ABOUT
What makes music which is rich and direct? Whats the most successful marriage of story and music? Whats the process of getting to the heart of a story? These are some of the most inspiring questions that I continually ask as part of my musical journey.
Robert is a music composer based in the UK, specialising in music written for theatrical performances and concert recital. Robert’s music has been part of hundreds of theatrical performances across the UK, commissioned and toured by groups such as the Britten Sinfonia Orchestra and played by soloists such as Met Opera star Chanae Curtis, and Scottish radio star Mary Ann Kennedy. He values music which is rich, direct and effective in its link to storytelling.
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I think music can be like the vehicle for carrying an idea that is hard to put ones finger on, and yet, no less, can be sensed and felt if a person is open to it. It’s like an expression or transmission of an idea that lays beyond the direct notes.
I remember an early example of this was seeing a taiko drumming concert when I was a teenager. A direct energy came through the music that was invigorating and charged. I remember seeing another taiko drumming concert a few years later, and although a very similar volume and rhythm was played, something about the essence of what was being communicated behind it wasn't there. One performance had a kind of spirit to it, the other didn’t.
A big influence is Meredith Monk for this reason. I find that her performances and recordings have something very earthy, and direct about them which brings me right back to my routes when I hear it. A lot is achieved with very little. It reminds me that music does not have to be complex in order to communicate something very rich
Influence: Meredith Monk's 'Facing North' Album:
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What I like about composers like John Luther Adams, is that new music is being created now which was both deeply moving, spiritual, full of imagery, and has subtle complexity to it whilst being accessible. It often branches towards film music because of this which leads on to great storytelling. (I would love to give many examples of composers here, but I will limit it to just one for this article).
I feel moved by the story of the post minimalists within classical music. I too, felt that the modernist movement within classical music although had amazing mathematics behind it, at times did not move me in the same way that other periods did. I was looking for something new and challenging beyond the romantic period, which led to thinking about harmony again in new ways.
When going through musical training in university, I remember becoming rather obsessed with harmony technique books to understand it. Authors and composers such as Schoenberg, Walter Piston, Howard Roberson because really interesting to me. I knew this was only half of the deal, and that there are a lot of other things that go in to great music such as instinct, intuition, and experience. I felt that if I understood great technique, it would be a part of the way of making something really good musically. Some of the best teachings in this regard came after university.
A great mentor; Graham Fitkin, taught me to form my own set of mathematical logic to drive the structure of each piece. That way my music could have its own voice, and be as simple or as complex as I liked, whilst not being so swayed by the fashion trend of one musical decade or another.
Influence: John Luther Adam's 'Become Desert' music
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Its worth checking out the Project Showcases to see how story and music have been liked
Whats the process of getting to the heart of a story? Whats the most successful marriage of story and music? And what gives music its own structure making it strong enough to stand on its own when creating it to work with a script? These are the questions that have guided my music creation over recent years
An example I love is the Sea Interludes by Benjamin Britten. As little moments of reflexion during the opera “Peter Grimes”, these create a great sense of mood, foreboding, scene setting and awe. Every single note communicates something about the story or the seascape, and collectively, all of the notes form a perfect whole. It’s a piece which goes to show that music can be accessible, complex, full of spirit and integrally linked to story.
When working on theatre pieces in particular, I feel there is something to extract from every script behind the immediate words, and a lot of the work is about understanding what are the underlaying forces are at play within a piece, and how they interact behind the surface. These forces can be characters, periods of time, locations or even a set of images. Once these are understood, the music can be influenced by them.
Learning about a character and understanding their journey requires almost gong on that journey with them, and I love bringing out this form of empathy through music. The process becomes more and more fascinating and enriching every time I go through it, and its its amazing how personal sometimes the music becomes tot he writer of the piece.
More often that anything else, it’s about finding the one thing within the script which is the point around everything else ether leads to, or revolves around. Sometimes it can be as little as one or two words, but they can point to what I call the spirit of the piece. Once this is known, it’s easier to instinctively know what the music can transmit.
Influence: Benjamin Britten's Sea Interludes:
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Robert combines orchestral music together with sound design and synthesis to make music with innovation in mind. His music has been played by the Britten Sinfonia in venues such as the London Wigmore Hall, theatres and numerous other venues across the UK. His instrumental background is in Percussion and Piano.
At Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Robert worked with Jaquline Jones, Steve Nestar and award-winning theatre director, Mark Babych, composing music for theatrical pieces. He was also asked to write the introduction music for his graduation ceremony for the procession led by Paul McCartney. During his Masters in Music Composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Robert further explored the connection of music and dance, eventually composing and jointly directing the first live ballet to be performed at the college with orchestra and Wales based dancers.
In 2019 Robert won the Britten Sinfonia Opus prize for his work ‘Watercraft’, combining classical music with folk voice, judged by Sir James McMillan. It was performed by Scottish radio star -Mary Ann Turner on it’s UK premier tour. Robert has also worked with Soprano Chanae Curtis (praised for her attractive singing by the New York Times) on a song cycle entitled ‘The Hurricane’. Robert’s work with theatre has continued with the recent opening of Howard’s End at the Golden Goose theatre in London, the Welsh tour of ‘It’s A wonderful life’. Robert also attended composition tutoring sessions with BASCA award winning composer Graham Fitkin in recent years.
Currently Robert has several of his theatre pieces touring the UK, including works with the Lighthouse Theatre, Thomos Page Dances and Mark Farrely, with more pieces to come in the near future.
Tree Music
For a bit of fun: Yes music does grow on trees!
Check out this piece made using only the creaking sound from tree branches