In 2008 the British composer Kenneth Hesketh celebrated his 40th birthday

Transcription

1 caroline otter Unreliable machines: an interview with Kenneth Hesketh In 2008 the British comoser Kenneth Hesketh celebrated his 40th birthday with radio ortrait concerts in Germany and Switzerland, a Proms commission (Graven image, remiered on 1 August 2008), and numerous erormances in his native city o Liverool as art o its Euroean Caital o Culture celebrations. Something o a rodigy, Hesketh was a chorister at Liverool s Anglican Cathedral (an exerience which ostered a continuing enthusiasm or medieval texts and iconograhy) and a talented ianist. He began com osing while still a chorister, and his First Symhony was erormed by the Merseyside and National Youth Orchestras when he was only 17, two years beore he began studying at the Royal College o Music in Lon don. His love o the Franco-Russian orchestral school o the early 20th cen tury, articularly the soundworld and colourul designs o the Ballets Russes, marked these early works; although he no longer acknowledges these ieces, his assion or orchestral colour has ersisted. Ater his studies in London, Hesketh s comositional direction was undecided until he won a lace on the Tanglewood summer school in 199, where he studied with Henri Dutilleux. We met near his home in Ealing on 28 March 2008 to talk about his musical develoment and recent rojects. caroline otter: I m interested to hear about the imact o Tanglewood and Dutilleux on you. kenneth hesketh: Tanglewood or me was a watershed because it coincided with a comlete loss o aith in my comositional abilities; I was surrounded by lots o incredibly able, driven young comosers, and I elt I still had it all to learn. Musically, at this time, I had run into a cul-de-sac. I stoed comosing or three years and was basically getting by writing commercial music so at the old age o 27, I elt I had to do something with my comosi tional lie and Tanglewood gave me a renewed ocus. All the student comosers at Tanglewood agreed that, thanks to Dutilleux s resence, an oen-natured camaraderie ervaded the course. He had chosen young comosers with widely dierent musical styles and he had an understanding o their aesthetic viewoints. We oten talked oenly about each other s work, which was imortant to me at that time. Dutilleux lectured on his own music, while, on one occasion, George Perle, like many comosers who were resent during the course, gave a the musical times Winter

2 16 Unreliable machines: an interview with Kenneth Hesketh more ersonal, constructivist view o Dutilleux s work. He analysed the ivot chords rom [the cello concerto] Tout un monde lointain... and said that, actually, Dutilleux had got some o the itch transositions wrong! So a ive-minute back-and-orth banter ensued i you notice this, you got that wrong..., well, no... and so on in the end George said well, you re robably right rom your oint o view, and that was the end o the session! In Perle s eyes, Dutilleux had made a miscalculation but Dutilleux s comositional rocedure is not strict in the same way that Perle s is. In his book Twelve-tone tonality Perle outlines his way o constructing harmonic hierarchy, something Dutilleux has soken o many times it s just that Dutilleux achieves this in a ar more luid manner. That was interesting and liberating or me: one didn t need a rocedure that was so restrictive. It was oen-minded, allowing or the imrovisatory, sontaneous moment. For me, Dutilleux s work was an extension o musical reoccuations that had interested me greatly or many years. You re talking about the Franco-Russian orchestral tradition? Exactly something which had colour, vibrancy, harmonic ungency and, in its broadest meaning, a sense o develoment. Regarding Dutilleux s imact on my musical thinking, however, I would say that haened later, when I was at the University o Michigan.... where you studied or a Master s degree. Yes in , though I lived in Michigan a little beore that, writing Theatrum, which was commissioned by Tanglewood in 199. When studying all o his [Dutilleux s] works but seciically L arbre des songes or my Master s thesis, I noticed many o the tyical Dutilleux orms and rocedures, the oetical inerences, and through this I reconnected with something I had lost within mysel, which came directly rom being a chorister text connecting to music on a undamental basis, each roviding a dierent orm o narrative ossibility and thereore continuity. Did the Michigan/US contemorary scene have any imact on you? I studied with both William Bolcom and [the late] William Albright, and it was quite a challenging time or me because Michigan was and ossibly still is a bastion o a seciic tye o musical Americana (a good examle o such work being Michael Daugherty s, who still teaches at the University). Bolcom had studied with Milhaud and one can see that very clear aesthetic inluence in his work a orerunner o a seciically American ostmodern crossover that many o his students have run with. My deeelt connection to a more modernist lineage was roblematic or both o us in lessons, however. Bolcom would suggest things, I would comment

