Friends & Composing

Recently on the Sibeliusmusic forum there has been a rather interesting discussion on how friends of (aspiring) composers react to the fact that they are writing music and how they react when being asked to critique a piece of music that the composer has written. I thought I would post my thoughts here and I wonder if they will change over time.

Generally I've found that friends are supportive and are impressed that I'm trying - often to the degree of thinking I'm an amazing composer before actually hearing anything!! Just saying "this week I've been working on my piano concerto" gets responses of "Wow you're so talented!" but who says that the concerto is any good at all?!

It's rather cute and also humbling when someone thinks that it's just an achievement for you:

a) to have an original creative idea
b) be able to write it down as sheet music

In that way friends (mostly non-musical) serve an important purpose because they support your endevour and have faith in you without needing to understand the finer details of what exactly you are doing. After all we tend to admire those who have qualities or skills we lack. In this way they serve as a reminder that what you are doing is a pretty unique and 'special' past time. It is easy to forget that when you are a member of communities such as Sibeliusmusic or surround your professional life with music, music-lovers, music critiques and musicians.
For example, I was recently working on a score in Sibelius and space cadet lodger turned to Gordon and said "So what is he doing there? Is he actually writing music? Bloody 'ell".

Most people on the forum believe that their friends (largely non-musical also) have little to contribute because they do not appreciate 'classical music'. I disagree. True, non-musical friends will probably not be able to give you specific musical criticism about such things as form or voicing or articulation but they still remain the ultimate test of accessibility. I think that if you can write a piece of music that non-musicians and musicians will like then you are onto a winner. It can be frustrating though, I admit, if non-musicians don't understand your work in the context of the intention ("It's supposed to sound like that because it's atonal")

Either way, when I've asked people to listen to music they are normally fine about saying which one they like the most out of two or more pieces, but won't be overly specific or critical. They might offer vague criticism or preference ("I like this section A but I'm not sure this section B works") but will never be particularly open or critical. Interesting even musically versed friends tend not to talk about the music's intention or context. For example, they are unlikely to say "well it sounds nice, but it's a poor concerto" - they'll just say, "yes it sounds nice". It seems that they approach music 'as is'. I also get the impression that people are worried they'll be wrong or that if they go into too much detail they'll sound like pretentious wine critics and will be teased.


I generally don't ask friends or family to critique compositions - I tend to issue them as 'done and dusted', so when I'm looking for people to critique I ask complete strangers or people I know as associates/contacts.

They are more likely to be open, they often know what they are talking about (for example, I've asked amazing professional flautist Gareth Hanson to critique my Vento flute sonata but more on that later) and I respect them. Being young I also have the advantage that in asking older people for advice, they normally see it as their duty and are secure enough to dish out criticism - often because they feel I should ("no 23 year old can possibly write good music!!").

Paradise Completely Lost On Me

Going to see a production a friend is involved in is a tricky business as anyone who has watched that episode of Friends knows. What do you say if asked? What if the production is pure rubbish? What if the production is great and your friend is the the worst - the iceberg sinking the Titanic? What if your friend is the floatation device trying to keep a lead balloon from sinking?

Some of these scenarios are easier to deal with than others naturally.

I was blessed that in this particular production of Paradise Lost presented by the Hampstead Players, Margaret was undoubtedly the best thing in this production. Her interpretation was not only believable, but highly human and naturalistic. You believed the words coming out of her mouth were the words of a real person because her delivery was naturalistic rather than becoming a slave to the metre of the verse. There was real emotion behind her performance - everything from anger and frustration to power-drunkenness lesbianity (yes I just made up a word). If only other cast members had learnt from this experience. It was difficult to tell if any of the characters were portraying any kind of emotion or commanding the stage - the only opportunity to tell this was by the way they entered and exit (if they are running they are scared or upset apparently).

What else was right?

PROFESSIONAL LIGHTING

Undoubtedly low budget and pretty difficult to do in a church - the lighting for this production was spectacular. In a play in which focus must really be drawn to the words, the lighting gave a sense of atmosphere (have you ever sat in a church that was completely pitch black if only for a few seconds) and highlighted without being intrusive. It's something that it is so often overdone in amateur theatre.

