were scribbled on the whiteboard from a Metro newspaper, rhythms strewn across some manuscript paper, chords being tried out before being notated in Sibelius, and a barrage of experimental 'cello effects trying to imitate the sounds of a Docklands Light Railway train with great success.

The compositional process, so far, has been exhilarating.  It is completely understandable why great composers such as Benjamin Britten, spent so much time with instrumentalists and singers while writing his pieces.  He wanted to understand every facet of each instruments' timbal, lyrical, and technical facility.  It's the meeting of each other's knowledge that really provides a great melting pot of compositional ideas.  I threw up an idea for a syncopated train-like rhythm which I suggested we move across the quartet from the 'cello up to the first violin, and before I knew it, chords were being tried out, automatically falling into an A sus chord using mainly open strings col legno.  One of the string players suggested starting off slowly and speeding up just like a train would, and another suggested the 'cello make a 'doors opening' Tube sound.  The meeting of of all our different experiences and knowledge was beginning to create a strong batch of ideas.

So far, I have learned that this is essential to modern composition – performers should be encouraged to explore their compositional abilities much more, and composers and performers should collaborate much more frequently than they generally do, especially in a conservatoire context, as these relationships tend to form the professional relationships which provide the foundation of our careers – but more than that, they provide the basis of creative connections which will inspire new and great music for the next generation of music-lovers.  I can't wait to see what we produce by the end of this week, and further down the road, I am looking forward to writing much more with performers rather than just for them.

2013 Goals

Well, I haven't written on here in a while, but I'm doing that naff short-lived thing, of making a goal to write more in 2013 on the 1st of January, only to relapse and not write on the 2nd of January …  But here I am, nonetheless.  I've partly been inspired by my composer-friend Caitlin Rawley, whose blog post points out an assortment of goals for the coming year.  I kind of like her 2012 bullet-point style blog post for goals for the year, but I'm sure I'll end up failing to meet most of them.  Oh well, worth a try!  'Aim for the moon, and if you miss, you'll be among the stars': isn't that a famous saying?

MUSIC

• My 'five a day'.  Four hours of composing and one hour of piano a day.  That seems about right.  Let the Pareto principle come into play.  I'm always spreading myself too thin by doing allsorts of different things, and it's about time I knuckle down and focus on two things: composing and pianoing (not a word, but has a nice 'ring' (in the laizzes vibrer sense, obviously) to it).  This may seem lots to some people and little to others – but doing this every day is the key, not just doing ten hours on one day a week …  
• Finish writing a musical with my lyricist and librettist friend Adrian and try our best to get it performed, published, storm the West End, get a film made, release the soundtrack, make a couple of million or two (am I already being unrealistic … ?).  
• Aim to have ten compositions performed in or outside of music college.  I figure that this might be quite ambitious, but this could be a solo piano piece or a string quartet, rather than just a large chamber ensemble.  I'm going to aim for ten and see what happens …  
• Pass my piano diploma.  I really need to do this.  I'm hoping to learn all the pieces to a good standard, put on a piano solo recital, and then take the exam.  Hopefully it will help if I need to get any peripatetic teaching work, and also, it just gives me a goal to practice for.  
• Make an album.  No stuffy contemporary-classical stuff.  Something that people want to listen to.  Either something with a bit of a groove, or some relaxing solo piano stuff.  Just something low budget but good fun.  
• Write more regularly on this Blogger page so that I can write down some more of my more ridiculous musicings.  

LIFESTYLE

• Seven-and-a-half hours sleep and no more.  Just as it says on the tin.  I've read that I don't need any more than this, so why should I sleep any more than this?  It's fairly ridiculous and lazy not to.  I'm sure I'll see my productivity increase if I stick to this.  
• Move to north London.  I'm sure there's a gang after me in south London – I've had paint thrown at me.  No.  More.  Paint.  
• Bake more.  I'm going to bake twelve recipes across the year.  
• Eat less junk food.  I am such a tray-baker.  Throw some oven-cooked food in a baking tray, bang it in the oven, and I'm done.  Eugh!  This has to end.  Time to cook some GOOD food.  Let's start small: twelve good main course meals to be made from a good recipe book throughout the year.  

THINKING OF OTHERS

• E-mail/text/call people back.  I'm sure lots of people have this problem, where they read something sent by someone and don't respond.  I go through bouts of dealing with this, and then other times when I completely fail.  I need to get a system in place to deal with this, e.g. flagging read e-mails that I need to respond to etc.  I will get this right one day …  I promise …  
• Give more, take less.  I have great friends that give so much.  It's time to give more and be there more for others.  It could mean baking a cake when a friend invites me around their house or something similar.  Just making a bit more effort.  
• Don't get complacent with family.  It's so easy to take from parents and not give back, and the same goes for other family members too.  I just hope that the point above will apply to the way I treat family too. 
• Hands-on charity.  I'm becoming increasingly fed-up of bureaucratic charities which waste my money on calling me back to ask for more.  I want to do some more hands-on charity.  I'm thinking of making my charitable goal for 2013 of spending £100 on food to give to the homeless on the streets of London, and perhaps encouraging a friend to join me.  Knowing me, I'll end up in a hospital somewhere, penniless, clutching to a pile of Big Issues.  

Ta-da!  I think that's enough for now.  I've also posted a blog post on my church music blog page, which has some interesting thoughts on how I can develop music in the church I work at as Director of Music.  I'm looking forward to 2013 – and I'm looking forward to it even more now that I've got some things to look forward to striving towards.  Have a very happy new year!