Entrevistas
Howard Moody | El hombre tranquilo
08/06/2010
Ruth Prieto, para El Compositor Habla, entrevista al compositor Howard Moody, Bruselas, Junio de 2010
El hombre tranquilo
Ruth Prieto, para El Compositor Habla, entrevista al compositor Howard Moody, Bruselas, Junio de 2010
El hombre tranquilo
Ruth Prieto: 1. To start with, what do composers speak about?
Howard Moody: Music, with as few words as possible!
Ruth: Lady Gaga got 16 million visits on Youtube in four days for her latest video. Why is there such a big gap between that kind of contemporary music and the other Contemporary Music?
Howard: The gap between receiving recorded music and making acoustic music huge. They are usually very different experiences of sound, so it is hard to compare them. It’s all music of course, but the intimacy being part of music making in a concert hall or your front room is very different from receiving something through a computer’s screen and sound system. Perhaps a bit similar to grabbing a fast food burger whilst running to catch a train, and asking your local farmer to prepare a burger in his preferred way, and share it with him.
Ruth: How can we interest young people in that “other” music?
Howard: Take it to them first before expecting them to seek it out, and involve them in the process of its creation from the inside out.
Ruth: Are children and young people an attractive audience for contemporary music? Why or why not?
Howard: In my experience, young people love anything new and unusual. New music, art and ideas give them so much permission to experiment themselves. Once they have found “their” music, the awe for other music can really start! After all, they are the music of the future. We have to show them what our version of ’contemporary’ is, so that they can start to glimpse the future.
Ruth: What characteristic defines you best?
Howard: I don’t really know, although recently I have noticed much more how I am labeled as unconventional. I’ve never been good at understanding thinking that stems from big corporations or worked out systems.
Ruth: Is composing not a bit of a “trade”, like, for example, being a plumber? To what extent is composing a trade?
Howard: Like anyone trying to balance their life between professional activity and family or personal time, composers have to discipline their use of time. It is almost impossible to price up any commission, but a deadline is always useful, otherwise you would always be starting again with everything!
Ruth: What was it that made you decide to take up music full time?
Howard: I’m not sure if I ever decided consciously. I just couldn’t stop my desire to make noise. I remember discovering the low notes on the piano aged 4, and suspect that this was the point of no return!
Ruth: Britten, Paynter, Rattle, etc. Why do so many UK musicians decide to do things in the educational field? Does it go with the job, is it part of the British culture or is it something that the UK public simply needs?
Howard: Music is there to be shared, and the diversity of expression that will be given to you as a composer or a conductor from “untrained” groups is completely thrilling. There is always such synergy in the moment that a group of really expert musicians meets a group who have never experienced music making so close up. The rise in motivation from everyone is exponential. It is also such a thrilling way to see how music can bring people together from so many walks of life, without words or beliefs to divide them. So yes, it goes with the job by choice, and there is most definitely a need. So much educational thinking in the UK seems to be based on prescriptive ideas and goals. An arts project can really help to break through this.
Ruth: What was latest pleasurable moment music gave you?
Howard: As I am writing this I can hear a really tasty chord in my head!
Ruth: And the latest unpleasant surprise?
Howard: I recently had to conduct someone else’s commercially successful music, with a fabulous orchestra and chorus. I struggled with not liking the music myself, yet felt privileged to know that so many people would enjoy listening to it with such great performers. My own judgement on someone else’s music made me question the music that I try to create. Never comfortable!
Ruth: What does composing mean these days?
Howard: I think composing means the same now as it always has done. Composers are trying to communicate something through sound. There just seem to be ever more ways of doing that now. Exciting times!
Ruth: Where to you get the strength to overcome the difficulties of such a demanding profession?
Howard: I try to put my family first. It’s always a challenge, but I have three children. I try to keep the touring as a performer to a manageable level, hide away to compose, and be available for the day to day things as I can. Holidays without music are the most important thing.
Ruth: What do you find particularly irritating when you hear people talking about music?
Howard: Telling people what to think or feel.
Ruth: What does music contribute to education?
Howard: What doesn’t it contribute? It connects people. Imagine schools that placed the arts at the centre of their activities. Is there any other activity that can engage people on so many levels in a non-competitive way? Look at how people of all ages and abilities can learn a song once they use their ears and not their eyes. How I would have loved to have learned all subjects this way.
Ruth: One of Howard’s virtues.
Howard: My puritanical background wont allow me to see my own virtues!
Ruth: One of Mr Moody’s defects?
Howard: I can’t type fast.
Ruth: Liberté, egalité, fraternité ... Anything to add?
Howard: Ecoute (listening)
Ruth: Who would you rescue from the past?
Howard: Don’t know.
Ruth: What’s interesting about the present?
Howard: The need for constant flexibility and change.
Ruth: What do you expect from the future?
