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Looking at music in a score is one thing, hearing it come to life is quite another - especially when it’s a piece you have written yourself. One of spnm's key activities over the last 50 years has been to give emerging composers the opportunity of hearing their music performed by professional musicians with feedback from an established composer. Even such prominent figures as James MacMillan never forget their first experience: "I can remember the first time I heard professional players performing a piece of mine in an spnm workshop at Musica Nova in 1979. It was a great experience, not just hearing what I could do with a handful of instruments, but also finding out in the long term what wasn't going to work. It is such a marvellous experience hearing something come alive, something which was just an imagined sound in the head, and then notes on the paper, taking on musical sonic flesh." 20 years on and the tables are turned. James MacMIllan is leading an spnm workshop with the Britten Sinfonia and Jean Rigby based on his ensemble piece, Raising Sparks. Four composers' works, using the same forces as Raising Sparks – flute, clarinet, piano, harp, string quartet and mezzo-soprano – have been selected and it will be interesting to see how each tackles writing for the voice. For James MacMillan it wasn't so much a challenge as an inspiration: "There is so much in the contemporary music vocal repertoire recently which has worked against the natural lyricism of the voice. That's not a criticism, it's just a statement of fact. But for me that goes against the whole point of the human voice, which is to link its musical utterances with a deep human universality. The idea of song and story telling through song has always been important to me, not just in the Celtic tradition, but in other traditions. There's nothing Celtic about Raising Sparks, but it does tell a story and to have clouded that story in music that was abstract and separated from human instincts would have been unnatural. So it was back to lyrical lines and the basic instincts of song." However the four composers choose to approach this challenge and whatever the results, it's the feedback they receive from those involved in the workshop that's of paramount importance: "It's a great responsibility. You can be a very important influence for a young composer. I certainly remember Stephen Montague who led the first spnm workshop I attended. His comments were very helpful, encouraging, and critical where they needed to be, and I learned a lot. I know some composers can be over critical, sometimes devastatingly critical at these kinds of events. Some people can cope with this and have it in them to take this on board, but others don’t. So it’s a question of moulding your remarks and your approach to the individual concerned and treating them as a human." James MacMillan has been taught and influenced by a wide range of composers
– or as he puts it, he was "a bit of a sponge". The big
question was how to take on board this often powerful influence and still
find a way to carve his own voice: So what advice does he have for these composers who are about to hear their work for the first time: "I hope they get the excitement of hearing their work performed by expert players and a fantastic singer and that the experience will live with them and inspire them. I hope they will use it as a learning experience. It is a prize in itself to have their piece chosen in this way. But to put the glory aside and to see the importance of absorbing as much information which they can use to build on their skills. To have public performances by professional players at an early stage is something that lives with you for the rest of your career." James MacMillan was interviewed by Kate Jones. For full details of this event see the listing on March 18. The monthly listings magazine new
notes is essential reading for composers, performers, and everyone
interested in what's new in new music. In its printed version new notes
reaches over 5,000 contemporary music enthusiasts in the UK and around
the world. |
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