Composer, Kerry Andrew, is a lass with many different musical hats. At the weekend, Tiggerlion introduced us to her by posting a review of Keld, her fine new album as You are Wolf. This is Kerry as an avant-folk singer, with a repertoire comprising old songs and her own compositions. Tuneful, mysterious, evocative. Very moreish it is too.
I was fascinated to learn more about her.
Singer, radio DJ, journalist. novelist, composer: I was particularly interested to hear some of the stuff she had written for choirs. She works a lot with schoolkids, with some thrilling results.Those works must be great fun to sing. Just listen to her “Who we are” performed at the Royal Albert Hall. Invigorating!
A slight detour, but I can’t help but be reminded of David Bedford back in the early 70s. Primarily an avant-garde composer, he got called in to arrange some strings for Kevin Ayers and ended up playing in the band, The Whole World, alongside Lol Coxhill and Mike Oldfield. He went on to work more with both of them. Oldfield must have been a useful contact and Lol was a wonderful bloke. Bedford also did a lot of music for kids and was rather fond of the kazoo.
Lots of different hats, lots of different pots: the modern composer has to be very entrepreneurial. Not many of them have been able to support themselves full time from writing music and perhaps many are all too happy to do some performing on the side.
Such is life for many classical musicians, Our neighbour is a professional cellist and she gets all kinds of gigs. La La Land live. A classical concert. A wedding. Strings for a pop band like First Aid Kit on the Skavlan chat show. Etc.
So, this is a thread about life as a modern composer, not to mention the unexpected bits of moonlighting they have to do to help pay the bills. I would be very keen to hear about your favourites. Preferably those who are still composing rather than decomposing. (Ouch! Sorry!!)
Here’s a surprise. Who do you think is the most performed living composer globally? Two clues. He is on ECM and hails from Estonia.
Yes, Arvo Pärt. Well I never! That news did cheer me up. That the writer of such magnificently esoteric, powerful music should reach a broad audience is very heartening. And hats off to Manfred Eicher and ECM who have supported him all the way. In 1984, they went so far as to create a new sub-label for Pärt’s work: ECM New Edition. That really was a partnership made in heaven.
Maybe there are others? Perhaps you are extremely keen about a composer that most of us have not yet heard of? Please interpret the term composer as broadly as you wish as regards genre: jazz, folk, latin, ambient, musical theatre, minimalist..
I am going to stick my neck out here and try to define a composer in contrast to someone in a band who writes material. A composer like Kerry Andrew, Mozart, Gershwin, Ellington or Bacharach is writing music that they hope others will perform. The band-member will be more than happy if their songs are a hit for their combo.
Ove to you! Thrill us with your favourites!
“The present day composer refuses to die!!” Edgar Varese and Frank Zappa would be very welcome guests on this thread.
Kaisfatdad says
An article about Arvo and Manfred: the photos are particularly touching,
http://www.beyondcriticism.com/18015/for-arvo-part-at-80
Here’s an interview with Manfred Eicher about their relationship. His enthusiasm is rather moving.
If you have not heard Tabula Rasa, you should!
Kaisfatdad says
As a contrast to Kerry, here is an epic choir composition by Schlomo
And going well back in time, David Bedford’s Garden of Love from 1970 featuring the Whole World
I think you probably had to be there and be slightly stoned to fully appreciate it, but it was a job worth doing: Claiming Blake for the Counter-Culture.
ganglesprocket says
Philip Glass has a story about installing Robert Hughes dishwasher. Seemingly Hughes recognised him and was shocked, and the conversation went along the lines of
“But you’re Philip Glass! You’re an artist.”
“Yes I am but sometimes I’m a plumber as well.”
Mike_H says
Glass also worked as a cab driver at times and operated a removals company with his cousin.
Kaisfatdad says
Great story. Somehow I cannot imagine the likes of Wagner or Beethoven helping out with some blocked pipes.
duco01 says
Blocked pipes?
I reckon J.S. Bach could’ve helped out with some blocked organ pipes. During his lifetime, he was more famous as an organist than he was as a composer.
