Composition Department

Dear Composition Students,

We are all looking forward to meeting you during induction week at RWCMD.

The key messages of our department are:

Creativity, curiosity, open minded team work, and collaboration, which you will explore with the guidance of a staff of hand-picked specialist professionals, all of whom have the interests of the students and their future at heart.

Divisions into separate categories of learning are secondary, and a bit of an artificial construct – though absolutely necessary for the acquisition of specific skills, and for assessment, leading to credits which go towards your final qualifications.

There is no limit to the benefits of exploring music both familiar and unfamiliar, both in Western Cultural music traditions and in the wider, global field. Even with established works, try to listen to several different interpretations and recordings.

There are many cross-genre composers, groups, movements and partnerships, including those started in the diaspora of the French overseas territories in Paris from the 1950s, & by Peter Gabriel & WOMAD from 1980 onwards. There is an Argentinian Tango tradition in Finland; some of the best Hungarian Romani music can be heard in Oslo; Southern Spanish Flamenco music is often heard blended with the Oud and other instruments of North Africa. There is incredible music in The Balkans, Turkey, Egypt, & Ethiopia, and don’t miss the hypnotic and ecstatic Sufi devotional music around the Tigris & Euphrates, stretching its influence across to Pakistan [Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan].

Don’t forget the ancient and refined instruments of Traditional Japanese ritual, Chinese Court Music, ‘Peking Opera’, Korean Pansori [operatic story telling in song], and the music & art of the Aboriginal peoples of Australasia.  Not to mention Tibetan Chant and Mongolian ‘throat’ harmonics singing, the Inuit of Greenland & Canada, and Sami music in the far North of Europe. Some of the most surprising and exotic music in the whole of Europe is from the mountain valleys of that supposedly staid country, Switzerland.

If you listen to only one work, perhaps it should be 

Jonathan Harvey: Mortuos Plangos Vivos Voco. Because it takes real recorded sounds, changes their perspective and context, and then places them into a timeline that creates a journey, a sense of questioning and exploration, which is much more than the sum of the parts. Or perhaps Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune by Claude Debussy.

Some say that the best thing to do with your life after many years studying for exams at school is to relax, read books, spend time with friends and family, get some fresh air and exercise.

However, you may have been doing that already for a while.  And if you are coming as a post graduate composer, you may be familiar with everything below, and if not, why not get ahead?

In case you would like some pointers towards music and associated art, and books, to dip into, to get your mind up and running for the adventures about to begin for you at RWCMD, then my colleagues on the composition teaching team and I have drawn up a very wide list of possible starting points.

The list below contains music suggestions. We recommend that you try to get access to scores as well as recordings from your public library or from the internet. For scores you can trial NKODA, or look on IMSLP.

This is just a start for a lifetime’s journey of exploration of music and sound. Lots of fun times ahead. Do get in touch if you want to ask anything, and see you in September.

With best wishes

John Hardy (john.hardy@rwcmd.ac.uk) 
Head of Composition and Creative Music Technology

