‘We play expressionism, neo-classicism, serialism, minimalism, neo-romanticism, post-modernism and lots of music that doesn’t fit nicely into any ism at all.’ Internet radio station Contemporary Classical’s mission statement neatly sums up the dilemma confronting composers working in the diverse, bewilderingly catch-all world of ‘contemporary classical’ music. But there’s one important ‘ism’ missing – ‘schism’.
The emergence in the early 20th century of serialism – the system of music that shattered tonality as the world understood it – marked a major split in music, dividing composers into avant-garde and traditional camps. Classical music became increasingly complex and disengaged from the mainstream public, too often preserved in academic aspic. But there has been a resurgence in the last 20 years of composers writing essentially tonal music. Intellectually rigorous, musically ambitious and defiantly individual, what many of them share is a genuine desire to reconnect with hitherto lost audiences.
'composers have to be engaged
with their audiences'
Max Richter, who first rose to prominence following the success of his Memory House album, is typical. His music stems from classical roots, is written down and played by instrumentalists in concerts but he’s as likely to attract fans from the electronica and alternative rock scenes as from classical music.
‘There isn’t a suitable term for what I do so I rather cheekily coined the phrase post-classical for my work,’ Richter explains with a smile. ‘Although I am slightly tongue-in-cheek about it. My own work embraces a wider range of influences – much as my listeners have a wider range of tastes. I’m fortunate that there is an adventurous creative music audience out there and they pick and choose from all sorts of music cultures. But my own instinct is that it is largely from outside the contemporary classical music scene, which is quite an inward-looking community.’
Costa Pilvachi is the recently appointed president of EMI Classics. He has previously championed ‘crossover’ music, often pop music sung in a classical style or composed by pop musicians and using traditional Western classical models.
‘Contemporary classical takes many forms,’ Pilavachi says. ‘I am currently dealing with at least three composers who occupy different parts of the spectrum: Paul McCartney (who every two or three years produces a major classical work), Karl Jenkins (who writes a wide variety of music from film scores to sacred works) and Thomas Adès, considered one of the most interesting young composers in the world and one writing in a very contemporary idiom.
‘Adès’ music will not be for the broadest public in the way that McCartney and Jenkins are,’ Pilavachi says. ‘But I have to think about the legacy of the label as well as the immediate commercial market.’
Besides McCartney, there are plenty more examples of big name pop artists crossing into classical. Elvis Costello has recently recorded his own ballet scores and Sting has recorded an album of Dowland lute songs. Regularly mauled by critics, the projects go on to sell by the shed-load.
Some pop artists, such as Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, have been welcomed into the contemporary classical fold. Greenwood – appointed BBC composer in residence in 2004 – won a British Composer Award last year for his orchestral piece Popcorn Superhet Receiver.
Of all the contemporary composers working in Britain today, none is connecting with bigger audiences than Patrick Hawes. As composer in residence at Classic FM – the UK’s most successful commercial radio station – Hawes has nearly seven million listeners tuning in to his new piano works every month. Although his music is dismissed by the avant-garde wing as hopelessly outmoded, he is unapologetic.
‘After a century of dissonance this new millennium is a time of spiritual awareness, tolerance, harmony and concord,” he argues. “There’s a big resolution going on. It’s my role to be attuned to what’s going on in the world – and any composer should want to engage with an audience in as uncomplicated and unselfish a manner as possible.’
Hawes believes the challenge for any composer is to work through the maze of the new-music establishment including funding bodies: ‘The establishment still has a strong hold on what does and doesn’t reach the public. Throughout my 20s and 30s it was very difficult finding an outlet for my music as it’s based on tradition when the criteria for appealing to the decision-makers was writing music that was difficult for the sake of it.’
The role of media, TV and film today is an important one, says Hawes: ‘A good fifth of Classic FM’s playlist is made up of longstanding film scores and recent releases such as Miss Potter and Notes on a Scandal. A young composer who honestly believes they have a voice could do far worse than approach a budding film producer or director. It’s a way to connect your work with a much broader public.’
