Archives for January 2012

Bohortha, Cornwall

Composer Michael Zev Gordon is writing a new piece for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Here's his eleventh post explaining the process

I’ve reached the final part of my work – and once again I’m facing its recurring subject: time. 6 months ago I wasn’t sure if I would really call this last movement, and the whole piece, after a tiny cul-de-sac of a hamlet in rural Cornwall. But my visit there last May has remained deeply etched inside me: a perfect image of tranquillity and stillness, of time stretching out towards infinity. And this is where this last movement – and the whole piece – is headed.

At the same time, early on in writing the piece, I had the idea that the last movement would try something new for me in terms of the evocation of time, and that was to attempt to layer different kinds of time. A kind of experiment I suppose, but with a deep poetic impulse behind it. I felt – and as I’m now in the midst of writing the music, I feel even more – that infinite ‘slow’ time or ‘timeless’ time, would appear all the more so if I could superimpose upon it different kinds of ‘faster’ time. Certain questions have arisen in doing this. Does one kind of time subsume, or win over, the other? Am I really dealing with speed rather than time? Can I really have any control over how a listener perceives the passing of time?

But I am of course the first listener of my music – as all composers are. And as all composers do, I write as I hear. And it seems to me that there is at least a possibility of evoking simultaneous time layers; and that there is also a relationship, however difficult to define, between the way music moves and how (much) time appears to have passed.

There are precedents for what I’m trying to do – though perhaps not so very many. One in particular figures strongly for me – and that is Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question. In his piece, the orchestral strings inhabit a world of sustained long notes, changing little and unpredictably – the infinite universe; against it a trumpet is layered with its question, and scampering woodwind respond. And I’ve certainly taken the idea of using orchestral texture and colour to differentiate the time layers. The strings at the start of my movement are also the timeless layer. But as I’ve worked into the piece, I’ve realised too that I want to try to evoke stillness not only as something static from the start, but also in terms of slowing down – to reach an even deeper calm.

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Music of every style and flavour this week on In Tune - and possibly not enough room (even in cavernous studio 80A) to fit all the talent gracing the show this week.

Bela Fleck with In Tune studio manager Martin Appleby

Monday opened with a visit by arguably the world's greatest banjo player, Bela Fleck (left), performing part of his brand new Banjo Concerto for us live. Actor Samuel West popped in to talk Stravinsky and we explored the latest cutting-edge project to come out of one of London's top 'off-West End' venues: as the new opera Dream Hunter comes to Wilton's Music Hall. YIf you missed it, you can listen to the programme here.

More world-class appearances throughout the week from countertenor Andreas Scholl, pianist David Greilsammer, soprano Mhairi Lawson, the conductor Marin Alsop, violinist Tasmin Little and members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, among others. (Phew - I'm going to lie down in a darkened room to get ready for it all...)

Hoping you'll join me for at least some of next week's musical bonanza - and don't forget to stay in touch with your thoughts on the music you love, the concerts you've been to and the performers who get your heart racing: @BBCInTune is where you'll find us on Twitter.

Looking forward to your company starting today at 4.30pm.

• Visit the In Tune web page
• Suzy Klein is a presenter for BBC Radio 3 and BBC TV

Chagall - stained glass: Jacob wrestling with the angel

Composer Michael Zev Gordon is writing a new piece for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Here's his tenth post explaining the process

I've had the most terrible tooth problems of late. The extraction of a wisdom tooth has led to all kinds of complications you don't want to know about. But it has led me to dwell all the more on the relationship between creative expression and suffering, which movement 6 of my set, 'Terrifying Angel', explicitly focuses on - even if I had originally intended it to be of a purely spiritual sort!

The pathos of, say, the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony, or Billie Holiday singing the blues touches in an extraordinary way. Some may see our desire to listen to such things as a need for catharsis: as we witness the outpourings of others, our own pain, at least temporarily, is eased. But for me, instead, hearing Mahler 5 or Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony has more to do with empathy, with sharing something we hold in common.