Kaisfatdad says
I imagine that before the Romantic period, most composers were more famous for doing something else. Then suddenly they became superstars, something that Ken Russell captured very well in Lisztomania.
The new middle classes who would pay good money for a concert or opera ticket were game changers. Verdi and other opera composers of that era were raking in the dosh.
Kaisfatdad says
There is an amazing number of modern composers that I suspect most of us have never heard of.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/may/20/contemporary-music-guide-round-up
Tom Service at the Guardian seems to be doing a good job in bringing them to the world’s attention. Some do sound extremely daunting though.
The magnificent Kronos Quartet do great work in highlighting modern composers, not least Terry Riley. I saw them play in a large, crowded tent at Roskilde to a raggle taggle crowd of Danish rock fans. They went down a storm.
Kaisfatdad says
Just stumbled across this list of the 10 greatest composers of the 20th century. It includes Gershwin and Duke Ellington along with Cage and Glass and she argues her case for all her choices very eloquently.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141015-20th-centurys-10-best-composers
Gary says
I’d remove some of those pesky foreign names from the list, on account of my not knowing what I’m talking about, and I’d add Ralph Vaughan Williams, because The Lark Ascending.
Moose the Mooche says
Word. And I’d replace Schoenberg with Pete Stride from The Lurkers.
Great list apart from that.
Kaisfatdad says
To my great shame, I really didn’t know The Lark Ascending .Just been starting to put that right with some help from Dame Diana Rigg.
Here’s the original version for just piano and violin. Exquisite.
Blue Boy says
I’d go for Vaughan Williams as well, and Arvo Part.Prokofiev has to be on any such list. I’d lose Boulez, Glass and Cage
Tiggerlion says
I like Judd Greenstein. He runs a record label and organises festivals. His music generally has a good rhythm, almost a dance pulse, topped off with gorgeous harmonics.
Plan Of the City
Tiggerlion says
Max Richter is probably my favourite current living composer. Besides his classical work with Piano Circus, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Avro Part, he has collaborated with Future Sounds Of London, Roni Size, Vashti Bunyan, Brian Eno and Kelli Ali.
I particularly like his recomposing of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
Spring
Kaisfatdad says
That Richter recomposition of Vivaldi is remarkable!
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/oct/21/max-richter-vivaldi-four-seasons
What a find!
duco01 says
Richter performed that recomposition of the Four Seasons live at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress about a year or so ago, you know, KFD.
A pity we missed it …
Kaisfatdad says
A shame indeed, Duke. January 23rd 2015, Daniel Hope and the Trondheim Soloists were performing Richter’s recomposition.
I did not know that Trondheim have a chamber music festival. I do now.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20110830-musical-destinations-trondheim-norway
Tiggerlion says
It’s amazing. Just like Giles Martin’s remix of Sgt Pepper it is both utterly familiar and completely different at the same time. Listening to it is a stepping through the looking glass experience.
hubert rawlinson says
Jocelyn Pook has contributed viola to a range of different bands. Came to my attention with 3 Mustaphas 3.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Pook
fentonsteve says
If this counts, I’m quite partial to the soundtrack work of Clint Mansell. Yes, really, the bloke who used to wave his penis about at the front of black-country grebo sonic assault Pop Will Eat Itself.
His soundtrack recordings certainly get more plays tham my PWEI records nowadays.
Moose the Mooche says
PWEI have my eternal admiration for having the stones to be on the Def Jam tour in 1988, supporting Run DMC and Public Enemy. This idea was somewhat ahead of its time…
After “ver Poppies” had been driven off the stage by the b-boy crowd throwing coins, one of them said that the audience had clearly enjoyed their set so much that they wanted to give them extra money.
Ahh_Bisto says
I came across the music of John Harle while pursuing examples of the artwork of Rex Whistler whose large mural of unrequited love at Plas Newyd first piqued my interest. Rex’s brother Laurence created a glass prism as a memorial to Rex (killed in Normandy in 1944) which is housed in Salisbury Cathedral. There’s a video of the prism that uses John Harle’s music for the Child Ballad, The Three Ravens.
