this<\/a>. \u00a0\u2014 who is encouraging you to use them? [NOTE FROM NICO: really do read this. \u00a0It’s got the Thing I Think About That Thing in it.]<\/p>\nYou may have answered this above, but\u2026 Is it appropriate to suggest that artists as diverse as yourself, Nils Frahm, Johann Johannsson, Hauschka and Tim Hecker are part of a similar \u2018movement\u2019, or does that seem as suitable as grouping Britney Spears, Foo Fighters and Nick Cave together? What, if anything, do you think you all have in common?<\/em><\/p>\nTim Hecker is involved now?\u00a0 I mean\u2026 look, taxonomies work in a lot of different ways.\u00a0 You can organise things however you want, really, but it\u2019s definitely\u00a0never\u00a0(v important) the job of the composer or artist to do this, because then you\u2019re writing to your bio, rather than writing music.\u00a0 Every second a composer spends thinking about this is a second she should have been using to write music.\u00a0 That having been said, sure, I\u2019ll buy it, but I\u2019d also say that I have a lot in common with composers like Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzoli, Sean Shepherd inasmuch as we all write large orchestra music, firmly rooted in the classical \u2018concert\u2019 music tradition.\u00a0 You could also, if you wanted, say I have a lot in common with Tom Ad\u00e8s because we both derive musical material from the past \u2014 in his case, the ecstatic harmonic motion in Couperin, and in my case, Tallis and Byrd.\u00a0 You could say I have everything to do with Timo Andres because we are both over six feet tall and love capers.\u00a0 The point of all the record stories dying \u2014 thank\u00a0GOD,\u00a0by the way \u2014 is that we don\u2019t have to have these physical taxonomies anymore where you go into the special porn room to buy classical music.<\/p>\n
Do you see yourself and those mentioned above (and others often grouped with them) as your contemporaries? Do you relate to, or admire, any of these artists in particular? Are there others about whom you hold strong opinions whom you\u2019d like me to consider, or wish to champion?<\/em><\/p>\nYou\u2019ve worked with a diverse range of musicians who aren\u2019t necessarily associated with this \u2018scene\u2019, including Rufus Wanwright, Sufjan Stevens and Antony & The Johnsons. Do you find that there\u2019s a tightly knit community surrounding this music, and is it as unusual as outsiders think for musicians working with, for instance, rock music, to want to experiment in other fields?<\/em><\/p>\nI don\u2019t understand the question and you misspelled Rufus\u2019s last name.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never worked with any of the people you talked about above (Haushka et al) so I\u2019m not sure which tightly knit community you\u2019re referencing?\u00a0 Also \u201coutsiders think?\u201d\u00a0 Who are these outsiders?\u00a0 You?\u00a0 Which fields?\u00a0 This whole question is word salad.<\/p>\n
Some people consider \u2018new classical\u2019 music to be loftier and more intellectual than \u2018rock\u2019 music. Is this a patronising view, and do you think that the attitude is changing?<\/em><\/p>\nWhen you write \u201csome people,\u201d what on earth do you mean.\u00a0 Citation?<\/p>\n
Furthermore, there was a time when the idea of a \u2018rock\u2019 musician working within these realms was considered slightly laughable. I think, for instance, of the insults levelled in the past \u2013 by some people – at people like Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello, and back in the 1970s it would have been seen as the height of prog rock indulgence. Why do you think audiences are more willing to take this seriously?<\/em><\/p>\nWhich realm!?!?!\u00a0 I literally have no idea what you\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 Elvis Costello!?<\/p>\n
Instrumental, classically influenced music emerging through the independent scene (and indeed major labels) isn\u2019t exactly a new thing. I think, for instance, of Mute working with Balanescu Quartet and Holger Czukay, or plenty of Nonesuch\u2019s releases. Is the volume of music being released now any different to years past, or do you feel \u2013 as others do \u2013 that it\u2019s not just a matter of a spotlight being put on it and that in fact there\u2019s far more being released than ever?<\/em><\/p>\nUgh, I find your questions increasingly frustrating.\u00a0 What spotlight are you talking about?\u00a0 I feel like you are operating under a set of premises or assumptions that are unprovable and are based on\u00a0your\u00a0perception of\u00a0other people\u2019s\u00a0(or the press\u2019s, more probably) perceptions of the\u00a0attention\u00a0given to a made up group of artists.\u00a0\u00a0THAT HAVING BEEN SAID\u00a0I will throw you a bone to say that this isn\u2019t new.\u00a0 CF Philip Glass & Ravi Shankar, the Mute\/Balanescu thing is a good example, Nyman + McAlmont \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s 6 in the morning so I can\u2019t really think of more but\u2026 you know.<\/p>\n
