An introduction to new music - as recommended by composers...

At Britten Sinfonia, commissioning and performing new music is a huge part of what we do, but we know that new and contemporary music can be daunting if you haven't had much experience of it before. Our upcoming concerts in April feature two world premieres - Bryce Dessner's El Chan, which will feature in our At Lunch Four programme, and Elena Langer's story of an impossible love, which will be performed in our programme featuring pianist Benjamin Grosvenor.

To get you in the 'new music' mood, take a listen to our Spotify playlist of works by the composers we've commissioned in our 2015-16 season (including Bryce Dessner and Elena Langer). We've also asked the OPUS2016 shortlisted composers for their suggestions of what to start with if you're looking to explore more...

Daniel Kidane:

Don’t be scared to immerse yourself in to something new – you have nothing to lose but so much to gain.

Robert Peate:

Anything and everything – just keep listening and be open to what you hear. Don’t worry about ‘understanding’, just experience it (more than once if you can).

Neil Smith:

There are some great pieces to begin with such as Berio’s Sinfonia or Xenakis’ Rebonds but sometimes the best way in is to listen to more experimental popular music. Anyone who enjoys a bit of Autechre shouldn’t struggle with the best bits of Stockhausen or Boulez. There are also lots of British composers who write music I still consider beautiful in quite a traditional manner: take George Benjamin’s amazing Written on Skin for example.

Andrew Thomas: 

Find a sound/texture you like and follow how it develops during a piece - be open to all the parameters of sound available in contemporary music and embrace what you don’t understand - the music I most admire is the music I don’t understand!


Andrew Baldwin:

My advice would be to start with a composer(s) you know and like, and list what musical ideas you like about them (what is common in their music etc). Then consult with a music friend that knows of other composers that use similar processes/ideas. Suddenly you will notice your listening repertoire growing and discovering some great music. I created a Spotify playlist that my teacher and I came up with of works that I would find interesting, and there hasn’t been one piece that I haven’t taken something away from – as well as discovering some new favourite contemporary composers.

Emma Wilde:

I think people should not be afraid. Most people have been confronted with modern art in some way even without knowing it, they have probably been to an art gallery or exhibition and modern music is no different. My listening recommendations would include anything by Ligeti as I think that was the first contemporary composer I really connected with. Also the German composer and pianist Nils Frahm, his live shows are electric, he has a great connection with the audience and is a really innovative composer and performer, there are many good videos on YouTube.

 

Margaret Haley:

Tune in to Radio 3 programmes: Late Junction, and Hear and Now. Listen with an open mind. Listen to recordings as much as you can, then listen again. Music festivals can also provide a great way of sampling new music, e.g. HCMF shorts.

Sohrab Uduman:

Start with whatever is to hand and whatever grabs your interest for whatever reason, however seemingly profound or trivial it may appear to be. It is not life-threatening, will not cause you physical damage and will not, probably, change your political allegiance. It is art, a voyage, an adventure; an opportunity, at the very least, to step out of routine and ‘normative behaviour’ and experience something that should prove beautiful, moving, revelatory and subversive.

Gonçalo Gato:

An open mind and receptiveness to the fantastic, as opposed to the ordinary. Also, it is important to look for concerts that feature some sort of introduction carried out by music historians, musicologists, or composers themselves. This will provide context and prepare the listening experience for those who find it more difficult.




James Hoyle:

I don’t believe in starting with something ‘easy’ - I’d suggest to just throw yourself in, listening to as many different types of new music as possible. There’s such a wide variety out there so there is surely something for everyone.

At Lunch Four features Bryce Dessner's El Chan, Schumann's Piano Quartet Op.47 and a selection of Bartok's folksong-inspired Duos - Norwich Fri 8 Apr, Cambridge Tue 12 Apr & London Wed 13 Apr. Find out more.

