Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?
I always find it hard to say exactly who are the most significant influences on my musical career, certainly teachers I’ve had (such as John Casken and Anthony Powers) have been important, but also the composers I’ve researched (Herbert Howells and James MacMillan) have left a mark. Without wanting to over-egg the pudding too much, being born into a family which didn’t have any preconceptions as to what a young person could or couldn’t do probably really helped.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
I think having chosen to work primarily (though not exclusively) in the field of choral music it has been a challenge not having the networks created by composer colleagues at a younger age. Having not been a singer, organist, conductor or choral scholar has meant some missing links that others may have access to. I don’t think it has been an insurmountable challenge, but it probably hasn’t helped.
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?
I often find the challenges and the pleasures are one and the same – a narrowing of the compositional possibilities to fit someone else’s design. Sometimes working with a text I’m not overtly fond of is tricky, sometimes being given the text, mood and parameters of a piece is incredibly liberating. It generally tends to work out in the end!
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles or orchestras?
If I’m honest, whether by circumstance or design, I’m not the most collaborative composer – not that I’m against collaboration per say, but I don’t need that working relationship to thrive as a creative individual. That being said, I do enjoy working with performers and always relish their input. I think the greatest pleasure of working with live musicians is the difference between performances and performers – the subtle (or not so subtle…) deviations between each iteration. I think if I didn’t enjoy that, there would be no point being a composer.
Of which works are you most proud?
That’s a good question: I more often or not find myself looking for the things I don’t like about pieces, rather than those that I do. Even in pieces that have had multiple performances and recordings I can find things that I wish I’d done better. I wrote a motet, O sacrum convivium, in 2012 which I’m quite proud of – mainly because I like how the material works through the piece and the harmonic journey of the work.
Pieces that have had an immediate effect on people (such as The World on Fire from 2015) make me quite proud for different reasons.
How would you characterise your compositional language?
I actually had to define this the other day when writing to an ensemble. Here is what I wrote: ‘As a composer, I tend to write in a soft, modern but traditional style – something that is definitely of the period, but one very much aware of the traditions from which it came.’
How do you work?
At the piano. The compositional process tends to be weeks of questioning my abilities and the paucity of material before a sudden moment of illumination then a mad rush to finish. After I complete every piece I immediately feel invigorated and start the next before the cycle begins again…
As a musician, what is your definition of success?
I guess that my pieces are being performed somewhere at sometime and there is a reason to write more. I’ve always followed the Britten mantra of needing to be ‘useful’ as a composer – I don’t mind not being the world’s most performed composer as long as there is an audience for my work, no matter how small. Success for me is also bound up in respect, I think respect as a composer is something I’m always striving for. Not sure why.
What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?
The prosaic answer is to try and meet as many performers as possible and keep within their circles. As nice as it is having composer friends and colleagues (and that is necessary), it is just as important to have networks of people who can actively realise your music.
What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?
I’m not sure. I’d love to move away from the idea that classical music is somehow elite. A non-classical music appreciating friend came to a concert of mine a while back, his first question was whether he should wear a tuxedo! I was tempted to say yes, just for amusement, but it highlighted the chasm that exists between classical music and the wider world. I came to contemporary music as an extension of the alternative rock I was listening to at the time – I don’t see why anyone couldn’t do the same if the path was open to them.
What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about but you think we should be?
I can’t think of anything that isn’t already being discussed. The [proposed] defunding of the BBC Singers was criminal – even if you don’t like what they sing or how they sing, the idea that a national broadcaster can’t afford a radio choir is lamentable. I’m glad there has been a stay of execution.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I’m not sure perfect happiness exists, but if it did it would probably involve family, walking in the mountains and my useless football team winning. I get great satisfaction from writing music and having it performed, but I equally enjoy days/weeks where I don’t think about music in any form whatsoever.
Phillip Cooke is a composer and lecturer. His works have been performed and broadcast around the globe. His music is inspired by his native Lake District, by history and by ongoing traditions.
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