INNOVATIVE MUSIC

The idea of using contemporary music from Milton's time was indeed inspired. It gave a sense of majesty and added interest. I felt however that a couple of the pieces were inappropriate in their placement in the plot and more music could have been used. Big praise for using the Albinoni Oboe Concerto even if it was just for interval music. Specially composed trumpet fanfares using the diabolis where also appreciated. Brass always sounds great in a church.

GOOD SET CHOICES

Yeah keep in simple. Was the trellis and leaves part of the set? Not sure - a more central position would have made me feel more comfortable about that. Good use in terms of direction with the various levels afforded by the church's design. Thought the tree (comprised of several cast members clumped together holding apples) was very effective, even if my description was not!

So what was wrong?

THE WORST COSTUMES EVER

Whoever had the idea of dressing the angels in something out of Batman was seriously disturbed. I didn't really get the artistic vision behind this. Even Satan battled against more gold lame than a Gay Pride march that was sponsored by a gold lame manufacturer offering discounts on gold lame. Having Stan in body paint was a great move - but I'm not sure Gold was the right colour. Yes, red would have been predictable and she would have looked like Darth Maul but perhaps silver would have looked less abrasive. The capes and generally the whole looked terrible in context and showed no appreciation for the venue - unless I'm missing lots of gold in the church's decor. There was also a clash between period-clothed characters and these Gotham City rejects which really, really did not work. I would have been tempted to suggest a colour palate based on the church's decor and construction. Evil angels looking like gargoyles - stony faced. That kind of thing.

Adam and Eve in attire which is slightly Romanesque? Ever since I saw the York Mystery Plays and remarked at what a cool choice flesh coloured bikinis and speedos were, nothing else will really do. The guy who played Adam on that occasion, a tax inspector, had worked out considerably in his preparation for the role (Ok I know what you're thinking).

The mishmash of costuming really let this production down.

WEIRD CASTING

(Margaret as a female Satan was a great idea as already stated).

Ok, I accept that amateur companies have a limited stock of performers to cast from (but being brutal I could refer you to my other rant on amateur theatre and how you should select works suitable for the talents of those involved)

If you're going to have narrators, PLEASE make sure you have narrators who have clear diction. Putting them out of sight is also a bad idea. Where diction or projection is not good, it helps if we have a face to lip read. Take note costume department, that's also another reason why masking people is a bad idea. Batman may have wanted to protect his identity, but I think the streets of Hampstead will be safe if you reveal yourself here. Apparently I saw some understudies at the particular performance I attended so those problems may not have been intended or ignored.

People not knowing their lines and having to be bailed out by other cast members on stage - never acceptable and certainly not with such ticket prices. If people are not up to the job, they should not be cast. PS. What on earth drives you to congratulate such a person after the performance other than if you are caught up in an orgy of amateur luvvie let's-get-along crap? Amateur theatre, just like the professional world has its politics I guess.

STRANGE DIRECTION CHOICES

Is it really necessary to have a completely redundant character on stage at all times (other than to bail out people who forget their lines)?

No serpent? Not even a hand movement? I wanted a sock-puppet and was sorely disappointed.

Why was it acceptable have most cast members just deliver their lines in the classic "I'm acting in an amateur Shakespeare-like work". It really, really gets on my nerves. The delivery becomes suitable predictable with stupid changes in tone and volume which are so affected the words just sound like a repetitive drone which means everyone stops paying attention to what is actually being said.

WOW THAT'S REALLY NEGATIVE XANDER!

Well sorry- but I'm being honest. I liked the production overall, but I got frustrated that several aspects were deficient.

What I will say though is that the audience really appreciated it and maybe that's because they were totally in tune with the literature and the themes and the philosophy (the Director in his programme note even added Global Warming - c'mon dude, Paradise Lost deals with the concepts of Good, Evil, Original Sin and the Fall of Man - I don't think you need to put anything else in there). Also this is a work which was not written for stage, the original source material isn't even a novel and so the character have little interaction or dialogue which each other. It's all 'proclamatory' and rather repetitive. I really love interaction between characters in theatre, so again a personal preference that this show couldn't fulfill - not its fault of course.

Shallow as it may seem, theatre for me is about entertainment and artistry. I really don't care if the show is saying very little as long as it says what it has to say in a well executed way. Sadly, on this score the show didn't do so well. It had an awful lot to say, but I didn't hear much of it.

