When I look back over my career as a composer and musician I often wonder how I got here. Before the age of nineteen my main claim to musical fame was a very weak record in piano examinations and an ability, and irritating compulsion, to sing a harmony to anything. At eighteen years I made the decision to enter the Bachelor of Arts/Music courses at University College Dublin where I chose English and Music as my main subjects before continuing on to complete a B.Mus degree after gaining a B.A..
In the early 1980s the best any of my fellow students could aspire to was to be a music teacher, and as a result the music course was tailored to instill a strong understanding of classical form and structure. The English course was mind-expanding, while Music provided discipline and form with little interest in developing the student’s appreciation of the music itself. That was left up to us to do on our own.
Every day in English threw up something provocative. I remember the shock of reading “The Idea of Order at Key West” by Wallace Stevens, and the profound effect it had on my view of the nature of music. In contrast Music was a succession of facts. While there was some degree of musical appreciation it was limited to the late 18th and 19th centuries in the main. I remember attending weeks of lectures on the symphonic music of Bruckner which still, to this day, bores me to death. I had become obsessed with Debussy, and in four years we never analysed any of his music and I don’t actually remember any of it being played.
The lack of interest in composition resulted in me passing through the entire course without studying orchestration. Did I enjoy the course – no. Did I benefit from it – yes. Understandably things in UCD are very different today to twenty years ago. I wouldn’t change a thing if I could go back. My time there made me the musician I am today. The Music faculty of 1982 didn’t contain a bunch of trendy young electro-acoustic composers, so I was allowed to put on a series of very modest concerts of my own work in blissful ignorance of the fact that we should have been radical is some unspecified way. To be honest, electro-acoustics aren’t of much interest to me. I have to work with digital processes all the time and I simply don’t see how “exploring” and studying a form like this which is constantly becoming redundant is any substitute for hard graft with a pencil and a book of unfinished chorales .
I had to organise, write and perform my own modest little efforts and they were received without ridicule, but also without debate or discussion. As a result I became completely self-sufficient right at the start of what has become my career.
Ireland has a strange attitude to composers. They float in a limbo all alone, neither lauded nor dismissed. Among our own fraternity there is a clear line between “Art” composers and “Commercial” composers. Composers of “Art” are heavily subsidised through commissions to write music that will advance our understanding of the nature of humanity and our place within the infinite. Possibly. Or mostly not. The “Commercial” composers are those that make money from what they do and they come from classical and non-classical training backgrounds. Some have been enormously original and successful, but they are not often given the accolade for their success. The “Art” composers exist within a ambiance that is modeled on Europe, where composition has developed and grown organically from relatively healthy historical roots of classical music. Ireland doesn’t have those, so really what we have is a facsimile of another culture’s musical history juxtaposed onto our own. That can’t be very healthy.
The problems with feeding a system like ours [a small country with lots of people clamouring after the same meager pickings] is that genuinely talented people are sometimes pushed aside by those who are
(a) loudest and most aggressive in their pursuit of commissions and grants
(b) fashionable because someone in Germany said that their sonata for potato and tuba with speaker and electro-acoustic elements was “compelling”
(c) have been give their basic training outside of the Republic where composition is seen as a proper career and not some nebulous concept.
Tonal and melodic music is deeply fashionable today, but oddly not in Ireland. There is no place for an Irish Arvo Part, Eric Whitacre, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams – not even a quasi-John Tavener. Any composer whose musical voice falls into neither camp has nowhere to go except away from Ireland. Thank God for the internet.
Nick Rourke said:
It’s an interesting point, especially regarding the internet. The internet has made things so much more accessible, and in many ways more democratic. When it comes to the internet, people definitely vote with their feet and as a result, the paradigm of industries change and you start seeing and hearing art you’d never be able to 10 years ago before Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, Craigslist, etc. The industries don’t have as much of a say anymore, the people do because there’s so much content out there and the middle man has been cut out. It seems where you live isn’t as relevant anymore, as long as you produce quality content.
And coincidentally enough, I was listening to First Arabesque before I read this. Spooky.
Fate Halls said:
I cannot agree more with the commercial/art musicians. I have recently become so annoyed by the music I hear on the radio. Everything has the same rhythm, the singers have identical voices and the drum/keyboard beats in the background of some of those 80′s songs make me long to listen to your music even more. These people seem to just put together whatever comes to their mind first (or randomize it) to appeal to our senses, mostly targeting teenegers and younger adults who will jump on the bandwagon and follow everything. As you might know the new craze is the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. My deaf grandma can sing better than that! Atleast there is always my Celtic Origins CD waiting for me at home, and yes
Thank goodness for the internet.
and Michael thank YOU for your music. It truly is art, and it is beautiful, as is everyting that comes from the heart.
oh and by the way my grandma is not deaf – its a expression or use of language in a nonliteral sense to achieve a particular effect, Metaphors, similes, and hyperboles are all used in a similar way.
=) I want to see you write in third person omniscient – now that would be fascinating.
Lynn Gleason said:
I love reading your blogs, Michael. They’re educational and entertaining. This one, in particular, is very enlightening. Now I know why you’re the only one doing what you do. This only makes me want to learn more.
Meryem said:
Hi Mr McGlynn : )
I’m a moroccan fan , I like the Irish music but your sound is unique.
I want just to tell you that I love your wonderful music (Anùna), especially Gaelic and latin pieces !