I believe that you were classically trained (as music journalists like to put it!). How did you come to work as a composer? When did you start writing music like this? Were you brought up on pop and rock, or was \u2018classical\u2019 music always your foremost interest? Have they both always been vital to your musical existence, and do you still listen to other kinds of music?<\/em><\/p>\nI was classically trained; I went to Juilliard for 5 years, I have a masters\u2019 degree in the classical composition.\u00a0 I was brought up as a chorister,\u00a0 here, read this:\u00a0https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2007\/apr\/27\/classicalmusicandopera1, \u2014 the backbone of everything I do is renaissance choral music.\u00a0 From there, I learned the piano, and from there, realised I was a lousy enough pianist that I had to start writing my own things.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re unusual within this \u2018movement\u2019 in that you tend to compose music for others, whether it be Metropolitan Opera, St Pauls Cathedral, The Library Of Congress etc. This is, in a sense, a far more old fashioned approach to composition. Do you find it frustrating that you hand over your music to others to perform, or does this in fact free you up to focus more on writing?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nI can\u2019t with you and this movement shit again.\u00a0 It\u2019s so lazy and it makes me want to throw the laptop across the room.\u00a0 You could shine a light through my work and hit all the things you talked about above and never hit anything that I imagine you think is part of this \u2018movement.\u2019\u00a0 I don\u2019t think what I\u2019m doing is unusual; I\u2019m just doing the things I\u2019m good at, with some stretching at the margins.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like the idea that you\u2019ve created this artificial \u2018scene\u2019 and then put me as the family crayzee cousin, always writin\u2019 wacky music for the Lord\u2019s House!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m struck, I have to say, by the breadth of your work. Does the fact that so much of your music is commissioned mean that you are limited in any way by the approach of those who\u2019ve invited you to work with them, or does it in fact allow you to work in milieu that would otherwise be impossible? And is it accurate to say that you are approached, or do you also approach others?<\/em><\/p>\nGood question.\u00a0 I would say that most of my music is commissioned.\u00a0 I find the restrictions of a commission to be very very helpful.\u00a0 A lot of times a commission is really open ended (\u201cwrite 20 minutes for orchestra\u201d) but other times it\u2019s really specific (\u201cWe\u2019re doing a concert where all the texts are about sleep, or sleeping, and you have five minutes.\u201d)\u00a0 I like these restrictions.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been very, very lucky inasmuch as I haven\u2019t had to approach others in this way, although there are sort of dream projects where I do try to shop it around a bit.\u00a0 My viola concerto is a good example of this.\u00a0 I imagine you have a recording of it seeing as how you got here via Bedroom Community \/[publicist] She can send it to you if you haven\u2019t.\u00a0 That is a combo platter \u2014 a piece I\u2019ve wanted to write since 2001, but also something that four different orchestras co-commissioned.\u00a0 After six months writing that, when the phone rings and Joanna Newsom wants a string and oboe arrangement, there is\u00a0nothing\u00a0more delicious because it\u2019s a similar muscle but doing something for somebody else \u2014 it\u2019s like going over somebody else\u2019s house and cooking and being useful and friendly.<\/p>\n
