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Remain Composed

Remain Composed

by William King

Performing Arts Music Interviews

Season 1

Sarah Henderson on story-telling, competitions and shopping centres

Sarah Henderson is a composer, soprano and cellist preparing to study an MA in composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Sarah tells Remain Composed about the places she takes inspiration from - ranging from the Bible to a Japanese shopping centre. Discussing process, Sarah says she enjoys the planning stage and playing around with ideas. She says actually committing notes to the page can feel scary unless she feels her ideas are already well formed. Sarah recently won Tenebrae's 'Undiscovered Voices' composition competition, which was held to mark their 25th anniversary. Her winning piece, 'Wanderers' was performed by the choir at Wigmore Hall, and will be included on their upcoming album. Sarah tells Remain Composed about the relationship she's been building with the choir.

Philip Stopford on psalms, accessibility, publishing and a snooker analogy

Philip Stopford is a composer and choral trainer based in Leighton Buzzard. His music has taken him from Truro to New York via Oxford, Canterbury, Belfast and Chester. He gives Remain Composed his thoughts for others looking to build a career in composition. Philip says 99% of his pieces are settings of sacred texts - and with each work he tries to think about what he wants it to achieve or say. He says that as a composer of church music, he likes to write music which people will actually use in their worship. He says he loves being part of people’s repertoire. Discussing the limitations on composers, Philip says there are fewer notes than there are balls on a snooker table. But every game of snooker is different, and we haven’t run out of melodies just yet. Philip tells us the stories behind some of his most well known works like Do Not Be Afraid, which was commissioned for a baptism, and Lully, Lulla, Lullay which was written as a last minute addition to an album.

Debbie Wiseman on TV, royalty, instrumentation and showreels

Debbie Wiseman has more than 200 film and TV credits. She’s Classic FM’s composer in residence, and last year she won the Ivor Novello Award for outstanding contribution to screen composition. Debbie tells Remain Composed about how the process for writing scores varies between projects such as the BBC series Wolf Hall and Father Brown. She explains how important the relationship is between director and composer. Asked about the threat of AI on creative work, Debbie says her composition often stems from subtext - not just the literal images on screen. Debbie explains how studying at Guildhall School of Music and Drama helped her find her love for screen-composition. And she describes how she sent out showreels when trying to land her first job, as nobody ever advertises for a composer. Debbie wrote two Alleluias performed at the coronation in 2023. She tells Remain Composed how one which had originally been written for the choir of Westminster Abbey was reworked for the Ascension Gospel Choir.

Matthew Warren on opera, Manx and universities

Matthew Warren is a composer and researcher. He's currently preparing for the premiere of an opera he's written in Manx Gaelic. He tells Remain Composed it's the first opera that's been written in the language. Matthew says it's been written for a string quartet, singer and dancer, to maximise the opportunities for taking it on tour. Matthew says his favourite part of the compositional process is the ideas stage, before putting pen to paper. Matthew also discusses the research he did for his PhD, into the relationship between universitiy bureaucracy and composers' creativity. He says while some composers accept the demands of the institutions, but others are on the verge of leaving the sector.

Precious Akindele on being real, graphical notation and her uncle's punk band

Precious Akindele is a composer, pianist and organist. She’s been studying at the BRIT School, whose alumni include Adele, Amy Winehouse and Jessie J, and will begin studying composition at Trinity Laban in September. She was featured playing her own composition on Channel 4’s The Piano. As a classical composer, Precious tells Remain Composed she’s enjoyed learning from her pop peers at the BRIT School, who often put their own emotions, vulnerabilities into their music. Precious sometimes writes music sitting at her piano, and sometimes on the sofa. She says it can be a full body experience, which has occasionally involved dancing to music in her head. Precious says she uses graphical notation when writing scores, which give performers freedom. This has included depicting dynamics with the thickness of lines or sound quality with colour gradients. Precious is visually impaired, which she says makes her think about things differently.