Even before my tooth episode, I saw the sixth movement, as needing to be especially intense and soaring, so that the final movement will appear all the more timeless and tranquil - beyond human passions. And in this work of short movements, I have particularly seen No.6 as not taking its time to unfold. It has to burst in and shatter, and be gone. There is a danger in this of course. Things do need a certain length of time to speak. But this work has in part been about taking risks, of pushing things towards the edge - and here of trusting that a fragment may actually be more powerful than a whole, the pathos in part coming precisely because it is broken off.

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Vanessa Reed, executive director of PRS for Music Foundation, blogs from the starting blocks of New Music 20×12 and invites Radio 3 listeners to join in

January 2012 is a special month for all of us at PRS for Music Foundation and for the 20 organisations and composers who were selected just over a year ago for New Music 20×12. It marks the beginnings of a unique, UK-wide celebration of new music which takes the form of 20 new works, each lasting 12 minutes, written by some of the UK’s most talented and original composers. In addition to an array of live performances which are taking place in every corner of the UK, every New Music 20×12 commission will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and made available to download at NMC Recordings.

Since the corks popped on New Year's Eve which composers have left the starting blocks?Many of us gave Howard Skempton’s New Music 20×12 commission for church bells a ringing endorsement by tuning in to Radio 3 just after midnight on New Year’s Day to hear this pioneering New Music 20×12 commission performed from All Saints Church in Kingston. Howard’s Five Rings Triple is based on a five-part structure inspired by the five Olympic rings and has given the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers their first experience of working closely with a composer to bring a new piece of music to life. You can hear an extract from the piece by following this link.

If our Olympic year is about pushing the boundaries of what we normally do, we hope our New Music 20×12 commissions will be the first of many more unusual partnerships which involve composers and performers of all backgrounds taking risks, learning from each other and creating excellent new music as a result.

On 5^th January, before the bellringers had finished their lap of honour on Radio 3’s iplayer, the baton was passed to the National Youth Orchestra which embarked on a very different venture into the unknown. Their piece was dreamed up by composer Anna Meredith who asked all 170 NYO players to abandon their instruments and make sound and music by using only their bodies. Handsfree was premiered at the Royal Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool and performed again the following day at the Barbican in London where standing ovations and four-star reviews highlighted how well this unconventional, theatrical finale went down after a fine rendition of Walton’s 1^st Symphony. We’re sure there will be more surprise Handsfree performances throughout this year so watch out for an NYO flashmob near you. You can watch a clip of NYO’s warm up for the event here. 

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Sean with Thomas Trotter in Birmingham Town Hall in 2009

Where would we be without a helping hand from time to time? We’re so lucky on In Tune to be able to offer the space and opportunity for artists to shine and it’s a week to celebrate our home-grown talent – all of whom have had help from the great teaching institutions when it was needed.

Birmingham City Organist Thomas Trotter honed his craft on the organ of King’s College Cambridge (in the picture I'm with Thomas in Birmingham Town Hall during a live In Tune for the Mendelssohn Weekend in 2009), the young artists on Thursday’s show have had assistance from the Park Lane Group, and the Sacconi Quartet were given instruments from altruistic benefactors (if that’s not tautology!) and the Royal Society of Musicians.

The Cardinall’s Musick have the use of the Duke of Norfolk’s private chapel for their outstanding recordings, and now the In Tune studio to is to herald a year celebrating the genius of the great 17th century composer William Byrd.

Christian Blackshaw – most aristocratic and thoughtful of pianists – brings his Mozart and young Edward Watson, of the Royal Ballet, the joy of dancing to Prokofiev’s dramatic score for Romeo and Juliet.

A Happy New Year indeed!

This week on In Tune:

• Tuesday 3 January: The Cardinall's Musick, Zoe Rahman
• Wednesday 4 January: Christian Blackshaw, Edward Watson
• Thursday 5 January: Thomas Trotter, the Park Lane Group
• Friday 6 January: Razumovsky Ensemble, Sacconi Quartet