The Irish/British composer Robin Haigh is having a busy 12 months with performances of all 4 of his main orchestral works. Jessica Cottis conducts Luck, his trumpet concerto for Matilda Lloyd and Britten Sinfonia on the opening evening of this 12 months’s Aldeburgh Competition on 15 June 2024 [full details], and Matthew Halls conducts the UK premiere of Robin Haigh’s Concerto for Orchestra with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on 3 November [full details] In a visitor article for Planet Hugill, Robin describes his persevering with evolution in writing for orchestra.
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| Robin Haigh (Photograph: Michael Carlo 2023) |
This 12 months, all 4 of my main items for orchestra are being carried out – the Irish Premiere
of SLEEPTALKER (2021) with Dublin’s Nationwide Symphony Orchestra, the USA Premiere of
Grin (2019) with the Lowell Chamber Orchestra, the UK Premiere of Concerto for Orchestra
(2023) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the world premiere of my trumpet concerto, LUCK (2024) with the Britten Sinfonia. Composing for orchestra is the place
I really feel most at residence, and prior to now I’ve felt LUCKy to have only one orchestral efficiency in
a 12 months – to have 4 appears so momentous as to warrant a private have a look at how my perspective
to writing for orchestra has developed over time, with particular consideration being paid to the 2
largest works, LUCK and Concerto for Orchestra.
Grin was written for the Britten Sinfonia, in an unconducted figuration consisting of two
horns, two oboes and a string group of about 20 gamers. As such, it is in direction of the smaller
finish of what we’d contemplate an “orchestra” to be, although it turned out for me to be a chunk
of nice import, introducing some musical gestures which have grow to be a staple of my
composing since. Precept amongst these is the sound of woodwind and brass devices
step by step bending pitches down by roughly a quarter-tone. I invented my very own notation
(a quarter-tone unintentional on the top of a sloping line above the word) to attempt to make this
thought as instantly understandable and smart to learn as potential, and it has discovered its
approach into virtually each piece written with winds or brass since. However that is hardly an
uncommon musical gesture on the earth of latest classical music, and it is the context I
have a tendency to make use of it in that has allowed this sound to show so frequently helpful – it’s when it’s
utilized to recognisable tonal chords that this impact excites me most, a sort of distortion of
the “protected” and “atypical” that notably works with what I need to obtain emotionally in my
music.
Grin received a 2020 Ivor Novello Award within the chamber orchestra class, and this honour
gave me confidence that the musical concepts explored may be ripe for additional growth
with a higher orchestral palette. When the chance got here as much as write SLEEPTALKER for
the London Philharmonic Orchestra, I used to be additionally spurred on by sturdy private emotions about
the state of latest classical orchestral music. It appeared to me then that a lot of the
orchestral music being written within the twenty first century might simply as simply have been written in
the mid-Twentieth. With this piece I wished to attempt to make a defiant assertion of non-conformity
(although whether or not I succeeded or not is left as much as the listener!) I selected three genres of
orchestral music that I deemed solely separate from modern classical music –
Orchestral Mild Music, Nationwide Anthems, and fashionable Movie Trailer Music. At this level, I
was conceiving of my music conceptually, intellectually – engaged on the idea that by discovering
one thing from outdoors of myself and doing one thing to it, I might find yourself with a creative
end result that mentioned one thing concerning the relationship between the supplies I used to be utilizing, and the
context I used to be utilizing them in.
A few years later, I used to be commissioned by oneMusic Orchestra, brainchild of conductor
Yoel Gamzou, to write down a 15 minute piece for his or her debut live performance at Beethovenfest Bonn. With
the group consisting of a number of the greatest gamers from main orchestras throughout Europe, this
appeared like no atypical orchestral fee. Many items for orchestra within the 8-15
minute vary match into the class of “one motion orchestral piece with an evocative title
about some tantalising idea or different” – certainly, it is a pretty good description of each
Grin and SLEEPTALKER. Sarcastically, the best way I used to be capable of really feel a private reference to
the piece was by becoming it right into a extra established style, quite than making an attempt to provide you with
my very own new and unique idea. As soon as I knew the piece could be a Concerto for
Orchestra, I used to be capable of slot myself into a practice that gave a way of goal to what I
was doing, leaving a number of room for my very own private interpretation of the temporary. My very own
notion of what it means to write down a Concerto for Orchestra concerned writing a chunk that
reveals off the virtuosity of all of the gamers on stage, with many solos, featured moments for
the totally different orchestral households, and a way that something tough shouldn’t be in useless – that
the virtuosity on show ought to by some means reward and fulfil each participant and listener.
Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra might be probably the most well-known and most frequently carried out
piece that bears this title, although not the primary. In an unintentional homage to the Hungarian
composer, my very own piece begins with a “Bartok pizz” (a percussive snapping pizzicato) within the
double basses and cellos. Stravinsky’s Concerto in D was one other affect, and at 12
minutes lengthy gave me confidence that not all concertos for orchestra wanted to rival Bartok’s
38 minute behemoth in sheer scale. The latest work that I took word of was George
Benjamin’s 2021 Concerto for Orchestra, which gave me a great sense of the extent to
which a talented orchestra will be pushed technically within the modern-day.
In my prior orchestral works, the musical materials was usually chosen to create creative friction
with the musical methods used. For instance, by layering prolonged methods and
microtones onto Orchestral Mild Music as I did in SLEEPTALKER, I used to be creating a transparent
separation between supplies and methods, and signifying a modernist tendency to need
to control and management my music. I approached the music of my Concerto for Orchestra
with a far higher sense of unity between materials and approach – disparate types of music
are usually not considered via a distorting lens as in SLEEPTALKER, however embraced and
assimilated into the general musical language. Whereas SLEEPTALKER distorted Mild Music,
Nationwide Anthems and Trailer Music, Concerto for Orchestra absorbs a fair higher array
of types – together with Anime Music, Fashionable Pop, Jazz, Metallic, Electronica, Movie Scores – into
what I hope is one thing like a unified musical language.
Nearly instantly after finishing the Concerto for Orchestra, I moved on to LUCK:
Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. Each items have been written throughout the area of a 12 months,
and so getting 40 minutes of orchestral music written on this time appears like one thing of an
achievement, not least as a result of my daughter Marnie was born shortly after starting work
on LUCK.
Very a lot persevering with the place Concerto for Orchestra left off, in LUCK I continued to work in
the influence-absorbing mode, this time with the soloist, Matilda Lloyd, appearing as some extent of
focus for the music. LUCK is my first concerto in probably the most well-known sense of a
substantial piece for soloist and orchestra, although it’s territory i might navigated on many
events earlier than, having written many smaller scale items with soloists in addition to a
quadruple concerto for 4 trombones and huge ensemble, THE DREAMERS (2022.) I used to be
glad to get an opportunity to work carefully with Matilda on a brief artistic retreat in Aldeburgh
the place, whereas staying on the grounds of Benjamin Britten’s Purple Home, we spent every day
testing out potentialities for the piece.
This took the type of a set of quick miniatures that have been carried out to a small non-public
viewers in Britten’s library – it made sense that I should not put an excessive amount of strain on myself
throughout this quick keep, that quite than “start writing the piece,” I might merely attempt to create
one thing in its personal proper that will hopefully feed into the true factor as soon as I started in
earnest. Whereas not one of the miniatures discovered their approach instantly into the completed piece, their
hyperlinks and affect are clear to me – virtuosic passages that have been examined in Aldeburgh gave
me confidence to write down equally virtuosic music afterward, which in any other case I might need
omitted for concern of overdoing issues.
Whereas every of the opposite works I’ve spoken about have been characterised by introducing
some new or totally different facet to my work, to me LUCK represents a fruits, hopefully, of
what I’ve been making an attempt to realize with my music for a number of years. There are some
composers who would select their largest scale venture to this point as an avenue to discover
one thing solely new, a stance I’ve quite a lot of respect for, however I noticed this piece as an opportunity
to lastly realise what I had been testing out in smaller tasks over the previous years. I
suppose my subsequent large-scale work is more likely to be one other departure, constructing on my earlier
concepts whereas in search of one other new mode of expression, hopefully fairly distinct from the music
of LUCK.
When an viewers hears a chunk by a residing composer in live performance, it isn’t unlikely that it’ll
be their first publicity to that composer’s music, particularly if the piece is included alongside
works from the canon. In contrast, an unfamiliar piece by Mozart, Brahms, or Stravinsky is
held up in opposition to these composers’ most well-known works, giving a really clear context to the
listener. In writing about all of my very own orchestral works, I hope to have offered a little bit of
context to the brand new audiences who will expertise my music this 12 months, whereas giving those that
have already got some familiarity with my work an opportunity to realize a higher perception into the
connections between these 4 items.