RECOMMENDED ACTIVE LISTENING & RESEARCH/ ARGYMHELLION GWRANDO AC YMCHWIL GWEITHREDOL

  • John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948)
  • Hildegard Von Bingen: Hymns & Songs – there are many recordings on YouTube
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen: Die Gesang Der Jünglinger; Stimmung
  • Carla Bley: Escalator Over The Hill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOKpuPEPgOI
  • Jonathan Harvey: Mortuos Plangos Vivos Voco
  • Barbara Hannigan sings soprano and conducts excerpt from Gyorgy Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre [concert performance] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPKzyINAe-Q
  • Miles Davis/Gil Evans: Sketches Of Spain
  • Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue.
  • Lili Boulanger: D’un soir triste [1918] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OERJAjoHRY
  • Pierre Boulez: Pli Selon Pli; Le Marteau Sans Maitre; Domaines
  • Olivier Messaien: Turangalila Symphony; Quator Pour Le Fin Du Temps; Des Canyons Aux Etoiles
  • Hannah Kendall – The Spark Catchers
  • Kaija Saariaho – Petals
  • Julia Wolfe – Big Beautiful Dark and Scary
  • Igor Stravinsky: Symphonies Of Winds; In Memoriam Dylan Thomas; Les Noces; The Firebird. The Rite Of Spring
  • Any recent works by Kerry Andrew, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Anna Clyne, Dani Howard
  • G Mahler: Kindertotenlieder; Symphony 2; Symphony 10. All his work really
  • Florence Price – Symphony 01 in Em – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s4yY_A2A2k
  • James Blake – Colour in Anything (Full Album)  – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTglDb7qjvQ&list=OLAK5uy_ny1Ve8rIr71HbcGL6uCpWlsgqmv2bItcY
  • James Blake – Radio Silence – YouTubeCaroline Shaw [USA composer, singer, violinist, collaborator, of huge range and sophistication]
  • Caroline Shaw [USA composer, singer, violinist, collaborator, of huge range and sophistication]
  • Jessie Montgomery [USA composer and virtuoso violinist, able to play her challenging work for solo violin to perfection]
  • Meredith Monk [USA senior composer, vocalist, influencer and guru, respected and referenced through many genres]
  • Hildegard Westerkamp [German/Canadian composer] ‘Beneath The Forest Floor’.
  • Rebecca Saunders [International composer, long based in Berlin, composer of complex and subtle orchestral, instrumental and chamber works, winner of many of the very top awards in classical composition.
  • Pauline Oliveros [USA composer and accordionist, pioneer of site-specific deep listening music, as well as electronic and electro-acoustic music]
  • Natasha Barrett [UK composer with connections to Norway; electronic and electro-acoustic music; connections with BEAST in Birmingham]
  • B Britten: Billy Budd; War Requiem
  • Unsuk Chin: Alice In Wonderland; Violin Concerto
  • H Purcell: Sonatas for String Trio; the Viol Fantasies; Dido & Aeneas
  • Anton Bruckner: Symphonies 9, 8, 7, 6.
  • John Adams: Dr Atomic; Nixon In China; A Short Ride In A Fast Machine; Violin Concerto
  • Rebecca Saunders: any of her works really https://www.rebeccasaunders.net/
  • John Tavener: Celtic Requiem; Ultimos Ritos/Last Rites; The Whale; The Protecting Veil 
  • Brian Ferneyhough: Sonatas For String Quartet; In Transit.
  • Franz Schubert: An Die Musik; Gute Nacht; String Quintet; Trout Quintet. Symphony 9 in C [Great]; String Quartet in D minor
  • Alban Berg: Wozzek; Lulu; Lyric Suite for String Quartet; Three Pieces For Orchestra
  • B Bartok: String Quartets 1-6; Violin Sonata; Viola Concerto
  • P Glass: Einstein On The Beach:The Qatsi Trilogy [of films with music, no dialogue, only images, edited to the music]
  • Leos Janacek: Sinfonietta; From The House Of The Dead
  • Steve Reich: Music For 18 Musicians; Different Trains
  • Anton Webern: String Trio; String Quartet
  • Karel Szymanowski: Symphony 3; Violin Concerto; King Roger
  • Krzysztof Penderecki: Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima; De Natura Sonoris
  • Gyørgy Ligeti: Atmospheres; Requiem; Lux Aeterna; Piano Concerto; Lontano; Melodien; Le Grand Macabre
  • Richard Wagner: Tristan Und Isolde [if time is short listen to the Preludes to Acts 1, 2 & 3, and the Liebestod from the end of Act 3]
  • Claude Debussy: Preludes [piano]; Peleas Et Melisande; La Mer; String Quartet
  • Maurice Ravel: L’Enfant Et Les Sortileges; Gaspard De La Nuit; Bolero; La Valse; String Quartet
  • Arnold Schoenberg: Verklårte Nacht; Gurrelieder; Erwartung, Three Pieces For Piano Solo
  • S. Bach: Violin Partitas; Cello Suites; St Matthew Passion; Goldberg Variations; Brandenberg Concertos 1-6; Art Of Fugue; 48 Preludes & Fugues
  • Claudio Monteverdi: Orfeo; Vespers 1610; L’Incoronazione Di Poppea
  • Thomas Tallis: Lamentations; Spem In Alium; O Nata Lux
  • Try to listen to some early Mediaeval Chant [Plainsong], and something from each century of the middle ages,
  • eg:
  • Perotin; Machaut; Josquin Des Prez; Okeghem; Obrecht; Taverner [Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas]; Victoria; Palestrina; Alessandro Gabrieli
  • Any music from North and South India
  • Any music from North, South and Central Africa
  • Music from the Arab world, including the areas traditionally influenced by Islam from 700AD onwards.
  • Indigenous music of the UK, and of North America, South America, The Carribean/Central America.
  • Music from China, Japan, South East Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Java and Bali.
  • Try to hear ancient polyphonic music from Sardinia, Corsica, Georgia, Pacific Islands.

