Remain Composed
Season 1
by William King
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 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 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 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 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 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.
Melanie Spanswick is a pianist, author, teacher and composer. She’s a piano faculty member at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Eton College, and she’s a regular contributor to Pianist Magazine. She tells Remain Composed that composition is an activity she’s come to relatively recently. Melanie explains the process that goes into compiling anthologies, such as her ‘Play it again’ series designed for people returning to the piano after a break. Melanie discusses the challenges of making music for beginners which is both playable and not boring. Working as an adjudicator of music festivals, Melanie says she’s seen numbers of performers falling. She says it’s a real shame, and everybody should learn a musical instrument. Melanie describes what goes into writing her piece and column for each edition of Pianist Magazine - and how she manages to come up with names for so many individual works. She also has words of advice for anyone entering the magazine’s composing competition.
Thomas James Owen is in the early days of his compositional career. Thomas has always been curious about how and why music can evoke emotions. Thomas says he’s learnt to not imitate other composers, but he does sometimes aim to generate the feelings he’s felt when listening to certain works. Thomas writes music most days. Normally, while sitting at his keyboard, his fingers come up with the ideas before his head does. He describes how he uses different processes to develop those ideas. While discussing creative stimuli, Thomas discusses experimenting with his daughters to see whether they can associate ‘positive’ thoughts with major chords. Thomas says AI-created music is only rehashing stuff it’s heard before. He says the only way to get a quality product is to use human creatives, though he does concede that times seem to be changing rather quickly.
Dawn Walters has written vocal settings of all of Shakespeare’s songs, and many of his sonnets. She explains how she discovered her love of Shakespeare - and tells us how that project started and grew. Dawn says her ideas often stem from mental pictures, which she develops by thinking about the text she’s setting. She says the final versions of her pieces are often very different to the initial drafts. Dawn says she tries to reflect her own emotions in each piece. Dawn explains how competitions can be great experiences for composers - but some come with hefty entry fees. She also discusses the benefits of going to university as a mature student.
David Lowe has composed many of British television's most iconic theme tunes including BBC News, The One Show and Grand Designs. David tells Remain Composed about his beginnings in local radio, and how buying a polyphonic synthesizer would set him up for a career of writing music. David explains the types of conversations he has with TV directors and producers when asked to create music for them. David shares his thoughts on the way TV is changing, and says the introduction of the 'skip intro' button on streaming services has created a unique challenge for composers. David also discusses his upcoming album with his long-time friend Donna Lewis.