More recently Harle worked with Marc Almond on his The Tynburn Tree album
When not writing music he plays saxophone. Many other composers have written saxophone pieces for him including the likes of Elvis Costello, Carl Davis, John Tavener and Michael Nyman. He’s also worked as musical director and arranger for artists such as Paul McCartney, Herbie Hancock and Elmer Bernstein.
retropath2 says
What is about drummers? Both Olafur Arnalds and Philip Selway started off as drummers, indeed where Selway still earns his crust arguably mainly from, yet have increasingly extensive orchestral careers.
I had thought Johannes Johannsen also, but he played guitar.
Moose the Mooche says
Stewart Copeland’s written operas.
Ahh_Bisto says
Phil Collins wrote some of the music for Brother Bear!
Gary says
I thought it was the other way round.
Blue Boy says
Copeland wrote a terrific percussion concerto which got its world premiere at the Liverpool Phil a few years ago
Kaisfatdad says
Good point. If any band member is likely to become a composer, I’d expect it to be the keyboard player,
Like Duke Ellington.
Mike_H says
Frank Zappa – “Night School” performed by Ensemble Modern.
Kaisfatdad says
Glad to see Zappa making an appearance. And Ensemble Modern, as one of the major combos playing contemporary music are definitely worthy of our attention.
Their relationship with Zappa (thanks Google!) began when they played on his Yellow Shark, the last album to be released during his lifetime.
Here they are rehearsing together. He died soon afterwards.
Kaisfatdad says
I’d now like to raise a Glass to Philip. The Swedish Folkopera’s production of his Satyagraha was the best avant-garde, minimalist, New Circus opera in Sanskrit that I have seen for years.
It doesn’t sound promising, does it? But thanks to superb musicianship and a visually spectacular production, it was a stunner.
At the end of this clip, you can hear the final aria from the opera.
And this trailer gives you an idea of the staging.
Blue Boy says
More and more young composers happily move across classical and pop, for which neither label is adequate for them. Anna Meredith for example has done electro disco pop, hard core contemporary classical, percussive rhythmic stuff, and more
Kaisfatdad says
I am pottering around following up on a few of the composers mentioned here.
The Guardian article below gave some interesting background on Anna Meredith and the differences between the pop and classical world, not least when it comes to paying the bills.
“What Meredith didn’t realise initially is just how pricey producing an indie album would be versus paid classical commissions. As a result, the making of Varmints was usually put on the back-burner as Meredith focused on other bill-paying projects. The process affirmed her respect for acts slogging it out in splitter vans: “It’s made me realise how much support and infrastructure there is for classical music.” Now, she says, her peers “slightly” deduce that she’s selling out. “There’s this assumption that there’s money in pop,” she says. “No – my contemporary art music funds my burgeoning middle-aged pop sensation career!””
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/23/anna-meredith-on-classical-music-art-and-pop
Blue Boy says
James Macmillan started out in punk folk bands, then graduated to operas about football, a fantastic percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie, Veni Veni Emmanuel and now writes powerful Catholic choral music
Kaisfatdad says
Crikey, Blue Boy! Another very intriguing, rather successful Scottish composer. In fact he is Sir James now!
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2012/mar/20/james-macmillan-composer
He has a few interesting things to say here about making ends meet as a composer and the classical concert scene:
“The classical world is quite conservative, in that it prefers its composers dead. Sometimes there is a little bit of suspicion from the large traditional audience as to what the living composers are about;”
http://basca.org.uk/2014/02/27/the-ivors-essays-james-macmillan/
Kaisfatdad says
Harle, Pook, Mansell, Meredith and Macmillan! Thanks for all these exciting new names. One thing that modern “classical” music is not is stuffy and conservative. There seems to be a great interest in collaborating with other genres.
Time to put in a word about Norwegian composer and saxophonist Froy Aagre who has developed her own idiosyncratic sound.
Here she is with the Schola Cantorum choir.