Why do you think that there\u2019s been such a surge of interest from music fans in instrumental music that rejects traditional rock music structures (verse \/ chorus \/ verse etc) and arrangements (guitar, bass, drums etc) in favour of more ambitious melodic narratives and more traditional instrumentation (pianos, strings, brass etc). I\u2019ve wondered, for instance, if it\u2019s due to the need for people to find a refuge away from the ubiquitous sound of \u2018pop\u2019 music? Or away from the chaotic political and social times in which we live, and which confront us, thanks partly to social media, in a far more aggressive manner than before (refugees, gun crime, the American elections, Syria etc)?<\/em><\/p>\nNow, this I\u2019ll buy, maybe.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if we need to get Syria involved.\u00a0 I also don\u2019t know that this surge you reference is something that exists in what I like to call Reality.\u00a0 I think a lot of people \u2014 thinking, for instance, of my parents, who are in their early 70\u2019s \u2014 took a big detour from listening to pop music qua pop music and settled in Joni Mitchell world.\u00a0 That kind of songwriting \u2014 with chapters, rather than traditional verse\/chorus structures, has been around forever!\u00a0 And didn\u2019t die either \u2014 think about Joanna Newsom, think about longform Bj\u00f6rk of late, think about Sun Kil Moon etc\u2026 Think about the folk tradition, think about really anything.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure that the world is organised into \u201cBritney\u201d and \u201cNot Britney.\u201d\u00a0 I think a lot of people grew up listening to jazz and have never stopped.\u00a0 I think a lot of people just have more access to the music that their peers are making.\u00a0 Also: one week ago I literally flew to Las Vegas and saw the Britney Spears residency show.<\/p>\n
To employ significant numbers of musicians is obviously a costly endeavour. Has the fact that instrumental music is more acceptable to big, funded venues \u2013 such as London\u2019s Barbican or Royal Festival Hall \u2013 made it easier to work in these realms? Have the actions of such venues \u2013 inviting more bands to perform within them at events such as the UK\u2019s Meltdown \u2013 helped bring an audience to \u2018new classical\u2019 music by broadening their horizons and making it seem less intimidating to attend shows that seem more \u2018serious\u2019?<\/em><\/p>\nNow, this might be an opportunity for you to do some Serious Journalism\u2122.\u00a0 Ring up the Barbican\u2019s PR office and ask them to set up an interview with you and the classical music programmer Chris Sharp, and with the \u201cother\u201d music programmer Bryn Ormrod.\u00a0 They will know the answer to this as it relates to money, numbers, and the raw data.\u00a0 Time, money, and space are complicated things, but unless u, as an artist, are totally self-producing, it is sage, I think, to take advantage of the wild luxury of the fact that somebody else is buying dinner.\u00a0 Also, the relationship between ensembles (which is to say, orchestras) and the halls who present them is a financially complicated one \u2014\u00a0but again, for me, as a creator of the notes on the page and occasionally a performer, I don\u2019t\u00a0rea-a-a-a-lly\u00a0have to worry about it.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s a bit grand, or na\u00efve, but that\u2019s all I got.\u00a0 But seriously call them.\u00a0 I\u2019d actually be interested to know what they say.<\/p>\n
Do you think the \u2018greying\u2019 of the music-buying audience \u2013 who, in past generations, would have shifted over to buying classical music and abandoned rock \u2013 has also ensured that so many people are interested in \u2018new classical\u2019 without investigating more long term, traditional established composers like Beethoven and Bach, to whom they would once have turned? Perhaps it provides them with an opportunity to enjoy more complex music without apparently \u2018giving up\u2019 on their musical roots?<\/em><\/p>\nI just don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I\u2019m probably the worst person to ask about this.\u00a0 When I go all up into the concert hall, I see young people.\u00a0 I still actually disagree with most of the assumptions in the question, if I\u2019m parsing the grammar correctly.<\/p>\n
Music like yours has increasingly found itself working alongside other disciplines, notably film and dance. (I\u2019m thinking in particular of OSTs like Nils Frahm\u2019s Victoria, Johann Johannsson\u2019s and Max Richter\u2019s regular soundtrack work etc.) Has this helped you find a wider audience? Is the success of other artists in these realms in any way responsible for a general crossover? Does it alter the manner in which you compose? And is it important for you that such music is also able to stand on its own, or do you see the two disciplines, when they are interlinked in this way, as inseparable?<\/em><\/p>\nGood question.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 All of this is a good thing.\u00a0 Music for use, as it were, has value.\u00a0 If your friend asks you to write a piece for a ballet, or a film,\u00a0do it.\u00a0 It\u2019s so great.\u00a0 See above about open-ended commissions \u2014 this is the opposite of that, where you get instant feedback from your collaborators, and the music is only successful if it\u00a0works\u00a0in the context of the overall collaboration.\u00a0 I wish more people did it.\u00a0 Learning to work quickly and collaboratively has helped me with everything I do, from making dinner to writing concert music to everything!!!<\/p>\n
