Composition Part 2: So, Why No Book Then?

“Everyone has at least one good book in them.”

So, why haven't I written one, then? Well, I've started lots. Novels, academic books, books about soundtracks, books about Doctor Who... The list goes on.

The big question is, why haven't I finished a book?

Well, I'll get to that. But, first, a bit of a preamble.

The book I would currently like to write is a book about music composition.

"Why", I hear you ask, "Would anyone want to write a book about music composition? There are already thousands of books on music composition out there!"

But, are there?

Think about the music composition books you've read over the years. Are they really texts on music composition, or are they actually just manuals on harmony, notation and musical forms?

Now, back to writing books. When I was "determined" to be an author, I read an awful lot of creative writing books. These books weren't about grammar and spelling, but were concerned with evoking emotions in your reader, taking your reader on a journey, analepses (flash-backs), prolepses (flash-forwards), etc. Fundamentally, teaching the use of language as a tool, rather than teaching the rule of language.

This was the difference.

When I was still a composition lecturer in university, I would often tell my students that I had learnt more about composition from creative writing books than from books on so-called music composition.

If I may be allowed to paraphrase one of those lessons:

"The way to not write the great American novel is to try and write the great American novel."

Wow! What a lesson. Don't try to write anything good. In fact, deliberately write something that isn't good! Try it, and find out just how liberating that is, and watch the creativity flow.

At the time, I put this into practice and began writing a tawdry vampire novel, abandoning the pretentious philosophical novel I was attempting to write* at the time. Ok, I didn't finish that novel, either, but I got the furthest into writing a novel than I ever had before. Really far into it.

However, it was as soon as I applied this lesson to my music composition that things really began to take off for me.

Before applying this lesson, I found composition incredibly difficult**, but as soon as I gave myself permission to compose something that wasn't a masterpiece of the 21st century, or, in fact, permission to write something that wasn't even good, my productivity shot through the roof. And, you know what? The music I wrote wasn't half bad, and, I'm certain, it's no worse than it would have been had I tried to write a masterpiece of the 21st century. And, the great advantage of this process is that those pieces actually got finished, and I'm not still staring at a blank piece of manuscript paper with Opus 1 written at the top.

So, what's the point of this wandering stream of consciousness?

Well, the point is, if I try to write the great, missing composition book, it's really not going to get done, is it?

However, if I jot down in this blog my meandering anecdotes of things I learnt - who knows? - eventually, there might be something in the jumble that could be edited into a useful text.

Let's see.

“Everyone has at least one good book in them.”

* For "attempting to write" please subsitute, "avoiding writing".

** It still is difficult, but nowhere near as cripplingly difficult as it was before.

U Got the Look

Adventures of a Temu Jack Black

So, I’ve got, what my acting coach called, a “look”. That can be quite handy in acting, if your’renot good looking enough to be cast in Hollyoaks, and has given me the opportunity to play a homeless person, a roadie, a sleazy billiard hall shark, a satanist and a disgracefully ageing rock star. You know, nothing that’s really going to stretch my acting chops too far.

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Oh, do click the above. It’s worth it.

To a certain degree, I’ve leant into this “look”, particularly in my other life as a “serious” composer.

It’s no secret that the “classical music’ world (I’m emphasising ‘world” because this is a systemic issue, rather than any individual’s prejudices) is not particularly welcoming to the working class. Sure, Mark-Anthony Turnage (who’s music I very much admire) and Nigel Kennedy flirt with the imagery of the working class. Turnage, in fact, for a long time seemed to have a voyeuristic fascination with working class culture, as evidenced in Greek and his appropriation of football chants. But, in general, it’s a world of well-educated middle class dudes. I took the decision that, rather than try and pass myself off as one of them, I would just lean harder into what I am.

This approach was rather a fun one. It always amused me to stand up and take a bow after a performance dressed like Joey Belladonna circa 1987, rather than wearing a snappy suit or a corduroy jacked with leather elbow patches (I did actually have one of these. Essential academic attire).

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That’s me, all dressed up for a performance of Bempton Cliffs for string quartet. Sadly, these days I look more like an off season Jack Black than a member of Anthrax.

I.. am Steve

This is the official recording of that particular string quartet, performed by Voxare.

If you’d like to hear the actual recording of the concert, you can do that here.

Anyway, I digress.

One particularly fun time, I was taken to a swanky hotel for a champagne dinner by two of my very supportive champions in order to sweet talk the director of an extremely famous orchestra into giving me an orchestral commission for radio broadcast. Of course, I rocked up looking like I was going to hit the stage with Bad Pollyanna or Dear Superstar ( I think I may have even been wearing Anikó’s peacock feather earrings) and did me some mingling.

Anyhoo, it all went very well in terms of shmoozing and the important director and I got on very well. So well, in fact, that, when all the champagne was gone and the function over, I convinced him to crash another function taking place in the same hotel and drink more champagne. This all went terribly well and the important director seemed to be having a blast being so naughty under the influence of this decadent rocker.

Sadly, all good things come to an end and I waiter rumbled us as not belonging to the party and demanded the return of the champagne. The important director handed his back, like a naughty schoolboy, and I chugged mine before handing the waiter the glass with a friendly smile. We then made a sharp exit, giggling like Jennings and Darbishire.

Dear reader, I did not get the commission.

Anyway, one downside of the “look” is you do tend to get pigeon-holed in ways that aren’t always helpful. For example, in my work as a performer, producer and recording engineer, folk often assume I’m the metal guy. Don’t get me wrong, I love rock and metal, but I also love contemporary classical music, jazz, folk, blues, experimental music, electronica, rap etc. etc. In fact, I should take you on a tour of my record collection one day and you’ll see that rock and metal doesn’t take up any more wall space than any other genre.

What may surprise some people is that I had a long hiatus from listening to rock.After buying Tool’s Undertow in 1993 (even then, I was mostly listening to prog rock and jazz. Tool seemed proggy enough for me to justify the purchase), I consciously listen another rock album until I dug my vinyl out of my parents loft when I returned to the UK at the end of 2004. I probably didn’t buy another metal album until around 2010, when I discovered Mastodon while stocking up the CD library at Leeds Metropolitan University (Now Leeds Beckett University) in around 2010. That album was Mastodon’s Blood Mountain and I was hooked.

Having said all that, I’m really good at producing, recording, mixing and mastering metal.

So, after that nuanced diatribe as to why I shouldn’t be pigeon-holed as metal, I’m going to bang on a bit about metal again!

I produced this for UK Thrash legends Toranga UK.