Wish good luck to you, John and the whole band : )
Michael Stokes said:
Yes! Thank heaven for the internet. I am enrolled in a bachelor of music degree right now, as I’m sure I’ve said before. It just struck me how many things you said that I can understand having been through similar events myself. The fact that what is being defined as ‘compelling’ music today makes me feel completely disconnected from the mechanisms that help me appreciate music. It’s almost like you are being forced to understand or take part in a form of art that you can only appreciate because as a composer, you realize that expression in any form is healthy. There are several composers that I would much rather listen to and gain experience from. I have been studying Gabriel Faure’s music for instance, and he is rarely performed at my university…From what you were saying, New Mexico sounds a lot like Ireland!
Piaras Hoban said:
I find the closing points of this blog most interesting!
I would have to agree that Ireland has a strange attitude to composers. I would extend in saying that Ireland has a strange attitude to contemporary music. Take our national broadcaster as a case in point. When is the last time you heard a feature on contemporary Irish music on its daily arts show? When was the last time you heard a feature on contemporary music on the selfsame show?! Ireland has a rich and extremely active community of contemporary music composers, producing varied, challenging and often rewarding music on a par with any nation in the world. The reflection of this in our national media suggests that it is some form of ghostly apparition; there is minimal reflection. This is a strange attitude to composers!
The distinction you make between “Art” composers and “Commercial” composers is one I think that could be adequately propogated through most areas of creative expression. I would argue that all composers are “Art” composers, but that the nature of what they seek through aesthetic means differs. To say that “Art” composers “write music that will advance our understanding of the nature of humanity and our place within the infinite” is, I believe, facile and unnecessarily adversarial. Surely whatever challenges the aesthetic object presents are faced solely by the subject, the listener. As far as I am aware it is the sciences whom we charge with the chimera of understanding our nature and our place in an constantly expanding universe (at much greater expense too)!
The proposition that “Art” composers posit themselves within a European historical framework is a point that perhaps needs further exploring also. The vast majority of so called “Art” composers that you will find in this country’s universities come from non-classical backgrounds. A further majority of these will have spent their formative years exploring the hockets and poly-rhythms of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher etc… This is a part of their musical heritage, a heritage that is broad and has scant regard for border or genre. What makes this point even more interesting is that if we explore the heritage of artists such as Aphex Twin we will find that this music, more often than, traces its roots back to developments in Europe in the first half of the 20th century, to the radio studios of Germany and France. Explorations spearhead by composers not so far removed from a “classical” tradition and lineage. The question of cultural heritage is a vastly complex one, made ever more so by advancing technological resources. To state that we have another culture’s musical history juxtaposed onto our own presupposes that we can fix our own musical heritage in concrete terms and I’m not so sure that we can.
The final point about tonal music and Ireland stands at odds to my personal concert-going experience here in the recent past. The three most recent Living Music Festivals have focussed on the very composers you have mentioned: Steve Reich, John Adams and Avro Part. There have been many concerts of minimalist music and one of Irelands foremost contemporary music ensembles was founded expressly for the performance of music in a similar vein. I would contest that tonal and melodic music is deeply fashionable in Ireland today, just as it was 25 years ago in Europe. I think any composer whose musical voice doesn’t fall into any camp is probably onto something.
Enjoyed your blog very much, sorry I came across it so late!
michaelmcglynn said:
Great response!
Sorry for not getting back on this one to you, as you obviously sat down and thought about it. I’m sure there is a strong community of composers. However, in order for that community to thrive it needs a proper structure where dialogue and debate can occur. Without dialogue, such as this one, people don’t see alternative opinions, or at least they find them harder to dismiss. May I say that this is the first meaningful dialogue I have ever had with an Irish composer.
Regarding R.T.E. – well, I can’t comment because I don’t actually listen to the station any more. when I did, it was pretty obvious that there was minimal interest in composers of contemporary music on the Arts shows, and I actually don’t really know how things are going now. If things were healthy I expect I would be aware of it.
All “Art” is subjective. The comment was aimed not at the actual ideas and philosophies themselves, rather at the composer’s perception of being a “composer”, whatever that is. Science and Art are interlinked fundamentally. I see little distinction between the two. And yes, the comment was facile and unnecessarily adversarial. I hope you will respond to this to tell me that there is a healthy forum for debate in Irish contemporary music circles where people can challenge each others ideas and be controversial for no good reason other than to shake up the complacency that one finds in all arts circles. I haven’t noticed one if there is. Anytime I have given a blunt opinion on the Arts in Ireland I have been ignored, so I put energies elsewhere. Please tell me that you young guys have got that sussed out. I will cheer loudly.
I think that your points about younger composers is well made. I bow to your current knowledge, but ask – where is our Arvo Part, or Eric Whitacre or Reich or Glass? Why are people not exploring the hockets or polyrhythms of our Aphex Twin?
Create an ethos, create an atmosphere and a circumstance where creativity can explode, and it will. Create an ethos of subsidy and grants and it won’t. Not sure how contemporary music ensembles can maintain a clear view of what is going on when so much time is taken up filling out grant applications…
The two dominant forms of music here are Traditional and Rock. Both survived and thrived [up until very recently] in the absence of any grants and structures to help them. Show me the underground here where all meet together – jazz, rock, traditional, classical etc – on an equal footing. Show me a Living Music Festival where the main participant is Irish. Maybe it is down the line somewhat [I hope...].
I have a huge amount of knowledge that may be of use to younger composers on many diverse aspects of contemporary music in general. I haven’t been invited by any music faculty in this country to talk about my work, odd, considering that I am one of the very few composers that actually makes a living from my compositions. I travel all over the world talking with musicians and composers about my music, and yet I never speak about it at home. Does that indicate a healthy ethos? I would say no.
Enjoyed your answer. Thank you for posting