Here are various features on Anna Meredith, who is a good example of a relatively new idea of a composer: someone who is quite a broad cultural figure, and multi-faceted:

Anna Meredith: Fibs – band on top of building in London – joyous, free, clean, messy, controlled, asymmetrical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=29&v=TsgNYUfdv9A&feature=emb_logo

Anna Meredith live review in The Guardian 2020:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/08/anna-meredith-earth-hackney-london-review

Nautilus + 2 other tracks at Tiny Desk Concerts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36FNJiP8GWk

https://www.fabermusic.com/we-represent/meredith-anna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=05o1gMSEOLo&feature=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME-Uosxgbio

SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READING/ DARLLEN YCHWANEGOL AWGRYMIR:

  • Behind Bars by Elaine Gould [Faber & Faber]
  • The Study of Orchestration by Samuel Adler
  • Instrumentation and Orchestration by Alfred Blatter
  • How to Write for Percussion – Samuel Z. Solomon
  • Orchestration by Walter Piston
  • The Sibelius Reference Book Published by Avid/Sibelius
  • In Search Of A Concrete Music by Pierre Schaeffer [1952] [À la recherche d’une musique concrete]
  • The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross
  • Pink Noises by Tara Rodgers
  • Serialism by Arnold Whittal
  • Introduction To Post-Tonal Theory by Joseph N. Straus

[Lynne Plowman’s & Tic Ashfield’s suggestions have been incorporated into the lists above]

Mark David Boden adds:

For a book which is easy to dip in and out of and which provides context, history and musical insight, I’d thoroughly recommend:

Alex Ross: ‘The Rest is Noise’ a guide through some of the musical highlights of the last century.

Alex Ross: ‘Listen to This’ is another easy and illuminating read, though it’s essays compiled from his column at the New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/alex-ross

The complete works of Stravinsky simply because there is much stylistic variety within his work. The recordings are not always of the highest quality, but there’s an honesty about them that I love; some illuminating interviews too.

A lovely collection of recordings by Ligeti called ‘Clear or Cloudy’ on DG.

Like the Stravinsky recommendation, I think it really helps demonstrate the enormous breadth of creativity in his output, placing pieces such as Lontano and Atmosphères next to far more lyrical works such as the Violin Concerto & Double Concerto.

Joseph Davies adds:

Tom Service’s recent Gresham College lectures which are available as free videos and transcripts here – haven’t watched them all yet but went to a couple and they were excellent, been meaning to catch up with them:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/series/tom-service

I’d highly recommend his series of contemporary classical music guides in the Guardian a few years ago – a great jumping-off point for exploring a lot of the big names of the last fifty years (including video links to recordings etc.):

https://www.theguardian.com/music/series/a-guide-to-contemporary-classical-music

For a good genre-busting overview about music I’d suggest

Nicholas Cook: Music – A Very Short Introduction. [OUP – cheap and can be read in a day or so]

If I could give just one score to get to grips with, I’d say

Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. 31 pages of perfection.