There seems to be a canon of influences named by musicians from this \u2018movement\u2019: Arvo P\u00e6art, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Penguin Caf\u00e9 Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Harold Budd, Erik Satie, Gorecki etc. Do they play a big role in your work? What do you think they share in common? Are there others that you feel are important to mention? How did you come to be familiar with them, and was it hard to find a way to integrate the inspiration they offered into your work?<\/em><\/p>\nLord have mercy.<\/p>\n
One artist with whom I have been talking has said that a decade ago he felt his contemporaries exhibited a \u201cstrong individual language\u201d which has since become synonymous with \u201csoft piano music and compositions that I can\u2019t identify with\u201d. Certainly, it sometimes seems as though nowadays I am sent \u2018new classical\u2019 music on an almost daily basis, and I would be lying if I said it all excites me. Some seems to be derivative and comparatively unimaginative \u2013 often, for instance, with a heavy emphasis on arpeggios – as though the very fact that the artists are simply rejecting traditional structures and arrangements is enough to justify its existence. Do you feel that the growth of interest in the music has led to a \u2018blanding\u2019 of the scene, and is there a danger that this will eventually lead to a dead end? And is there a danger that the \u2018novelty\u2019 this offers to those otherwise interested in rock and pop is in danger of fading?<\/em><\/p>\nSure?\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s more bad music in the world than good music, but I don\u2019t feel the need to extrapolate some kind of grandpa-ass world view about it.\u00a0 Tell your artist friend to spend less time having thoughts about what other people are doing and get back to the manuscript paper.\u00a0 She sound mean and jealous.<\/p>\n
Do you consider yourself to be an \u2018indie artist\u2019? Does such music sit comfortably under this (admittedly huge and nowadays rather vague) umbrella? Is it possible to consider oneself as indie once one has experienced success on the scale that you have? Why do you think independent labels are signing music outside the realms of what is normally considered \u2018indie\u2019 music?<\/em><\/p>\nRock \u2018n\u2019 roll has, since punk at the very least, prided itself on breaking conventions, with untrained musicians applauded for refusing to conform to tradition. Do you think these possibilities have now been exhausted?<\/em><\/p>\nSee blog link above<\/p>\n
Do you think your music is attracting people that wouldn\u2019t normally listen to anything but \u2018popular\u2019 music simply because of the record label on which it appears?<\/em><\/p>\nWell, I hope it isn\u2019t\u00a0that\u00a0simple.\u00a0 I think you\u2019re not giving listeners the benefit of the doubt about what they listen to.\u00a0 They\u2019re like \u201cooh, label I like!\u00a0 Ooh, boring piano music with arpeggios.\u00a0 Welp, must be good!\u201d\u00a0 HOWEVER.\u00a0 I would like to think that the label system of organising music would draw the ear not just to my music but the other way around.\u00a0 For instance, Bedroom Community has been incredibly good about this.\u00a0 People who know my music from, for instance, the choral music universe suddenly have a path through to Sam Amidon\u2019s music, or Ben Frost\u2019s.\u00a0 This can only be a good thing, and yes, it does take a label, I think, to at least uphold a formal structure for this to happen.\u00a0 I find myself doing this too \u2014 for instance, your boyfriend Nils is on Erased Tapes; through his music I\u2019ve found other artists on that label I wouldn\u2019t have had access to otherwise \u2014 and by access I mean that I don\u2019t spend a lot of time fishing around for new things, about which I feel bad!\u00a0 So the label shortcut can sometimes be useful.\u00a0 But this relates to my\u00a0big\u00a0disagreement about a lot of these questions, which is that People who listen to music aren\u2019t like, moths drawn to flame, the flame being soft piano arpeggios.