Benjamin Grosvenor directs features Elena Langer's story of an impossible love, Mozart's Piano Concerto No.27 and a works by Bartok and Strauss - Bradford on Avon Sat 23 Apr, Cambridge Wed 27 Apr, Norwich Fri 29 Apr & London Sun 1 May. Find out more.

What inspires composers?

Ahead of the OPUS2016 open workshops taking place this week at the Barbican (Friday 22 & Saturday 23 January), we asked our ten shortlisted composers what inspires them...

Robert Peate:

Everything really... I still get very excited when I see/hear people playing instruments, and the idea of writing music is still an inspiring thing. Apart from music itself anything with a strong character or feeling to it can suggest ideas... it’s hard to say exactly where and when and what you’re inspired by most of the time, a lot is also subconscious I think. Nature is always a source of fascination, pleasure, truth and inspiration to me though, as are relationships between people.

Margaret Haley:

Visual sources. Abstract paintings, e.g. Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky. Poetry often shapes the outcome of my vocal music. Astronomical phenomena have a strong bearing on my music for traditional instrumentation. The rotational forces of the cosmos have certainly influenced my writing over the last decade.

Neil Smith:

My pieces can be the result of inspirations from almost any subject or area. They don’t always have to be extra-musical, as often I find particular musical ideas are inspiration enough to write a piece. Recent pieces have been based on Spanish poet Lorca, the nature of musical speeding up and slowing down, the phenomenon of discovering historic hoards, the science of animation and Arabic art. In the past five years I have found science in particular a fertile are for exploration. Scientific models can be represented in fascinating musical ways. This is something I want to explore more in the future.

Emma Wilde:

Everything but particularly other art forms, visual art, drama, dance, poetry and literature, all sorts of music, lately I think listening to electroacoustic music has changed the way I think about composing a lot. I listened to a lot of popular music growing up and still do and I think this has had a big effect on me too.

Gonçalo Gato:

I would say that what inspires me is indeed the mystery music still is, and how it makes me feel and think all sorts of things. I get inspiration from other people’s music because it transforms me, and because I can hardly picture myself living without it. Music is a kind of ‘speaking sound’, and in this sense I can hear the human voice in it. I am also an audiophile, very interested in Hi-Fi and acoustics. I take much pleasure from the ‘plastic’ aspect of sound and from sound reproduction fidelity.




James Hoyle:

Many things inspire me: recently these have included visual art, medieval music, architecture, food, political issues... It’s impossible to pin down any one point of inspiration because I enjoy the fact that many seemingly unrelated things can collide together as I work.




Andrew Thomas:

Anything from a novel, a line in a poem or an image to a noise, sound or smell from traveling and the real world. I gain constant inspiration from contemporaries and older composers and would cite particular influence from Nielsen, Sibelius, Purcell, Ligeti, Harvey, Grisey and Japanese music and aesthetics.

Andrew Baldwin:

My inspiration for pieces is often drawn from eclectic places – unless it is a commission with a specific theme. I have a big interest in orchestration and find that I spent a lot of time of this once my musical ideas are formed. I always find brilliant examples in the works of Ravel, Varese, and Takemitsu, as well as contemporaries Philip Hurel and Magnus Lindberg. My compositions often take a directive to effect the listener in a range of emotions.

Sohrab Uduman:

A difficult question since I cannot pin it down to one thing. The impulse, idea, can come from a number of sources; fine art (particularly important for me in recent times), literature, landscapes, environmental sounds, pieces I have heard, plain curiosity. Any piece I write usually takes up something that was present, to one degree or another, in a previous piece of mine.




Daniel Kidane:

Everything and anything. It could be a sound, or something visual or perhaps an idea I want to explore.

Click here to book your free place to attend one or both days of the OPUS2016 open workshops at the Barbican (22 & 23 January).

OPUS2016 shortlisted composer - Neil Smith

Full Name: Neil Tòmas Smith

(c) Stefan Beyer

Age: 27


Where are you from? Where do you live now? Do you think this is relevant to understanding your music?

