I have no problem referring to myself as a singer or a musician but I still find myself a little stuck when people call me a composer. For me that conjures an image of a Beethoven-like figure, walking over moorland with a notebook in one hand, jotting down scraps of melody for future symphonies and string quartets as inspiration strikes. That is not me at all.
I have written music since I was a child but it has always been for practical use. My family household was musical; my parents love listening to classical music and my two brothers sing and play instruments. Growing up we had a family ensemble of descant recorders (quite an excruciating sound in a small room!) and we sometimes used to sing together. I was very used to arranging music for whoever was around me and this developed into writing pastiche, reflecting the music I was otherwise playing. Throughout school, university and my years as a classroom music teacher, I was used to providing practical music, arranged or composed, for the forces on hand.
In my performing career, I am used to engaging with a wide range of styles from across the centuries and nationalities. It was once said of my compositions that they sounded a little like whatever I was singing at the time. I have come to realise that there is an obvious and inevitable truth in this; composers have always reflected the musical world around them, including the great innovators. No one composes in a vacuum. However, for me there can be a conscious choice (although perhaps sometimes subliminal) as to what musical style I might employ to fulfil a commission. It can feel almost like choosing what clothes to wear to fit a context.
Being asked to write for a period instrument ensemble suggests a particular approach to me. I feel a need to answer the question, why would the music I am writing be suitable for period instruments rather than a modern ensemble? In a piece like From Ignatius Sancho, I use compositional techniques beloved by Baroque composers (such as the use of a Purcellian ground bass throughout the piece) to make explicit its period roots, however contemporary the dressing. The AAM players have years of experience realising baroque notation – ornaments, figured harmony, articulation and even basic dynamics – and I wanted to harness this expertise within a framework that would be at once familiar to them and also allow them to explore something new.
Extraordinary American counter-tenor Reginal Mobley invited me to set this text as part of his on-going examination of black voices in cultural history. I wanted to find a musical style that fitted the nature of the highly-wrought language. The pace of the setting and its musical gestures may initially distract from Ignatius’ intent, but I hope audiences might feel moved to look back at the text after Reginald’s delivery and digest its full meaning.
May 2024
From Ignatius Sancho is premiered at Sons of England.
