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September 9, 2004
• The Changing Scene The Changing Scene Composing for film, opera and performance In Mozart's day it was a big deal for artists to travel from one community to another for either training or performance. But jet planes and e-mail have made the world an easy bounce from one place to another. Composer Emily Hall of Great Britain was bouncing her notes at the Tanglewood Music Institute this summer, just as in the past she has been in residence in Darmstadt, Royaumont, Acanthese and the Britten Pears School for advanced composition. A native of Brighton, England, Hall started violin lessons at the age of 7 and by the time she turned 16 was a junior exhibitioner at Trinity College in London. She attended York University where she majored in music and then received her master's degree in both music and composing at the Royal College of Music in London. She is now a junior fellow at the Royal College where she teaches composition to undergraduates and organizes extra-curricular musical events. Her journey to Tanglewood came about because while she was studying with noted English composer-conductor Oliver Knussen in Suffolk, he suggested it would be a good experience for her to be exposed to all that the Music Institute has to offer. Knussen was head of composition at TMI a few years ago. Hall said that studying with Michael Gandolfi, the present head of composition at TMI, and Steve Mackey, composer in residence, this summer, has been an exhilarating experience. "We have what we call The Half Band," she said, "because it's half composers and half musicians, and we all come in with sketches and develop them into pieces. It isn’t only the beautiful environment here, it is also a very practical experience. The European programs I have attended are more talking about music than doing it. The faculty here is open-minded and supportive and that is very important for all of us.” Hall’s music has been featured at several British festivals, including Cheltenham and Aldeburgh. She is presently working on an opera with librettist Kit Peel for the Aldeburgh Festival. She and Peel are one of three finalists chosen to compose an opera by the British Genesis Foundation for presentation in 2005. Several groups made presentations of their works in progress in front of an invited audience of international opera professionals, and the Hall-Peel work was one of the three chosen. The title of the opera is "Sante and Augustine," which is based on a true story of three young Rwandan girls who in 1981 had visions of the Virgin Mary and then had premonitions about the genocide that took place in Rwanda 13 years later. "The whole piece is not dark even though we are dealing with people under extreme circumstances," said Hall, "because it also involves a love story. I've set several of Kit’s poems to music before this and while I am here I am writing sketches and thinking dramatically about the whole work. There are four main roles and three supporting parts. It is a chamber opera that will go about 70 minutes and so far I have written 20 minutes of music.” Hall was also collaborating at Tanglewood with experimental filmmakers who have works in progress, and right now is doing the music for a film titled "Fairy Tale" in which the music and the film are on an equal footing. "Our whole group is working with four different filmmakers," she said, "and we are concentrating on that.” After Tanglewood, Hall headed for Paris where she is composer in residence at ccmix at the Xenakis Centre of New Music. She will spend two weeks writing an electric string quartet for the group. "I have been lucky in that I get a lot of commissions," Hall said modestly. "I am still trying things out. My music can be quite claustrophobic, chromatic and textural. I have a lot of dreams but as yet no ultimate position." |
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