'music doesn’t work
unless it’s shared'
Joe Duddell, who has composed everything from solo instrumental works to concertos, agrees: ‘There is no room today for the detachment that is the cliché of the artist at work. I think composers have to be engaged with their audiences.’
Duddell is typical of the new generation of contemporary classical composers. A Brunel University academic and practicing musician, he says he has ‘always tried to write pieces that connect the old and the new’. He has also collaborated extensively with percussionist Colin Currie, who premièred Duddell’s concerto Ruby at the BBC Proms in 2003, one of four pieces he wrote for the percussionist.
Such diversity is important, particularly as contemporary classical composers can often struggle to get an initial commission or a repeat performance of a work.
‘The biggest challenge for me is getting second performances, for others it’s securing commissions. When any ensemble commissions a new work it can drum up some excitement because it’s new. There’s not the same sort of interest for a second performance so an orchestra or ensemble really has to believe in it,’ says Duddell.
One option, he says, is co-commissioning. Such a collaborative approach also exposes new music to wider audiences, something Duddell believes is key.
‘Contemporary music has become the forgotten art form,’ he complains. ‘Lots of people engage with modern art and films and even architecture but music doesn’t get talked about. It’s hardly ever featured on the BBC’s Culture Show or other general arts programmes; in part because for a long time it drifted so far from the public’s understanding. I don’t think there’s an overnight answer but I do think the ghettoisation of contemporary music in specialist arenas and concerts hasn’t gained it a much bigger audience – it just panders to the same audience. We have to do a lot more proactive exploring of our work with audiences and kids who’ll be our audiences in future.’
Hawes agrees: ‘A composer who finds himself with a bit of clout should talk to young people and discuss with them the state of classical music. And dare I say how likeable you are as a person matters too. You have to win people over.’
A composer who’s been doing just that is Errollyn Wallen. Winner of a British Composer Award in 2004 for her piece Spirit Symphony: Speed-dating for Two Orchestras, Wallen’s eclectic musical universe is reflected in work that deliberately engages with the here and now. Wallen does sense a shift in attitudes to what a contemporary classical composer is and does.
‘In the last 10 years things have moved on so much,’ she says. ‘I write very different music from what I was trained to write. I was encouraged to write for “academia” and yet that was always against my instinct.
‘I have always seen music as means of communication,’ she says. ‘Music doesn’t work unless it’s shared and I don’t write music that has fantastic ideas on paper and doesn’t work in sound. Deep down, I love the stage, I love show time and it matters to me that the impact of my work on an audience member is as tremendous as it can be. I don’t want to apologise for what I write but it has to be relevant to me.’
'the biggest challenge is getting
second performances of my work'
Making it relevant often means working outside predefined structures and strictures. Wallen set up her own Ensemble X to champion her music in the early 1990s and Richter did the same thing: ‘In common with a lot of composers over the last few years, my own ensemble has become my principle vehicle. It was a trend started by Philip Glass and Steve Reich, then Steve Martland – and now we all have our own bands. Funders deal with you as an ensemble and approach your work in that way.’
Wallen also enjoys a parallel career as a cabaret pianist-singer of her own material, saying she needs ‘to find a way to make my music personal and tell my own stories’. She’s written everything from education pieces to operas and has just had her latest large orchestral work Mighty River – written to commemorate the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in the UK – premièred.
‘Each commission is unique and special but whatever it is you always have to imagine your audience,’ she insists. ‘Being a contemporary classical composer is always about people – it’s very practical and it’s about community.
‘As composers,’ she concludes, ‘we’re part of the fabric of life.’
www.contemporary-classical.com
www.emiclassics.com
www.errollynwallen.com
www.joeduddell.com
www.maxrichter.com
www.patrickhawes.com