3 to the contrary and suggest something else, and we would go round in circles, never really coming to a oint o agreement. We could talk about technical matters such as acing and scoring, and his work is an exemlar o high crat, but we couldn t really get through the hard ice o dierence. Bill Albright was an equally ine erorming musician, and [as ianists] we had a connection through reertoire; I remember that a great source o amusement or Albright was looking at Chabrier s droll arahrases o Wagner, or instance. But humour or irony in music is subjective, in the ear o the beholder, and it was something I ound more and more oressive. Theirs was also a undamental jettisoning o Euroean tradition, it seemed to me. Which was ine or them, but not what you were ater? No, and I remember Bill Bolcom as a witty aside calling me a diicult Euroean, which took me aback a little! There was a wonderul music theory deartment in Michigan as well, which included James Daogny, Marion Guck, and Andrew Mead (a ine comoser), who were all excellent music analysts. To be honest, I learned more rom theory studies than comosition at that time. Regarding your music, there s so much energy and dynamism behind it; I know you have an enthusiasm or automata, or instance. Which was the irst iece o yours to dislay this interest? The middle movement o Theatrum, Scurriae, and the last movement, Gyrus ; these are robably the irst o what I like to call unreliable machine moments. The machine igures are a little longer there than they are now, but yes, the idea o little machines co-existing briely was something I wanted to investigate. But the love o automata robably dates back to my midteens, through readings o mythology and olklore, early iconograhy and theatre. And since my cathedral days I have been attracted to the detailed and labyrinthine. Interesting, because that s a quality I notice in your music as well yet you re also concerned with transarency o texture. Very much so I see it as trying to juggle two contradictory things; a saturation o the aural canvas juxtaosed with or suerimosed on more immediately erceived contrauntal textures in order to roduce clarity. I do think that material when judiciously maniulated, via means o tessitura, colour or layered saturation, is caable o generating dense textures that are lucid and transarent all the same. You oten oint something u with a har or ercussion instrument... the musical times Winter

4 18 Unreliable machines: an interview with Kenneth Hesketh Actually, it [this transarency] usually comes out o tessitura lacement as well as timbral consideration. Instrumental choices, such as use o ercussion (o which there is a air bit in my work, ossibly because I was once a ercussionist) and har, robably relect my French musical leanings anything that jingles, shimmers and chimes, though there is an exressionist angularity in my work as well. Funnily enough, you notice that French inluence in lots o British music rom the 80 s. Over the last ew years, I ve made a determined eort to move away rom such things by saturating the texture so that it s art o a wider alette, not just a localised eect. I allow some things to bubble u to the surace and then dissiate. Small machinelike units lare into lie, become art o a locally saturated texture alongside a develoing narrative or a brie time, then move on to something else in a dierent art o the texture or tessitura. So overall, textures are oten turbulent but only saturated or relatively short eriods. In your orchestral iece At God seeded summer s end (2001), there s this intri guing idea o having a Dylan Thomas text in the background. Dylan Thomas work is a long-standing assion o mine. What ascinates me most about his work is his ability to oulate his writing with cunning rhymes, consonant similarities, archaic ormal structures and obscure reerence almost to the oint that the sound is more imortant than the content. In 191 he resonded to a question asked by a young oet, saying he saw himsel as [...] almost a magician, who would use every ossible rhyming at tern and structure, wherever necessary. In his Author s rologue, Thomas uses almost his entire technical arsenal. As a large alindrome, the irst line rhymes with the last and so on, so that the 102-line orm only rhymes directly in lines 1 and 2. The only line that stays the same is At God seeded summer s end, which is line 2 and line 101, hence the title o my work. Blurred aural images rom the text, as well as using the structure o the oem musically, and suerimosing on that a text setting without voice, were in my mind during the early concetual stages. Thomas work, dense in allusion, allegory and reerence, was a mindset I naturally ind intriguing. There are lots o little rerains and machine-like hrases in the iece which re lect Thomas narrative construction: God seeded began an interest in many musical ideas I eel amiliar with now come to think o it (ex.1). The new Prom iece, Graven image, is, in a way, an inverted version o the same structural model. My interest in a comosite narrative line achieved through dense textures is still o great ascination to me, but with Graven image there is no text or literary structure behind it at all. In retrosect, At God seeded was a very imortant iece or me it allowed me to write what I hoed I was caable o, and to remember the leasure I elt writing or orchestra, something I had not elt since my early teens.

