Photography credit: Belinda Lawley

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2024 Young Composer Jamie takes us through the exciting mix of new music you can find on our newly released album, Young Composers 6. 

Surreal dreams, hope in dark times, odes to the sea, unrequited love, and murderous goats terrorising a yodelling old lady, it is certainly an eclectic mix, which I feel sums us up as a group of composers.

The more surreal pieces are Áine’s Dreamer:1 and Crystalla’s Little ol’ lady who?. Áine and I shared a house during our composer’s retreat to Aldeburgh. I came downstairs one morning to find what must have been 100 post it notes stuck to the wall, each with little snapshots of real dreams people had sent her. How she managed to condense them into one piece, I’ll never know, but the result is a deeply entertaining and expertly wrought smorgasbord of hypnagogic dreams (the fleeting, sometimes surreal visions that occur as one drifts into sleep). The images range from talking clouds, to journeys on giant snails, that creepy kid with the gas mask from Doctor Who, and a mummy threatening to curse us unless we find them a wife. The mysterious ‘Ellen’ has since become a cult hero amongst the composers and fellowship for her timely, curse-deflecting marriage to the mummy. This is the first movement of a set of pieces about dreams which Áine plans to write in the future, and I can’t wait to hear what she comes up with! 

Speaking of fever dreams, Crystalla’s Little ol’ Lady Who? begins as a guide on how to yodel, but ends up (spoiler alert) as a tragic tale about the poor little old lady being stampeded to death by a heard of goats, and her yodelling voice lingering in the mountains for evermore. It is rather excellently composed, and highly theatrical and idiosyncratic. Crystalla’s creativity has no bounds it seems, and this is a great insight into her multi-genre approach to her writing, as well as her superb grasp of composing for voice. The piece was a big hit with National Youth Choir (18-25 Years); we would regularly hear a chorus of yodelling and cries of "I don’t like goats" resonating around Uppingham school during recording breaks. Very different in content, but no less effective, is her piece for the fellowship, Kyrie Eleison. Crystalla, who grew up in Cyprus, uses traditional Cyprian folk features, irregular dance rhythms and Byzantine chant elements to create a dramatic and atmospheric setting. The piece really allowed the fellowship to show off their vocal ability, and the overall effect is very striking and successful. I’m a Crystalla Serghiou superfan, so I was happy that parts of the piece were stuck in my head for weeks after the recording; it’s catchy - you have been warned!

As I’m writing this, I’m listening to a broadcast of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales playing Cameron’s piece, Yr Afon Yn Yr Awyr on Radio 3. He’s a talented man! He has a wonderful way of combining rigorous compositional logic with evocative harmony and expression. His setting of A Wild, Gentle Thing (a gorgeous poem by James Wright) is both intimate and moving, with rich, exquisite harmony, and some beautiful solo moments, expertly managed by National Youth Choir (18-25 Years) singers Kizzy Lumley-Edwards, Rachael Best-Babayeju, Katie Santi and Samuel Mills. The climax on the words ‘wild, gentle thing’ might be my favourite few bars on the album. In contrast, his O Sea! (setting of Tennyson’s Break, Break, Break) is fast and dramatic, mirroring the motion of the sea. Once again, the piece is underpinned by Cameron’s command of rich harmony, and hats off to the fellowship for bringing it to vivid life.

A theme of finding hope in dark and difficult times emerges in Áine’s piece, Bones and Glass, as well as my piece The New Moon. In Áine’s own words about her piece:

This piece serves as a reminder that even in our darkest moments, we have the capacity to create our own light. It’s a reflection of the enduring human spirit, which finds ways to foster hope and resilience, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Áine has a fantastic instinct for vocal line and emotional climax in her compositions, and that is supremely evident here. The climax, and sumptuous ending, to this piece is a real highlight of the album, and her original text is very moving. I conducted another piece of hers recently (her setting of Dum Transisset Sabbatum), and it struck me that her music always seems to create instant and palpable atmosphere in the room; it’s quite the skill.

My piece, The New Moon, charts a similar trajectory as Áine’s, from something dark and brooding, to something hopeful. It sets Sara Teasdale’s poem about being beaten down by the day, only to find hope and strength in the beauty of the moon at night. I was really impressed how National Youth Choir (18-25 Years) performed the punchy rhythms, and some tricky harmonic moments, with aplomb and helped the music leap off the page. I was also very grateful to the Fellowship Ensemble for how they represented my other piece on the album, Sappho Fragments: Eros. The Ancient Greeks had various words describing love of different forms; ‘Eros’ describes the love between romantic partners, and was also the name of their god of love (the Ancient Greek equivalent of Cupid), who could inflict both joy and suffering with his arrows. In a similar way, Sappho’s verses often portray love as a force both exhilarating and destructive. Although we cannot know exactly how much her poems relate to her real life, there is a clear theme running through her poems of unrequited yearning for women; 2500 years after she was writing, I find the fragments we have left so moving and evocative. I’ve set three short fragments, in translation (though you can hear the original Greek in the whispered sections), and my aim was to mirror the yearning evident in her words. I thought the fellowship did a fantastic job of performing it - thanks all!

It’s been a great year, and the album is a very exciting way to finish it. I feel particularly indebted to Joanna Marsh and Héloïse Werner who so kindly and expertly mentored me on my pieces. Most of all, I’m very happy to have spent it with these lovely composers and am excited to see what they do next!

Listen to Young Composers 6 now