Howard: No expectation, but plenty of hopes.
Ruth: What do you think about the Internet, Facebook, Youtube, and all those new technologies?
Howard: It’s not my chosen way of communication between people, but I use email and the internet as a way of receiving and sending information. As a musician I would probably be described as being fairly compulsive, so I have sympathy for people who can’t leave gadgets alone (like a musical instrument!), but flickering screens and digital sound aren’t my thing.
Ruth: My triplets sing Mozart’s Requiem with the choir and raps and hip-hops at home. What am I supposed to do with them?
Howard: Don’t stop them. In fact, maybe don’t even make them self-conscious about it. I have seen so many instances of how adult commentary stops the free expression of children.
Ruth: What’s didactic about a concept as peculiar as the Requiem?
Howard: Everyone is in touch with (or denies) the subject of death. The ancient text of the Requiem seems to be about exactly that - inviting people to acknowledge their own mortality. Children seem to get especially engaged with their feelings about losing something or somebody, celebrating them and desiring something positive rather than negative.
Ruth: What would be your advice to a child studying music?
Howard: Hang on to your inner motivation. There are as many ways of making music as there are musicians.
Ruth: What composer would you invite round for dinner?
Howard: Any composer is welcome, but I’m not sure that they would want to discuss music!
Ruth: What composer could you talk to for hours on end?
Howard: Imagine meeting Beethoven!
Ruth: What musician would you kick up the backside (at least metaphorically)?
Howard: I may not enjoy everyone’s music, but am always in awe of the process any composer goes through to break the silence and write the first idea down.
Ruth: A film …
Howard: I saw a Scandinavian film recently that seems to be hard to get hold of called “As it is in Heaven”. It is about a conductor who retreats back to the village where he grew up. He focusses all his energy on the community around him and starts to work with the local choir. Beautiful outcomes.
Ruth: A book …
Howard: At the moment I am reading ‘ An uninterrupted Life ‘ by Etty Hillesum, describing her experiences that ended in Auschwitz. She wrote of wanting every word to be essential, born of an inner neccesity.
Ruth: A song …
Howard: Still trying to write it!
Ruth: A famous person from history and from fiction …
Howard: Orpheus. Such a shame that he turned round!
Ruth: What is silence?
Howard: The most precious substance.
Ruth: Three masterpieces in the history of music.
Howard: Bach’s The Art of Fugue, the B minor Mass and the 24 preludes and Fugues.
Ruth: What have you not yet been asked to do in music?
Howard: A film score.
Ruth: What would Howard Moody say about Howard Moody?
Howard: As little as possible.
El hombre tranquilo
Ruth Prieto: 1. To start with, what do composers speak about?
Howard Moody: Music, with as few words as possible!
Ruth: Lady Gaga got 16 million visits on Youtube in four days for her latest video. Why is there such a big gap between that kind of contemporary music and the other Contemporary Music?
Howard: The gap between receiving recorded music and making acoustic music huge. They are usually very different experiences of sound, so it is hard to compare them. It’s all music of course, but the intimacy being part of music making in a concert hall or your front room is very different from receiving something through a computer’s screen and sound system. Perhaps a bit similar to grabbing a fast food burger whilst running to catch a train, and asking your local farmer to prepare a burger in his preferred way, and share it with him.
Ruth: How can we interest young people in that “other” music?
Howard: Take it to them first before expecting them to seek it out, and involve them in the process of its creation from the inside out.
Ruth: Are children and young people an attractive audience for contemporary music? Why or why not?
Howard: In my experience, young people love anything new and unusual. New music, art and ideas give them so much permission to experiment themselves. Once they have found “their” music, the awe for other music can really start! After all, they are the music of the future. We have to show them what our version of ’contemporary’ is, so that they can start to glimpse the future.
Ruth: What characteristic defines you best?
Howard: I don’t really know, although recently I have noticed much more how I am labeled as unconventional. I’ve never been good at understanding thinking that stems from big corporations or worked out systems.
Ruth: Is composing not a bit of a “trade”, like, for example, being a plumber? To what extent is composing a trade?
Howard: Like anyone trying to balance their life between professional activity and family or personal time, composers have to discipline their use of time. It is almost impossible to price up any commission, but a deadline is always useful, otherwise you would always be starting again with everything!
Ruth: What was it that made you decide to take up music full time?
Howard: I’m not sure if I ever decided consciously. I just couldn’t stop my desire to make noise. I remember discovering the low notes on the piano aged 4, and suspect that this was the point of no return!
Ruth: Britten, Paynter, Rattle, etc. Why do so many UK musicians decide to do things in the educational field? Does it go with the job, is it part of the British culture or is it something that the UK public simply needs?