I am from Scotland originally but for the last decade I have lived in England and, from 2010-2013 in Stuttgart, Germany. For the last year and a half I have lived in Birmingham, which I think is a wonderful city for the arts. No one place has had a huge influence on my music but I’ve enjoyed moving around and living in different cities and countries as you get to meet different composers and receive various influences.


How will you approach writing your OPUS2016 composition for Britten Sinfonia?

The piano trio is a really established genre with so many great pieces written for the line up. Therefore I’ll start by revisiting some of those great pieces from the past. So much of chamber music is defined by the relationship between instruments of the ensemble – whether the piano is dominant or provides the accompaniment; whether the instruments work together or independently. I will consider this first of all to try and begin to forge my individual response.


Who have you worked with previously? What ensembles / orchestras / organisations?

I have had the pleasure of working with a number of great ensembles and performers on my music: these include the Hebrides Ensemble. Red Note Ensemble, Ensemble 10/10, L’Orchestre de Philharmonique de Radio France, clarinettist Jonathan Sage, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, pianist Joseph Houston, cellist Jennifer Langridge, Ensemble Dark Inventions and percussion quartet Schalgquartett Köln. I am currently working on the Sound and Music and Making Music-supported Adopt a Composer scheme with the Thame Chamber Choir, which will result in a new work next year.


When did you first start to write music?

It was only when I began composing that I realised that music would become my keenest interest. This was at secondary school and down to encouragement from music teachers at the comprehensive I attended in Edinburgh. I will always be grateful for their enthusiasm and support during that vital time.


Describe your growth as a composer to this point. What were the pivotal points?

Probably the most important period for me was after first realising I was interested in composition. I studied at the RSAMD junior academy – taking the train through to Glasgow on a Saturday – and then went to St Mary’s Music School. In both institutions I was taught by Tom David Wilson, who gave me a fantastic start to my composition, and indeed more general, education.

There are perhaps two further key periods that defined my development – the first at the University of York during my undergraduate degree and the second in Germany. York really gives students a lot of freedom to explore and I was involved in so many different musical activities, including analysis, performance (contemporary and Baroque) and of course, composition. This was a fantastic all-round education.

In Germany I was able to attend many of the world’s largest new music festivals and heard a great deal of music of which I would have otherwise been unaware. I was also able to meet and hear some of the leading composers in central Europe – it was a very inspiring time.

How do you start a new work/ what is your composing method? 

For me, my pieces need to have a central theme – whether musical or extra-musical – and some method of exploring it. This can then be the central pillar which will support the rest of the piece. Sometimes I draw a lot of rough diagrams, lines and shapes to try and work out what this central pillar might be; other times I write a lot of words to try and pin down what will make this particular piece unique.

How do you feel about the opportunities that are available to composers?

There a lot of people who want to be composers and opportunities are very competitive. There will only be a chosen few who can make it their full time profession. I am engaged in creating a portfolio career which includes and supports my compositional activity.


What would be your advice to other young composers today?

Study abroad, at least for a time. It can give you a whole new perspective on your practice, and is, in most European countries at least, far cheaper than the UK!


What does the future hold for you? What are your next steps going to be as a composer?

I have a number of premieres lined up for next year, including a choir work for the Thame Chamber Choir and a new piece for cello, horn and clarinet. These will help me expand my practice – writing for (very good) amateurs for example and for new performance contexts.

Other than that the future is uncertain: I finish my PhD next year and must consider my next move while other factors mean I don’t know where I’ll be living in 6 months’ time!

Perhaps most excitingly, my first piece on disc will appear in 2016, in a new solo CD by clarinettist Jonathan Sage. It’s been a joy working with him on it and I think the final product will be fantastic.


You can join Neil and the other OPUS2016 shortlisted composers on 22 & 23 January 2016 for two days of workshops at the Barbican in London, with discussions and performances of the pieces these composers have been working on. Find out more and how to reserve your place here.