Owen Lloyd writes:

Audio Culture, Readings in Modern Music (Cox and Warner).

It’s a grab bag of approachable and important essays around all sorts of practices.

There’s a recent revision with about 30 new essays, including stuff about machine learning.

Great book. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/audio-culture-revised-edition-9781501318382/

Odilon Marcenaro adds this:

If I could suggest one book, it would be:

Murray Schafer, R. (1977,1994) – The Soundscape – Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Second Edition. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books

For listening, I would suggest:

“Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music”, volumes 1 to 7, available on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6etYpaCyMUCnXoDxdVHLxm?si=W91caELiQ6GyKwlCPFRuCA

https://open.spotify.com/album/2P8UMtdO8F1uHUgHaNu6Kb?si=mEFq0LeJQlCihrJVNeDz7Q

https://open.spotify.com/album/45EWD3WMf5gZY833sDJbos?si=SBdLDEPsSjWfevHeNAlJ6g

https://open.spotify.com/album/4gRNyVtre2hFYIpMGecf1H?si=LRVBfsq0RbSKPX13MnNA7g

https://open.spotify.com/album/0yqoJ1Ey5v9Q4Ms8Wh6XRI?si=N6RfDl1VSUSbzbg_2xv8Zw
https://open.spotify.com/album/57N0TRY6DV9Jw7frhKb5g2?si=EqFVUt48SceiUNITMnxQCA

https://open.spotify.com/album/68jd2YgjZUO3ZXT8jXCuQp?si=ekvVwGjpSSSb204fbEUpAw

The Anthology is an amazing piece of work….it unearthed the very earliest piece of Musique Concrête – not by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948, as universally believed, but by an obscure Egyptian composer called Halim El-Dabh, in 1944: The Expression of Zaar, for wire recorder.

Michael McCartney mentions a couple of fascinating books, but adds that it’s fine to discover these when you arrive at college:

Vincent Persichetti: 20th Century Harmony – https://www.academia.edu/38883692/Vincent_Persichetti_-_Twentieth_Century_Harmony

Joseph N. Straus – Introduction to Post Tonal Theory [Harmony] –

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Post-Tonal-Theory-Joseph-Straus/dp/0393938832

Annwyl Fyfyrwyr Cyfansoddi,

Rwy’n edrych ymlaen at gwrdd â chi gyd yn ystod yr wythnos ymsefydlu yn CBCDC. Hoffwn fanteisio ar y cyfle hwn i awgrymu ambell beth er mwyn eich helpu i baratoi ar gyfer eich astudiaethau.

Negeseuon allweddol ein hadran yw:

Creadigrwydd, chwilfrydedd, gwaith tîm gyda meddwl agored, a chydweithredu, a byddwch yn archwilio’r elfennau hyn gydag arweiniad staff proffesiynol a ddewiswyd yn arbennig, ac mae popeth a wnânt er budd y myfyrwyr a’u dyfodol.

Mae isrannu i gategorïau ar wahân yn eilaidd, ac yn ddyfais sydd ychydig yn artiffisial – er yn gwbl hanfodol er mwyn caffael sgiliau penodol, ac ar gyfer asesu, gan arwain at gredydau a fydd yn cyfrif tuag at eich cymwysterau terfynol.