Howard: Music is there to be shared, and the diversity of expression that will be given to you as a composer or a conductor from “untrained” groups is completely thrilling. There is always such synergy in the moment that a group of really expert musicians meets a group who have never experienced music making so close up. The rise in motivation from everyone is exponential. It is also such a thrilling way to see how music can bring people together from so many walks of life, without words or beliefs to divide them. So yes, it goes with the job by choice, and there is most definitely a need. So much educational thinking in the UK seems to be based on prescriptive ideas and goals. An arts project can really help to break through this.
Ruth: What was latest pleasurable moment music gave you?
Howard: As I am writing this I can hear a really tasty chord in my head!
Ruth: And the latest unpleasant surprise?
Howard: I recently had to conduct someone else’s commercially successful music, with a fabulous orchestra and chorus. I struggled with not liking the music myself, yet felt privileged to know that so many people would enjoy listening to it with such great performers. My own judgement on someone else’s music made me question the music that I try to create. Never comfortable!
Ruth: What does composing mean these days?
Howard: I think composing means the same now as it always has done. Composers are trying to communicate something through sound. There just seem to be ever more ways of doing that now. Exciting times!
Ruth: Where to you get the strength to overcome the difficulties of such a demanding profession?
Howard: I try to put my family first. It’s always a challenge, but I have three children. I try to keep the touring as a performer to a manageable level, hide away to compose, and be available for the day to day things as I can. Holidays without music are the most important thing.
Ruth: What do you find particularly irritating when you hear people talking about music?
Howard: Telling people what to think or feel.
Ruth: What does music contribute to education?
Howard: What doesn’t it contribute? It connects people. Imagine schools that placed the arts at the centre of their activities. Is there any other activity that can engage people on so many levels in a non-competitive way? Look at how people of all ages and abilities can learn a song once they use their ears and not their eyes. How I would have loved to have learned all subjects this way.
Ruth: One of Howard’s virtues.
Howard: My puritanical background wont allow me to see my own virtues!
Ruth: One of Mr Moody’s defects?
Howard: I can’t type fast.
Ruth: Liberté, egalité, fraternité ... Anything to add?
Howard: Ecoute (listening)
Ruth: Who would you rescue from the past?
Howard: Don’t know.
Ruth: What’s interesting about the present?
Howard: The need for constant flexibility and change.
Ruth: What do you expect from the future?
Howard: No expectation, but plenty of hopes.
Ruth: What do you think about the Internet, Facebook, Youtube, and all those new technologies?
Howard: It’s not my chosen way of communication between people, but I use email and the internet as a way of receiving and sending information. As a musician I would probably be described as being fairly compulsive, so I have sympathy for people who can’t leave gadgets alone (like a musical instrument!), but flickering screens and digital sound aren’t my thing.
Ruth: My triplets sing Mozart’s Requiem with the choir and raps and hip-hops at home. What am I supposed to do with them?
Howard: Don’t stop them. In fact, maybe don’t even make them self-conscious about it. I have seen so many instances of how adult commentary stops the free expression of children.
Ruth: What’s didactic about a concept as peculiar as the Requiem?
Howard: Everyone is in touch with (or denies) the subject of death. The ancient text of the Requiem seems to be about exactly that - inviting people to acknowledge their own mortality. Children seem to get especially engaged with their feelings about losing something or somebody, celebrating them and desiring something positive rather than negative.
Ruth: What would be your advice to a child studying music?
Howard: Hang on to your inner motivation. There are as many ways of making music as there are musicians.
Ruth: What composer would you invite round for dinner?
Howard: Any composer is welcome, but I’m not sure that they would want to discuss music!
Ruth: What composer could you talk to for hours on end?
Howard: Imagine meeting Beethoven!
Ruth: What musician would you kick up the backside (at least metaphorically)?
Howard: I may not enjoy everyone’s music, but am always in awe of the process any composer goes through to break the silence and write the first idea down.
Ruth: A film …
Howard: I saw a Scandinavian film recently that seems to be hard to get hold of called “As it is in Heaven”. It is about a conductor who retreats back to the village where he grew up. He focusses all his energy on the community around him and starts to work with the local choir. Beautiful outcomes.
Ruth: A book …
Howard: At the moment I am reading ‘ An uninterrupted Life ‘ by Etty Hillesum, describing her experiences that ended in Auschwitz. She wrote of wanting every word to be essential, born of an inner neccesity.
Ruth: A song …
Howard: Still trying to write it!
Ruth: A famous person from history and from fiction …
Howard: Orpheus. Such a shame that he turned round!
Ruth: What is silence?
Howard: The most precious substance.
Ruth: Three masterpieces in the history of music.
Howard: Bach’s The Art of Fugue, the B minor Mass and the 24 preludes and Fugues.
Ruth: What have you not yet been asked to do in music?
Howard: A film score.
Ruth: What would Howard Moody say about Howard Moody?
Howard: As little as possible.
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