\u00a0 People, as far as I can tell, trust their friends, talk to each other, and still are ready to be surprised.\u00a0 I think that all artists need to be evangelists for not just their own music but for the music they love.\u00a0 A lot of the music *I* love sounds very little like my own, but still you will find me on the street corner with a tin foil hat talmbout \u201clisten to more Takemitsu.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a time when it\u2019s getting harder and harder to make money from making music, and artists are being advised to tour in order to make money, isn\u2019t it a tremendous gamble to record something that requires a significant number of musicians to perform it on the road?<\/em><\/p>\nYes.\u00a0 But it\u2019s so worth it.<\/p>\n
Popular music\u2019s appeal has often been based upon the performer as much as the music, but your music can be performed by anyone who can read sheet music, just as classical music was in the past (albeit with instrumentation that was perhaps not available in the past). Does the idea of your music being performed by others appeal to you, and is that a goal when you\u2019re writing?<\/em><\/p>\nYes!\u00a0 This is a good question.\u00a0 This is one of the great mysteries and funz of the classical tradition.\u00a0 What happens is that your music starts to mean different things to different people.\u00a0 Having music in the fingers of strangers is a beautiful and strange feeling.\u00a0 Nothing makes me happier to think that people I don\u2019t know have spent hours, days, weeks, learning my music.\u00a0 Particularly because so much of my music starts as music for friends \u2014 cf all my work with Nadia Sirota \u2014\u00a0when suddenly a violist pops up in Finland playing those pieces, it feels like a small miracle and a beautiful, unexpected connection.<\/p>\n
Do you think that there will come a time when the traditional divisions between the classical and popular music worlds will no longer exist?<\/em><\/p>\nJesus take the wheel.<\/p>\n
Given that popular music emerged as a reaction to the staid world of classical music, and that liking classical music has for many years been \u2018uncool\u2019, do you think that \u2018classical\u2019 music is the new rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, in that it represents a rejection of contemporary musical trends? Can you imagine kids trying to annoy their parents by playing your records in years to come?<\/em><\/p>\nBaby girl, I\u2019ma stop you right now about your origin theory of popular music!\u00a0 Is that literally what you think!?!?!?!?\u00a0 Are you English?\u00a0 I think you\u2019re probably English.\u00a0 I would take a second and rethink how this works vis \u00e0 vis everything.\u00a0 Think: African Diaspora.\u00a0 Think: folk traditions \u2014 even in the +44!\u00a0 I\u2019m going to pretend you didn\u2019t ask this but I would not encourage you to ask other people this same thing in this way because they are going to think that you are Touched.<\/p>\n
Is there anything else you would like to add (assuming you\u2019re not already exhausted!)?
\n<\/em>
\nYes.\u00a0 It\u2019s a dude called Will Robin who has written an entire thesis about this idea<\/a> of \u201cindie classical\u201d music.\u00a0 Apparently he has my name in his mouth; I haven\u2019t read it because I\u2019d rather write music.\u00a0 BUT a link to his thesis is attached, and I\u2019d recommend that you read it as it touches on a lot of things you\u2019ve asked.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry to be so\u00a0tart\u00a0with thee but this feels like a weird combination of answering things I always have to answer but also that I\u2019m on the wrong train in which I\u2019ve just spent a million years talking about everything about music except for\u00a0the actual music herself.\u00a0 I feel like you\u2019ve engaged in a lot of un-interrogated thought about these peripheral matters and I\u2019d love to see what you divine from Will Robin\u2019s thesis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beloveds. \u00a0It’s been a minute since I’ve blogged about it, but now I’ve got something to blog about, so blog about it I shall. Over the last 18 months, I’ve been actively trying to be more assertive. I have a real difficulty standing up for myself personally and professionally, mainly because I’m so desperate to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4779"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5261,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions\/5261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}