Fighting The Flute Fraudster

Aren't readers delighted I'm posting more often? Well as posts go this definintely falls into the category of the "rubbish I have to deal with en route". It's a fascinating story and while it will totally be all about how amazing I am - its still great.

Lots of you know that recently I have been exploring the possibility of buying a new flute - a really good new flute. The background is (again you probably know this) that I've developed quite a lucrative business from buying and selling flutes on EBAY often just putting more pictures of the instrument and describing them in a more detailed way and then reaping the benefit of this. This has meant that I have been constantly between flutes, cashing in on one to buy another. Christmas 2006 I frankly needed the money and all my projects from around that time were orchestration or composing so I didn't need one.

My original intention was to use my birthday money and some savings to buy a moderately good flute like the one a colleague of mine plays (Powell Signature) but upon speaking to my Dad he said it would be great if I could buy an English flute rather than an American one. My Dad is still very much into the whole support English/British manufacturing and enterprise and I must say I share this. I did happen to know of an English maker, Stephen Wessel, whose flutes are amazing but I always considered out of my price range. My dad said that he would be willing to give me a loan to fund the flute if I bought one of those. We set a limit and I went off in search of one - hoping that I could get one second hand to reduce the costs. Wessel flutes are made without a headjoint and so I had to factor in the cost of a headjoint into my budget.

I remembered some time ago that a short while ago a flute was listed on EBAY but hadn't sold due to a pretty stupid high starting price (if you're selling on EBAY don't use a Buy It Now unless you're sensible about the asking price). I contacted the seller.

So she still had the Wessel flute for sale and I talked about my time line for the end of March. I said I'd arrange a viewing at her home in Coventry early April. She agreed. From then on things went down hill from there. She started insisting we set a date because she did not want to sound "pushy". This was to be an omen for the rest of the experience let me tell you. By this point, I had agreed with my Dad about the budget and that it could happen sooner or later. I was enthusiastic about finding a seller and so agreed to visit her on Saturday. She said she had her eye on a second hand and so limited time offer on another flute and the funding for that flute would come from her sale to me.

It cost me about £40 round trip to Coventry but I thought - for this price, what the hell. When I arrived the seller picked me up from the station. She seemed very nice and bubbly. I played the flute which was indeed very good. She had told me that it had recently been fully overhauled a year ago by the maker. I noticed that a few of the keys were defective and the flute looked a little tarnished.

The seller was extremely pushy and when I said I liked the flute and was considering buying it, she wanted me to give her cash as a deposit to confirm the sale. I refused. She was desperate to complete any sale by the end of the week. I told her this was pretty impossible a) given my original time scale was April, b) I had to wait for various funds from my Dad and so on. I said that I would confirm a sale when I got home.

I was suspicious to say the least. In the care on the way back to the station she had talked about how we obviously trusted each other and neither of us were going to screw the other one over. She even told me about a fraud on eBAY involving Altus flutes.

When I got home I e-mailed her to say that I would hold off on agreeing the sale until I have verified the service history and found out how much it would cost to repair the damaged keys. I e-mailed Stephen Wessel (the maker) and asked him to verify what she had told me. It turned out that the flute was 7 years old and that it had only been serviced 2 years ago. This was enough to convince me that I was not prepared to buy this instrument.

However, the plot thickens. When I tell the seller that I was going to check the service history, she e-mails and phones me leaving a voicemail to say that she has spoken to the maker and confirmed that to fix the flute, it just required cleaning. The maker in his e-mail says it needs a complete overhaul! She says that he considers her asking price to be unbelievably reasonable about 3 times (nothing like repetition to get your point across), yet in his e-mail he asks me what her asking price is!!

At this point I decide not to contact her immediately to make her sweat a little. I knew that she had already placed an order for a new flute and I'd said I would contact her on Sunday anyway. I ask Stephen if she really did speak to him.

This morning she e-mailed to say that she didn't want to sound pushy but she had no time for playing games. Unable to help myself I told her about the findings of my investigation. She then e-mails and voicemails to say that I need to get my facts right and that she's spoken to Stephen herself and that he now confirms her story all along. She also says that he was unclear about the service history - yet he provided me with a very specific service history!

