Sound and Music

Seventy- five enthusiastic young composers from schools and communities throughout the UK, five expert key tutors, inspiring associate composers, skilled professional musicians and technicians, talented music students from the UK conservatoires and a team of highly competent young pastoral assistants all worked together from August 16th – 22nd 2009 at The Purcell School, enjoying the facilities of the well-equipped classrooms, the spacious grounds and numerous benefits offered by the school’s beautiful New Music Centre. The young composers were chosen from over 100 applications on the strength of scores, recordings and a personal statement submitted in advance, in which young people described why they felt they should be chosen, and what they hoped to gain from the course.

The 75 composers were divided into groups of 15, each led by a Key Tutor, an Associate Composer and a small group of musicians. Many of these were Purcell School alumni with extensive outreach experience, now studying at music colleges. The five different components of the course reflected the strengths and expertise of key tutors and their teams, and offered participants the chance to explore different compositional approaches.

Young composers were asked to specify preferences on their application form and were directed towards whichever group seemed most appropriate for them. “I led a tutor group on 'Composing For Voices', which aimed to explore all aspects of writing for the voice, whether in choir, ensemble or solo, and traversing all genres. We explored everything from hypnotic four-part vocal loops by Bobby McFerrin to wildly animalistic Meredith Monk pieces, chamber songs by the likes of Judith Weir and Luciano Berio to more experimental scoring by Cathy Berberian and John Cage.

The students produced an eclectic array of work: we recorded and performed fourteen pieces which included an exquisite, Britten-esque work for soprano, oboe and piano; a terrifying music-theatre piece about Medusa for three sopranos and percussion/the inside of a grand piano; an inventive, layered choral piece for upper voices and piano with added body percussion; and probably the only power pop ballad in history with added cor anglais!" Kerry Andrews, Key Tutor for Vocal Composition During the first two days, as well as their main tutorial sessions, each group had a ‘taster’ session with each of the other key tutors and their teams, to open their minds to other possibilities and approaches. “The summer school gave me the chance to meet - for the first time - other young people who are interested in composition. With composition usually being quite a solitary endeavour, I found this to be an invaluable experience. The workshops and taster sessions were inspiring to the extent that I almost felt overwhelmed with information and ideas; I feel I learnt more in that week about composition than I have throughout my entire musical education”. Becki Luscombe, young composer “The course opened up my eyes to other areas of music which I have not been exposed to before as well as presenting me with lots of useful compositional techniques to develop my skills in writing. This is why I was particularly grateful for the taster sessions. I thought they were terrific”! Helen Goldsmith, young composer “Staff were extremely supportive and positive, listening to our ideas and offering lots of very valuable advice - their enthusiasm was contagious! It was a treat to be taught by such experienced musicians, and I have made a lot of very good friends, who I hope to meet up with soon! An extremely valuable and well-organised week - I hope I can come back next year!" (Amy Willock, young composer) Kuljit Bhamra and Alison Cox ran a group exploring ideas linked to cross-cultural and experimental composition. Kuljit‘s sessions helped ‘de-mystify’ the tabla for young composers, and he introduced them to his innovative system of notation for the instrument, developed during the time he was spnm's Artistic Director, which they incorporated happily into their own pieces. Kuljit was astonished and delighted by the way these young people combined the tabla with other instruments, and says that they helped open up new boundaries in his work and research. “When I wrote for the tabla I had never written for anything like it before and Kuljit was excellent in helping with the notation and making suggestions for the different sounds you could get”. (Kate Taylor, young composer) One group of young composers worked with the Purcell School’s Head of Music Technology, Aidan Goetzee and his team. The students composed a short film score, recorded it in the studio, mixed, mastered and synchronised thie music to the film and produced a DVD. They experienced the full range of technology available which included use of the recording studio, score writing in Sibelius, audio editing in Logic and film editing in Final Cut.With the possibility of composing for live or electronic instruments, most opted to combine the two and were able to exploit the software to the full. With four professional instrumentalists on hand for the recording of the scores, the students experienced for the first time, the thrill of seeing the moving image come to life through their own music “Aidan Goetzee completely bowled me over with the work of his film students”! (Matthew Sergeant, Associate Composer to Key Tutor David Horne in the Advanced Instrumental Composition group).

Judith Robinson (SAM Learning Producer) and Alison found it immensely difficult selecting young composers for the course from so many deserving applicants. It also became increasingly clear to us (and to the Key Tutors as well) that expert provision and tuition such as that offered by the new Summer School should be made available to a wider range of young people. “The immense achievement of all involved in the Summer School, both students and staff, overwhelmed me, and I was deeply moved. However, I wonder if contacting the schools (or LEAs) could help identify a more diverse range of students and encourage them to apply to the summer school in future? The remarkable thing is that, despite the outstanding talent of our students, they represented only a very small proportion of all the available talent out there…’ David Horne, Key Tutor for Advanced Instrumental Composition Each of the five groups spent the final day of the course busily recording pieces for the young composers, assisted by Tim Steer and an expert team of sound recording technicians. Later that day there were five spectacular performances, enabling everyone to hear music other groups had produced. Throughout the week there was a huge amount of teaching, learning and musical collaboration at the highest possible levels. The numbers of young people, tutors and assistants were balanced exactly right, and the pastoral team’s input was not only greatly valued, but also essential to the smooth running of the programme. The benefits of this course have been considerable – beyond anyone’s expectations - and the impact upon the young people involved has been so far-reaching and effective that Sound and Music is likely to be inundated with interest next year as the word gets around!