Kaisfatdad says
Charles Mingus on the art of being a jazz composer: some interesting observations.
http://mingusmingusmingus.com/mingus/what-is-a-jazz-composer
And now, playing one of his tunes..
Kaisfatdad says
More than a few modern composers have made their name and their fortune writing film music.
DuCool is a great fan of Ludovico Einaudi.
And then another form of moonlighting: the directors who who write their own music. Chaplin was one of the first and has been followed by Mike Figgis, Roberto Rodriguez, Clint Eastwood, Tom Tykwer and John Carpenter. One very pleasant surprise of recent years is the Assault on Precinct 13 Hitmaker out on tour playing his compositions live.
This one fades in slowly.
Mike_H says
If we.re gonna drift into the realm of film composers, then John Barry immediately springs to mind.
(Somewhere In Time)
And Michel Legrand, of course.
(Summer of ’42)
Kaisfatdad says
I am a shameless drifter, Mike! And film composers are the ones (even if we don’t know their names) whose music gets heard most.
I think of Ry Cooder mostly as a bandleader/ singer-songwriter but he has written some film fine soundtracks.
The same could be said of Randy Newman. I am very glad they have both stuck to their non-film writing too.
Incidentally, I was just talking to a friend about Pärt’s great popularity and she reckoned it was due to hus music being used so much in both films and on the telly.
Moose the Mooche says
Randy’s score for The Paper is reaaally good, and not for the familiar reason of providing a plinky-plonky singalong song fert’ kids.
I was reminded of The Paper frequently during the recent hoo-ha about The Post. I sat there trying to stay awake watching Meryl Streep doing yet another silly voice, thinking “I wish this was as good as All The Presidents Men… or even just The Paper”.
Mike_H says
Ennio Morricone’s finale music for “Once Upon A Time In The West” never fails to moisten my eyes.
Kaisfatdad says
Colin’s recent thread has really put Mike Westbrook firmly back on the AW map. A rather remarkable jazz composer who deserves a mention here. Not easy to choose a choon so I am going for a librettist I know: William Blake.
Kaisfatdad says
If we are going to name Mike Westbrook, then Escalator over the Hill Hitmaker Carla Bley must also get a mention.
Reactionary Tango
Why?
Moose the Mooche says
54321 hitmaker Paul Jones sings a song about gang-rape…. party on, dude!
Kaisfatdad says
Now a slightly more contemporary jazz composer, trumpeter Matthew Halsall from Manchester.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-l_VmNWzlM
As regards contemporary UK jazz I just stumbled across this article
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/mar/15/jazz-london-moses-boyd-united-vibrations
Complete with playlist!
Mike_H says
An interesting series of 2-hour shows from the Erased Tapes label, who we discussed in another thread.
This one features Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit and material from some of their other artists, but also some from non-label people they like.
https://www.nts.live/shows/erased-tapes/episodes/erased-tapes-19th-march-2018
Mike_H says
Just taken a proper look on the site, having finished listening to that one. There are over 40 of them! Blimey!
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Mike. The Erased Tapes label has a very impressive roster! I will keep my eye on them.
I have also just noticed that they use Spotify rather well. Here is a mega-playlist that they have done.
Kaisfatdad says
Such an interesting variety of composers are very worthy of a playlist. Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep them coming!
Kaisfatdad says
You are keeping this thread very lively, Mike. I was just reading about Ed Bennett the composer who you mentioned that you saw yesterday doing interesting things with a laptop at Daylight Music.
https://www.cmc.ie/composers/ed-bennett
Not much chance of him doing any moonlighting! He has got a whole variety projects on the go.
Xenia Pestova who was playing yesterday
His own ensemble, Decibel, rock out
Mike_H says
We were supposed to be getting a demonstration of this on Saturday.
(Inside-Out Piano – An Introduction)
Unfortunately, having brought the instrument to the venue it was discovered that the ramp up to the stage was too small so it couldn’t be used. Promised for another show in the future.
(Sun On Sea)
Kaisfatdad says
That is extraordinary. I loved the way it swings round in its axis.