More inconsistencies - first the case was not the original, then the case wasn't included in the price, then the case was the original and included in the price....

oh and did I mention that this flute is a bargain price. No? Ok, well it's a bargain price. Yes a bargain price. She could sell it for so much more. She could. She could sell it for so much more. So much more I tell you. And the flute seller, he says that it is such a bargain too. He says, she could sell it for so much more.

The ultimate irony is that bad attitude and lies asside it was an ok flute (and YES it was a good price) and I probably would have bought it.

Needless to say Detective Inspector Xander kicks serious bootay.

Black Atlas Reviews

And the reviews for Black Atlas are in! None of them mention my work (why would they? There are much more noteworthy aspects to comment upon), but I am thrilled to be involved in a production which is being praised so highly. Here's a roundup of links to the reviews:

Helen Otter, BBC

"Sometimes gripping and moving, other times uncomfortable and distressing, the play was powerful and intense throughout, and dealt with its subject matter confidently and maturely."

"No set, no scene changes, no costumes and no fancy production techniques, this was a raw and astounding piece of theatre that makes you think."

For the full review, click here

Michael Kelligan, Artsweb Wales

"A performance by the London Shakespeare Workshop/LSW Prison Project is a special theatre experience. It may not have the polish or pizzazz of a National Theatre tour but it does have a sincerity and commitment that is all embracing. In the approximately four metre square centre piece of the stage seven strong personable young men in white T-shirts take us through Molineaux’ story. We are never expected to forget that they are actors and that as actors they all have a special relationship with each other as participants in what turns out to be a joyous and affirming experience. Rodger Dunklee has a warm resonant singing voice that brings added dignity and atmosphere to stage experience. The whole cast enjoy the relatively confined space and are able to communicate on a very intimate level with the audience that they have drawn deeply down into their story."

"A very thoughtful, provocative and enjoyable evening of theatre."

For the full review, click here

Burning Down The House

Well, not as dramatic as it sounds. Burning down = minor fire and house = flat. You get the idea. Do I suck at giving my posts titles?

At 7am when you're just about to go to work on Tuesday morning, really the last thing you need is your space cadet of a lodger bursting into the room (thankfully I'm not a nakey child in bed) shouting "the thing... the thing's on fire.... the thing's on fire" while behind him a beautiful backdrop of falling flames, smoke, ash and melted smoke detector.

Gordon, hero that he is, tackled the blaze shirtless and managed to put it out and call the fire service while I raced through the building alerting other residents who acted pissed off because their lives might be in danger and just assumed that it was our fault. I also ran through the building in search of a fire extinguisher and muttering frantically, "I can't believe there is no fricking fire extinguishers in this building". Spacecadet lodger decided that throwing water on the fire might be a good idea. Luckily Gordon and I managed to stop him before he through a glass of water on the electrical fire. Beauty fades, stupid is forever. Firemen were unexpectedly nice but did assume that we were the cause of the fire and that it was in the kitchen. I think we got some major respect for putting out the fire and turning off the electricity.

For you see, it was indeed the smoke detector that was the cause of the fire because it decided to burst into flames. Upon telling people of this dramatic occurance which has effectively written off our hall way, they can't help but laugh at the irony. The next question is "did the smoke detector actually go off when it burst into flames?". Indeed, the smoke detector was self aware enough to know that it was on fire and really, it was a jolly good sport for letting us know. One can't help but ponder if this was actually a Short Circuit moment (Number 5 is ALIVE!... I love that film SO MUCH.) and that actually the developers of the flat shouldn't have taken the remains of this smoke detector to be disected for a malfunction because it may well have been a sentient being. Jean Luc Picard would have been mortified.

Anyway, so smoke detector ethics asside, the developers and lovely landlady are going to sort everything out and restore the hall way to its former glory. To think we spent over a year trying to keep a flat that has cream carpets, cream walls and a cream ceiling, clean for it all to be covered in melted plastic and soot.

Nothing was damaged but it could have been so much worse if we had not been in the house and the fire had been allowed to spread. Such things serve as a lucky reminder to:

• Make sure you have adequate contents insurance for your possessions (we don't yet!)
• Back up your important computer files and keep hard copies of important documents off site (I am terrible at that too!)