Back in January, we interviewed the finalists for Undiscovered Voices; our inaugural composition competition. Hear directly from the composers about what inspired and challenged them, and what they enjoyed about writing specifically for Tenebrae:
Sarah Henderson – Wanderers (first prize)
What was the main inspiration for your piece?
When I saw that the theme for the competition was ‘Travel’, my mind immediately turned to my own experiences of solo travelling. While I have always loved travelling with friends and family, I find that in some ways the travelling I’ve done by myself has had the greatest impact on me and created some of my strongest memories. For me, solo travel is all about independence, freedom and the opportunity to forge new connections. When you’re left to your own devices, you are free to either plan meticulously in advance or change plans on a whim as you wish. The journey becomes just as much part of the experience as the sights seen, and you can never predict what interactions you might have with locals and/or fellow travellers along the way, many of which have become the highlight of my day in the past. I have tried to convey this spirit in my piece ‘Wanderers’, which sets poems by William Wordsworth and Kahlil Gibran that explore the experience of solo travel in different ways. Wordsworth’s poem celebrates the beautiful daffodils he saw on his trip, whereas Gibran focusses on the journey itself, envisioning travel as a spiritual lifestyle. I wanted to highlight these two aspects of solo travel together, simultaneously demonstrating the value of both the key destinations and the journeys between them.
What was the most challenging part of writing this composition?
Before this piece, I had never attempted to set two different poems simultaneously! I found it challenging to try and balance the piece so that the text and underlying message of each individual poem could be easily understood without simply resorting to alternating the poems. I had to make sure that the musical material for each poem was sufficiently different from that of the other so that the poems could be distinguished from each other, while still allowing the piece to gel as a cohesive whole. Rhythm was also a key consideration so that not too many words from different poems would overlap and thus obscure each other.
If performers or listeners could take one feeling or idea away from your work, what would you hope it to be?
I want the audience to think about what travel means to them! Wordsworth and Gibran offer very different perspectives, and I have tried to amplify their opposing directions with my musical setting. I hope that the audience will come away with some new ways to think about the idea of travel or reflect on their own experiences. Maybe they will even be inspired to try travelling in a new way, focussing on the journey rather than the destination or vice versa. In a more general sense, I hope that the audience will be comforted by the piece. After all, Wordsworth and Gibran are essentially describing their sources of solace from loneliness in travel. I hope that this sense of solace more broadly will be carried on to the audience.
Has writing for Tenebrae changed the way you would normally approach a composition? What have you most enjoyed seeing the choir bring to life?
It’s an absolute luxury to be able to write for an ensemble of such a high calibre as Tenebrae. ‘Wanderers’ explores richer harmonies than any of my previous choral pieces, and the incredible resonances created from Tenebrae’s impeccable tuning and blend in rehearsal have been beyond what I could have imagined. It was also very freeing to write a piece with a relatively complicated structure and concept, confident that Tenebrae would be able to create a convincing musical journey in performance. The piece explores extremes of both range and dynamics, and I can’t wait to see how exciting Tenebrae these moments will become in Tenebrae’s performance at the live final.
Olly Bowes – Ēala ēarendel
What was the main inspiration for your piece?
Christ I, the wondrous 9th century poem, possibly by the famous Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf, paraphrases the Great Advent Antiphons – long my favourite part of Advent, since I was a treble at Ely, where my first forays into composition began. The passage I have set most closely mirrors the O Oriens, praising the coming Christ as the Morning Star: Venus, brightest light in the night sky save the Sun itself. The poem inspired no less than one JRR Tolkien to borrow the name for his great “messenger and mariner” in the Silmarillion: Eärendil, who sails off the edge of Middle Earth to confront the gods and beg their aid, and is set by them in the heavens as that same Morning Star. Discovering this connection between two of my favourite childhood memories, and adding in the inevitable thoughts of celestial navigation, made this text practically inevitable for me to set!
‘Eala Earendel Engla beorhtast’ – the middle of the first line is the beginning of the text that was used for Olly’s composition
What was the most challenging part of writing this composition?