Hauschka is another musician who loves to experiment with what the piano can do,
Blue Boy says
Hauschka recorded the album Silfra a few years ago – its a really interesting collaboration with the brilliant American violinist Hilary Hahn, better known for playing Bach but someone who has always been willing to experiment and do new things
Kaisfatdad says
If there is any country where composers ought to need to moonlight, it is Iceland. With such a small population, one almost expects Sigur Ros and Björk to be working in the local post office or supermarket to help make ends meet.
But somehow the island has produced a cornucopia of composers.
First, the late. great Johan Johansson. Gone at the age of 48, very recently. A very sad loss.
Here is Fordlandia – about the car factory deep in the Amazon jungle.
Next, Olafur Arnalds playing Particles
Finally, atmospheric cellist Hildur Gudnadottir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOyIs9gSCRs&list=PLKtI6DyKnYmOE7N-PrSKFgKcgURaK1ocp
Tiggerlion says
These days, the new music I find myself listening to most is Jazz and the contents of this thread, which I’d say is modern classical, if such a thing exists. The material that hits the charts rarely hits my sweet spot and when it does it is nearly always Hip Hop. I’m also grateful that there are a handful of artists producing some quality reggae. It’s often blended with dance but still quality.
This thread hasn’t attracted many views. That’s a real shame. The music in the clips and on the Spotify playlists is often sublime.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for the moral support, Tigs. Glad you are enjoying the thread. We certainly have been discovering some wonderful music and some musicians I want to know more about.
And we are not finished yet! Just been reading about the Multi-Story Orchestra who make a point of playing in venues as far from conventional concert houses as possible.
“This BBC Prom at the Bold Tendencies car park in Peckham, South East London, was the first Prom ever to be held in a car park.”
Love the populist attitude and the music is wonderful.
Steve Reich’s Music for a Large Ensemble
Mike_H says
There’s a clip somewhere on YouTube of one of Brian Eno’s pieces (can’t think which one, unfortunately) being played at a swimming pool somewhere, as the swimmers do their lengths etc.
Kaisfatdad says
I will try and find that. While I do, you can enjoy the fact that the Eno River Rock Quarry is a popular but dangerous place to swim.
http://www.wral.com/despite-dangers-swimmers-continue-to-flock-to-eno-river-rock-quarry/14795736/
Here is a little more on the remarkable Multi-Story Orchestra
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/27/multi-story-orchestra-review-proms-bold-tendencies-peckham-car-park-choir
And another clip from them. An enormous number of musicians of widely varying ages performing together in a car park and making a splendid sound.
retropath2 says
Another modern classical/soundtracker is the excellent Dustin O’Halloran.
He is also in the more dronetronica duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen.
duco01 says
Oh yes, good call, retro.
O’Halloran and A Winged Victory for the Sullen are the absolute business.
Kaisfatdad says
Excellent stuff, Retro. And very accessible too.
My new discovery of the week has been the Polish composer Gorecki.
I had never heard anything by him but found this wonderfully immediate and very powerful.
Tiggerlion says
You’ll have heard of Ligeti, KFD. You have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Atmospheres
Pretty terrifying music, I’d say.
Mike_H says
Someone overlooked in our cogitations is Harold Budd. A poet as well as a composer and performer.
He gets lumped in with the minimalists but doesn’t like the description. Lots of collaborations with the likes of Brian Eno, John Foxx, Hector Zazou, Simon Raymonde and Andy Partridge.
(Dark Star)
Tiggerlion says
A nod to Jonny Greenwood. He spends his days, covered in oil, playing guitar for a Rock band. By night, he’s a composer of classical film soundtracks. Or is it the other way round?
House Of Woodcock from Phantom Thread, his ninth soundtrack.
retropath2 says
Guitarists with a bigger vision should also include Bryce Dessner, guitarist for the National. (His ‘orchestral’ website doesn’t even mention that…….)
Kaisfatdad says
Great work Retro & Co.
Budd, Greenwood and Dessner: this thread is giving an airing to some composers who I knew nothing about.