5 Ex.1: Hesketh: God seeded, bars D A Temo (q =12) (vlas + clt) [In (vc. & bsns) [THOMAS: line ] (tims) etc. the (vlns 1+ ob) (Hrn 1) to - rrent, to -rrentsal - mon sun, (winds + strings) m [THOMAS: line 4] (vlns 1+ clt) molto cantab. In (lt + cel.) 8 m [THOMAS: line ] my sea -sha - ken house, on a break - neck o rock, Tan - gled with chi -rru and ruit...] etc. (strings) iù Let s talk about Ein Lichtsiel (2006) written or Liverool s Ensemble 10:10, which is linked to a Moholy-Nagy ilm o 190. How did you choose the ilm and how did you decide to treat it? In many ways my choice was based, once again, on my love o automata. At the time I was looking or a ilm to write music to, and the Bauhaus eriod has long been o great interest to me. Ein Lichtsiel is a ilm o what László Moholy-Nagy (an early teacher at the Bauhaus) calls a light modulator it s a sort o home movie o the machine s light-show cycle. Its raison d être was to rovide a uturistic, immaterial scenic backdro using light to relect the machine s various suraces glass, steel, mesh giving a constantly varying backdro via shadow and relection. The ublication Die Bühne am Bauhaus describes mechanised stage orms (Moholy-Nagy was a contributing writer) and relects French and Russian ideas on the subject, and the light modulator comes out o this. Also, it s a machine which has many moving arts but is, eectively, useless it does nothing aart rom move and relect light. I loved that idea! A to o the range abstract automaton that combines mechanisms with theatre. Did you want to line the music u with the ilm very recisely? No, not really. The ilm is only six minutes long I saw it like a jewel set in the centre o the music, which is 11 minutes long and it s comletely abstract, as one might exect. However, the ilm s acing is quite regular in its roortions. I elt the need to imose a structural orm on the ilm, and the musical times Winter

6 20 Unreliable machines: an interview with Kenneth Hesketh Ex.2: Hesketh: Ein Lichtsiel, bars Flute cross-ade to circles within a circle and lines, all at a diagonal, revolving. G lighter in colour, white 6 Cor Anglais Clarinet in Bb To Oboe cross-ade to darker colour, black, grey. rising ball in center o screen Percussion 2 Medium Tam-tam Low Tam-tam Very Low Tam-tam m m (Vibe) Percussion Piano Piano to Celesta (doubling Celesta) m 6 Har Eb iù D / G# Eb E Violin 1 iù m sub. Violin 2 m iù 6 arco Viola izz. iù ma dolce izz. arco m Violoncello iù ma dolce m cant. Double Bass arco m so the idea o an abstract ballet arose: a series o moving machines like sections, or i you will, one machine dance morhing into another (ex.2). That s how I resonded musically to the abstract nature o the ilm, as I didn t wish to simly rovide a bed o sound or the events to sit on. The ilm is actually quite directed there are cross-cuts, jum-cuts, seeds u and down with lots o exressionist-ilm camera angles used in the treatment o the images. Musically, I was able to concentrate on various tyes o unreliable machine that oten aear in my work but without, I hoe, overloading the senses; neither the ilm nor the music is what I consider manically busy, aart rom certain climaxes. As I get older, the idea o unreliable machines relates more and more to the Cartesian question o dualism: i searated rom our intellect, are we simly machines? Even taking into account our intellect, could we be seen as little more than unreliable machines trying to it in to a larger societal machine? Machines have been ashioned in human or animal orm rom early times o course and another iece o mine, The mechanical Turk or solo oboe (2002), based on the chess-laying ake automaton, relects this interest, using mechanistic material versus quasiimrovisatory igures, as well as all manner o onomatooeic sound eects 6 6 ball descends Oboe Bass Clarinet in Bb (doubling Bb Clarinet) m cant. m Horn in F (con sord.) m Trumet in Bb con sord. (straight mute) m Trombone Percussion 1 (l.v.) High Susended Cymbal Mid Susended Cymbal Mid-low Susended Cymbal Low Susended Cymbal