I am not, by instinct, a minimalist composer – yet as I began to map out the piece in my mind, I saw that “Ēala,” that Old English cry of praise, literally, “Hail!” begged for some kind of repetition throughout, almost as if infinite choirs of men and angels were singing them. I wanted those repetitions to fade from literal meaning into something more removedly divine, functioning a little like ecstatic alleluias collapsing into Jubilus at the close of Gregorian chant: “a wordless sound of joy; the voice of his soul pours forth happiness as intensely as possible, expressing what he feels without reflecting on any particular meaning.… He simply lets his joy burst forth without words.” But I really worried about this falling short and simply becoming boringly repetitive rather than reaching that higher plane. I hope that the poly-tonal free diatonicism I have been working with, and moments of allowing what was antiphonal to become an accompanying texture to individual soloistic lines will work to guide the listener through the piece just as the Morning Star helps us navigate the world – literally and metaphorically.
If performers or listeners could take one feeling or idea away from your work, what would you hope it to be?
This hymn in praise of starlight and prayer for enlightenment brought up for me the notion of celestial navigation: since prehistoric times, humanity has used the stars to guide our wanderings across the world. More, though: traditions have grown up in many cultures that use the stars to navigate our endless understandings of ourselves. Venus, being both Evening and Morning Star, is central to both the literal and metaphorical astronavigations. That sense of path illuminated – starlight, sunlight, the guiding presence of something bright. That is what I hope listeners can look out for in my work.
Has writing for Tenebrae changed the way you would normally approach a composition? What have you most enjoyed seeing the choir bring to life?
Although my compositional roots are choral – my first pieces were written as a treble and schoolboy bass – I have moved my own singing towards solo work and opera, and so my composition also changed. In opera and song, where performers have functionally limitless time to learn the notes and memorise it all, I find the harmonic language can be more demanding than is reasonable for most choirs. Tenebrae’s immense capability allowed me to split the difference, writing at a scale and difficulty not often possible. At their first rehearsal, after ninety minutes with the piece, me sitting in the midst of them marvelling at their skill and artistry while still practically sight-reading, they ran it through once; harmonically, we build towards some pretty dense chords toward the end, but I found the density came out as something soft and bright and magical. It was thrilling to work with them!
James Woodhall – Hold on
What was the main inspiration for your piece?
The theme of ‘Journeys’ was very inspiring. I wanted to write a piece which was a journey in itself. My piece begins with a family car journey which is initially enjoyable but quicky starts to go awry. Faced with traffic and requests to stop, the driver asks the passengers to ‘hold on!’ as there’s no where to stop. I then explored this phrase; hold on. The piece then moves into a reflective section suggesting that, on life’s journey, we should all hold on to what matters.
What was the most challenging part of writing this composition?
Balancing the structure of the piece was tricky; the first section is light-hearted, quick and rhythmic but the second is slower and reflective. Ensuring that these two quite different sections work together and feel like a unified whole was not easy but it was so wonderful to hear it in the workshop.
If performers or listeners could take one feeling or idea away from your work, what would you hope it to be?
I hope that listeners and performers will enjoy the amusing first section and that the encouragement of the second section will be all the more relatable following this. I hope that the beauty of the music in the second section reflects the beauty of life and that while there might be frustrations such as traffic, that cherishing those who join us on life’s journey can help us overcome these.
Has writing for Tenebrae changed the way you would normally approach a composition? What have you most enjoyed seeing the choir bring to life?
I have written lots of choral music but the opportunity to have one of the best choirs in the world sing one of my pieces was thrilling. I have lots of their recordings and could imagine the incredible rich sound that they would bring to the warm, chordal second section. I loved hearing them bring the faster, close-harmony style first section to life and seeing how much they enjoyed this. Being shortlisted and having Tenebrae workshop and perform my piece has been the most amazing experience. Approaching a composition is different every time and it’s hard to say whether imagining them singing it made a difference to how I wrote it, but the whole experience has definitely had a hugely positive impact on me and I’m so grateful.