Frederick Viner on abstract music, Ligeti, new audiences and YouTube

Frederick Viner is a composer, pianist and Youtuber based in York. He tells Remain Composed that parameters are his friends when composing, and if a commissioner hasn’t provided any, he quickly works some out for himself. Frederick describes his music as abstract, saying it’s not normally about anything in particular. Frederick says watching videos on YouTube while growing up helped him discover a range of music. Now, he makes videos and has more than 28,000 subscribers. He says he tries to steer viewers towards lesser-known composers. Frederick says music is at an interesting juncture, and asks how we can reconcile a traditional 'museum culture' with a culture of championing the new. Frederick discusses the influence of 20th Century composer György Ligeti, and explains the complicated challenge he set himself of writing a Ligeti-style ‘tempo fugue’. (Here’s Frederick’s video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22N7ykqgceQ) Frederick also tells Remain Composed he’s been helping the ABRSM put together new creative musicianship qualifications.

Sally Beamish on Mozart, violas, imposter syndrome and the elements

Sally Beamish has written nearly 300 works including concertos, ballets, vocal and chamber music. She says music is how she expresses her emotions. Much of her output focuses on the environment, the sea and other elements. She says that after having a miscarriage in 1994, writing a cello solo contributed to her overcoming her grief. Sally studied the viola, but tells Remain Composed that she's never played a single note of any of her three concertos for the instrument. However, after studying with a violin-maker, Sally's daughter came back with a viola for her. She now plays her own music and other people's. Sally says she suffers from imposter syndrome all the time, hearing voices questioning her ideas and originality. Sally says she overcame a particularly difficult period of creative block by taking up writing (words) and attending group classes. Sally also gives Remain Composed a glimpse into her compositional process, including how she writes everything using notation software, and she describes how the Pomodoro Technique helps her maintain focus.

Gavin Higgins on orchestral brass, opera, poetry and ballet

Gavin Higgins is a composer working with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Three Choirs Festival and many other ensembles and projects. Wind, brass and percussion are central to Gavin’s orchestral music. He says he loves the mix of colours available in orchestras now, and that some composers can be over-timid when orchestrating music for brass. Gavin describes being influenced by his own time playing in a brass band, and the music of Stravinsky. Gavin wrote a concerto grosso for brass band and orchestra for the BBC Proms in 2022. He talks us through the background of the piece. Gavin says it’s been performed lots since, more than much of his chamber music. Gavin takes us through the process of collaborating with librettist (and Horrid Henry author) Francesca Simon when writing operas. He says he finds setting poetry much more difficult than a bespoke libretto. Gavin also discusses working alongside choreographers when writing for ballet.

Sophie Daniels on songs, human connection, misogyny in music and AI

Sophie Daniels is a songwriter and an associate professor of songwriting at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, where she founded the UK’s first higher education programmes in songwriting. Sophie explains what makes an “almost perfect song”, including the importance of craft and reflecting human experience. She also says everyone can write songs, and the process is often thought of as being more complicated than it needs to be. Sophie tells Remain Composed about the two EPs she's released under her artist name Liberty’s Mother. They're about baby loss and misogyny in the music industry. Sophie says songs are vital to our shared sense of humanity, and AI-written music threatens that.

Zygmund de Somogyi on collaboration, performance directions and quarter life crises

Zygmund de Somogyi is a composer and music journalist. Zygmund describes their music as irreverent and eclectic. They’ve written for chamber ensembles, orchestra, stage, film and much more. Much of Zygmund’s work is composed through collaboration, and is often derived from conversations with performers and others. Zygmund says they tend to focus on writing music for people, rather than just for instruments. Asked whether there’s a common theme of frustration across several works, Zygmund describes trying to express feelings of liminality, the concept of being "betwixt and between" different life stages or states of being. Zygmund’s music is performed around the world. They explain how audiences in various countries have given different responses to their work.

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