Surprising how many musicians who play in a “rock” band have very solid compositional skills.
Mike_H says
Computers have taken the drudgery out of composition. It’s a lot easier now.
That’s the prime reason, I think.
In the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s everything would have to be written out on page after page of costly manuscript paper, mistakes tippexed out and rewritten or pages binned and replaced.
If some part of it just wasn’t working those pages would have to be chucked and written out all over again. Extremely time-consuming and frustrating.
It was also very expensive to get copies made for the other musicians to play from and they often came back from the copyist full of errors, so you’d have to check and correct each copy.
Frank Zappa had quite a bit to say on the sheer expense of composing. And of getting your music played at all. If some venue agreed to host your concert then as well as paying the musicians yourself, usually all their copies of the score were paid for by you too, unless you were a “name”.
Now you can play or type your music into a piece of software and it comes up notated on the screen. You can play it back via samples to hear a fair approximation of the result straight away.
If you change your mind about some aspect, the on-screen manuscript can be edited there and then. When you decide it’s finished you can just print out copies for distribution.
Of course the downside is it’s easier to go on and on tinkering with things until you’ve killed them.
I think there are now more venues and events willing to host new small-to-medium size works, too. As long as you don’t expect to make any money.
Kaisfatdad says
Very pertinent comments, Mike.
How the greats of the past would have thrived without the drudgery!
It makes me think of the poor sods in the Magic Band who had to transcribe Captain Beefheart’s ideas in some way.
A bullseye from Retro who just mentioned that Jaz Coleman is a composer.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/blogs/blog-on-the-tracks/8791397/The-Jaz-Coleman-Interview
He has made his mark in Kiwiland and no mistake!
http://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/jaz-coleman
Mike_H says
As far back as 1990 he collaborated with Anne Dudley on “Songs From The Victorious City”.
(Habebe)
Kaisfatdad says
Victorious City is on Spotify. A world music concept album inspired by Cairo. That I must hear!
Your encyclopaedic knowledge of Gaz’s back catalogue is very impressive!
Mike_H says
An old musically-dabbling friend of mine used to be Anne Dudley’s doubles tennis partner. He got to know her at Sarratt Tennis Club, where he designed and built a simple machine for firing volleys so that the members could practice their returns. He told me about a few albums of hers and that was one of them.
Kaisfatdad says
Great story, Mike. I had never heard of Anne Dudley but she has a very impressive track record as a film composer and session musician. She did the string arrangements for Lexicon of Love! Respect!
Mike_H says
Founder member of “The Art Of Noise” too. Of the three different incarnations of the group she was the only constant member.
Kaisfatdad says
I enjoyed that. Ms Dudley seems to be one of those very talented people who have had their finger in all manner of interesting pies but are not so bothered about constantly being in the limelight.
Probably far better known among fellow musos than she is among the public.
Pessoa says
I am late to this thread, as I was offline for a while, but if you want a contemporary composer you should try Harrison Birtwistle: he certainly divides audiences, but if you’re sympathetic to it, there is so much to choose from. I’d have to call him a Modernist, but with a Romantic, primitivist streak, like Stravinsky, which stops him becoming too arid, or maybe I just like the noise. I’d recommend ‘Earth Dances’ as a place to begin.
Kaisfatdad says
Intriguing, Pessoa. A name that rings bells but I could not tell you a thing about him. Time to put that right!
Tiggerlion says
Birtwistle’s Night’s Black Bird is my favourite ‘classical’ piece of this century.
https://youtu.be/34qRcsk_5mY
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Tigger. Look forward to giving that a few listens.
A bit of a slow burner, this thread. It’s been rolling for about three weeks now with a whole range of different composers that deserve further exploration.
Time to throw in NPR favourite John Luther Adams. His Become Ocean is wonderfully suggestive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnhKrKZduc8
Kaisfatdad says
I just saw a comment by the always interesting Ian Nagoski. He described Eliane Radigue as the greatest living composer and her Trilogie de la Morte as the greatest work of electronic music of the 20th century.
I’d better give it a listen.