Nid oes pen draw i fanteision archwilio cerddoriaeth gyfarwydd ac anghyfarwydd, yn nhraddodiadau cerddoriaeth Diwylliant y Gorllewin ac yn y maes byd-eang ehangach. Hyd yn oed gyda gweithiau sefydledig, ceisiwch wrando ar nifer o wahanol ddehongliadau a recordiadau. Mae llawer o gyfansoddwyr sy’n croesi genre, grwpiau, mudiadau a phartneriaethau, yn cynnwys y rheini a ddechreuwyd yn alltudiaeth tiriogaethau tramor Ffrainc ym Mharis o’r 1950au, a gan Peter Gabriel a WOMAD o’r 1980 ymlaen. Ceir Traddodiad Tango’r Ariannin yn y Ffindir; gellir clywed peth o gerddoriaeth Sipsiwn Hwngari yn Oslo; clywir Fflamenco De Sbaen yn aml yn wedi’i gyfuno a’r Oud ac offerynnau eraill Gogledd Affrica. Mae cerddoriaeth ryfeddol i’w chael yn y Balcan, Twrci, Yr Aifft ac Ethiopia, a chofiwch am gerddoriaeth ddefosiynol hypnotig ac ecstatig Sufi yn ardaloedd afonydd y Tigris a’r Ewffrates, yn ymestyn ei ddylanwad i Bacistan [Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan].

Cofiwch hefyd am offerynnau hynafol a chywrain defodau Traddodiadol Japan, Cerddoriaeth Llys o Tsieina, ‘Opera Peking’, Pansori Corea [adrodd storïau operatig drwy gân], a cherddoriaeth a chelfyddyd Brodorion Awstralasia,  heb sôn am Lafarganu Tibetaidd a harmonïau gyddfol Mongolia, Inwit yr Ynys Las a Chanada, a cherddoriaeth Sami Gogledd eithaf Ewrop. Daw peth o gerddoriaeth fwyaf annisgwyl ac egsotig Ewrop gyfan o ddyffrynnoedd mynyddig y wlad sydd i fod yn ddigyffro, Y Swistir.

Os gwrandewch ar un gwaith yn unig, efallai y dylai fod:

Jonathan Harvey: ‘Mortuos Plangos Vivos Voco’. Oherwydd ei fod yn cymryd synau wedi’u recordio go iawn, yn newid eu persbectif a’u cyd-destun, ac yna’n eu osod mewn llinell amser sy’n creu taith, ymdeimlad o gwestiynu ac archwilio, sy’n llawer mwy na chyfanswm y rhannau. Neu Prelude faune l’apres-midi flwyddynun gan Debussy.

Dywed rhai mai’r peth gorau i wneud â’ch bywyd ar ôl blynyddoedd lawer yn astudio ar gyfer arholiadau yn yr ysgol yw ymlacio, darllen llyfrau, treulio amser gyda ffrindiau a theulu, cael awyr iach ac ymarfer corff.

Fodd bynnag, efallai eich bod yn gwneud hynny eisoes am ychydig. Ac os ydych chi’n dod fel cyfansoddwr ôl-raddedig, efallai eich bod chi’n gyfarwydd â phopeth isod, ac os na, pam lai fwrw ymlaen?

Rhag ofn yr hoffech gael rhai awgrymiadau tuag at gerddoriaeth a chelf gysylltiedig, a llyfrau, i blymio i mewn i, er mwyn cael eich meddwl ar waith ar gyfer yr anturiaethau ar fin cychwyn i chi yn CBCDC, yna mae fy nghydweithwyr ar y tîm addysgu cyfansoddi a minnau wedi tynnu llun i fyny rhestr eang iawn o fannau cychwyn posib.

Mae’r rhestr isod yn cynnwys awgrymiadau cerddoriaeth, ac rwy’n argymell y dylech geisio cael gafael ar sgoriau yn ogystal â recordiadau o’ch llyfrgell lleol neu ar y rhyngrwyd. Am sgorau gallwch dreialu NKODA, neu edrych ar IMSLP.

Dyma ddechrau ar daith bywyd o archwilio cerddoriaeth a sain. Llawer o amseroedd hwyl o’n blaen. Cysylltwch â ni os ydych chi am ofyn unrhyw beth, a edrychaf ymlaen at eich gweld ym mis Medi.

Cofion cynnes

John Hardy (john.hardy@rwcmd.ac.uk) 
Pennaeth Cyfansoddi a thechnoleg creadigol