7 Ex.: Hesketh: The mechanical Turk, bars Kenneth Hesketh comments: Imagine various sized cams moving under the oboe line; the melodic line resonds as a cam ollower would by seeding u or slowing down deending on the cam size. 17 Subito meno mosso Piu mosso q = 72 * see erormance indications q = 0 26 sub iù 4 2 s iù 4 s 2 iù 4 sz m s m sub. sub. Meno mosso subito q = 126 sz sz Piu mosso q = 90 Ancora iu mosso q = 126 (ex.). O course another interest o mine, theatre, lies at the heart o Turk and is inherent in Ein Lichtsiel because o its intended use. For imaginary theatre? Yes, exactly. In act, theatre and dramatic situations ermeate my work a lot. One examle is the song cycle Shimmerwords and idle songs (2006) during its ourth song, Three commentaries, where I try to suggest an ancient Chinese court ensemble, relete with bells and cymbal clashes in the accomaniment; each new commentary is announced with a theatrical anare which gets a little lumier and slower on each subsequent aearance, erhas relecting the court musicians annoyance at having to reeat it so many times! But I digress... You ve recently come back rom Montreal or the remiere o Theatre o attractions another theatre-connected work your collaboration with the ilmmaker Jacqueline Passmore. Indeed. Jacqueline Passmore is an American ilm-maker living and working in Liverool, and we ound out that we shared many interests, including Bauhaus and the ilms o Oskar Fischinger, which made working with her on the roject a nice exerience. The main dierence between working on Lichtsiel and Theatre o attractions was that I wrote the music irst. I remember all too well the exaseration o working out a cueing system or Lichtsiel, because the ilm was an extant visual narrative one had to deal with, but here [in Theatre o attractions] I wanted to comose the score irst and then work with a ilm-maker. We agreed there would be two early the musical times Winter sz sz Vivace subito q = 144 sub. Ancora meno mosso q = 90 Piu mosso subitomeno mosso subito q = 126 q = 90 sub. ETC.

8 22 Unreliable machines: an interview with Kenneth Hesketh visual sources or the ilm: one is rom a very early Lumière brothers ilm rom Liverool made in 1896 (when ilm had been around or ewer than 10 years), and the other was ootage rom Mitchell and Kenyon I think there was a recent TV series called Electric Edwardians that talked about their work. It s very much an abstract ilm? Oh, absolutely though it does mirror certain contours and moments in the score. In many ways, thereore, I was able to give ree rein to various current musical reoccuations. There are quite a ew machines in that iece! There is also, in the second section, something which I ve termed loating orm : a constant or stationary musical object reels or attracts other tyes o material, some static, some moving, all... Pushed about by what s going on externally? In a way, but more accurately, each has its own momentum really. Other localised eatures ebb and low, ushing back and orth towards the central musical object, like a loating buoy at sea. Then they dissiate, whereas the central object is still in view, though erhas slightly distorted due to the resence o other local eatures. The cycle evolves as it reeats with the central object eventually receding out o view, ushed away by something else to come back into view later, and so on and so orth. It s a ormal structure that s been evolving or some time and it seemed oortune to codiy it in some way, as the central section o the ilm is concerned with shis, ocean liners and the sea (ex.4). There s the Liverool connection. Exactly in act that was art o the commission remit. It was commissioned by the British Council in Montreal and the Quebec Government or Quebec s 400th anniversary celebrations which coincide with Liverool s sta tus as Caital o Culture in 2008; Liverool has long-standing trading connections with Quebec both are seaaring cities as well, so o course the sea was an imortant art o the ilm. The irst movement o Theatre o attractions, Time s music box, has many o the comositional ideas I m interested in time, irregularity, un reliable machines, a sense o motoric inevitability which derails at the end. The middle section is titled L heure dorée, which in hotograhic terms is that time o the day when everything is bathed in a warm glow, so this gave me an excuse to write sensual, slightly out-o-ocus music. And in the last section, Marionetten/Marotte, I consciously use rather obvious, brutish, machine-like music; there s something chaotic and coarsely estive in this section. Events oten develo their own momen

9 T 00:11:00:20 00:11:02:1 00:11:04:10 00:11:06:0 00:11:08:1 00:11:11:00 00:11:12: Alto Flute Bass Clarinet in Bb m m m Horn in F (doubing Fly-ishing Reel & Egg Shaker) Ride Cym. m Percussion (Vibe) Percussion m un oco grandioso m Piano m (doubling m un oco grandioso Wood Block) () T Violin ord. (doubling Maraca) ord. Violoncello 00:11:14:1 00:11:17:1 00:11:20:00 00:11:21: (.2) A. Fl. m con sord. Hn. (Vibe) m Perc. Pno. Vc. (.2) m 00:11:2: A. Fl. Hn. Perc. Perc. Pno. Vln. Vc. Ex.4: Hesketh: Theatre o attractions, bars U 00:11:2:10 00:11:26:1 oco oco Orch. BD Mark Tree 00:11:28:10 Orch. BD 00:11:29:1 00:11:0:20 Vibe U izz. oco m (crisly) the musical times Winter

10 24 Unreliable machines: an interview with Kenneth Hesketh tum, leading to a rather cruel, brutal culmination. The estive quality I mentioned is highlighted by bells (iano, vibrahone and tubular bells), an Acme siren whistle and a somewhat insistent hi-hat rhythm celebratory, but through a sneer, a sardonic ilter: that was imortant or me to try and communicate, the sense o the brutish, obvious and simle-minded that seems to dog the time we live in. Desite the bright instrumental timbres in my work, sceticism and a sense o essimism colour it more and more. Do you eel this? Yes, I would say so. And there was a time when I couldn t deal with it erhas my interest in the medieval was a reuge rom it but now it s become a source, something I can use artistically, and so it s become ositive or me. Finally, I want to ask about your Comoser in the House osition with the Royal Liverool Philharmonic Society and as a Liverudlian, what sort o imact do you think Caital o Culture status could have on Liverool s cultural lie? Well, what s interesting about being in Liverool at this time, distinct rom when I was growing u, is that now there are many comosers in Liverool; so it s a very vibrant lace with a much broader church o comosition. Also, [Ensemble] 10:10 has become a ocal oint or Northwestern comosers to be heard and to orm a larger, lively community. [Vasily] Petrenko and the RLPO regularly schedule new and attractive works, and the laying standard is at a very high level once more, reminding me o the Libor Pesek and Charles Groves eriods. Writing ieces or all the musical grous under the RLPS banner is challenging (in two years I have to write 14 ieces) but ulilling. There s a sense o ositive musical creativity in Liverool a real is ation that cutting edge work haens in Liverool, not just in London, or closer to home, Manchester! It s oten been the oor relation, hasn t it? Yes, Liverool hasn t always been able to ocus on its artistic otential (outside the ubiquitous Beatles ascination), but now I think it can and is; there are commissions or comosers as diverse as Stehen Pratt, James Wishart, Mark Simson, John Tavener or Karl Jenkins the latter two not necessarily to my musical taste that have ocused the musical world s attention on Liverool. I think this will have a long-lasting eect on the artistic milieu there. With this in mind, it s rather nice to be a art o it all. Caroline Potter is Senior Lecturer in Music at Kingston University and author o books on Nadia and Lili Boulanger, and Dutilleux.