Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?
There are three main influences for me in my music. These are the people and places I love, my country with its beautiful landscapes and seascapes, and, most importantly of all, my Christian faith which permeates everything I do and am.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
Like many composers, the most difficult stage of my career was finding an audience. I knew I had something to say in music: the difficulty was reaching the ears of an appreciative audience. My breakthrough came in February 2004 when I received a call from Classic FM asking if they could
make my debut album Blue in Blue their CD of the Week. Suddenly I had an audience of millions.
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?
Starting a commissioned piece is like being given a brand-new exercise book at school! There is a feeling of complete newness and freshness. The desk is cleared, space is made in the mind and the soul, and a whole new adventure begins. For me, there are no special challenges: I know in my heart that the new piece of music already exists – all I have to do is discover it in the same way that a sculptor discovers a figure that already exists in a block of stone.
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles or orchestras?
At first, there may be occasional challenges in the form of unfamiliarity between composer and performers but this usually quickly dissipates. Other than this, working with musical colleagues is a complete joy. What could be more exhilarating and fulfilling than bringing a brand-new piece of music to life? The experience is often really quite emotional for me and for those taking part, particularly in the case of soloists or small groups where a special form of intimacy is created between the composer and performers.
At the other extreme, a career highlight has to be conducting the massive ensemble of musicians in the Royal Albert Hall for the premiere of my work The Great War Symphony. The concert brought together the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, London Youth Choir, Berkshire Youth Choir, Invictus Games Choir, Louise Alder (soprano), Joshua Ellicott (tenor) and military musicians from the Band of the Household Cavalry, State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry, the Corps of Drums of the Royal Marines and Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Air Force. The logistics were immense but the end result so worth it!
Of which works are you most proud?
This question is like asking a parent which of their children they are most proud of! I am proud of all my music because it did not always ask to be created – rather, it was my decision to bring it to life. Consequently, every single piece is, to some degree, vulnerable; they are my responsibility, and my wish is for them all to succeed in life.
Even so, there are certain compositions which I cannot help feeling are the very best of me. Two of these are Song of Songs and Highgrove Suite. On my new album The Nativity, there is a special place in my heart for those pieces I wrote together with my librettist brother Andrew, particularly The Infant, Joseph’s Carol, and Behold the King.
How would you characterise your compositional language?
My compositional language is an extension of myself. I never deliberately set out to emulate another composer’s style or way of speaking to an audience. I can hear that my music is essentially English and feel proud that I instinctively want to follow the same path musically as Gibbons, Handel, Parry and Vaughan Williams. All of these composers had the ability to express a deep spirituality of which they were either aware or unaware. I hope I do the same.
How do you work?
I am very fortunate in that I am able to work whenever the muse takes me. In my twenties and thirties, I tended to work late at night, but, since I have had more creative space and time available during the day, my tendency is now to work early in the morning through to late afternoon. Having said that, if the music demands I will always let this take priority in my life and may still end up working into the early hours. I always used to work at a piano (as Ravel advised Vaughan Williams to do) but I have kept abreast of musical technology and currently use those digital aids available to me which save time and energy. Living in a beautiful house in the Norfolk countryside surrounded by gardens is a delight and I frequently pause in my work, make a cup of tea and go for a walk in the garden and reflect on what I am writing. Our four cats often join me on these constitutionals!
As a musician, what is your definition of success?
I have found that my own definition of success is different to that of the musical establishment. It is important to me that I am true to myself and my beliefs when I write. If, at the end of the compositional process, I can view my score and say to myself ‘yes, this speaks to me of what I wanted it to speak and it feels complete and whole’, then I have succeeded. If this work never makes it to the concert platform there are those among the musical hierarchy who would believe it has failed. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?
I have two pieces of advice. The first is you must be thoroughly immersed in the language of music: you must understand the depths and intricacies of techniques from a variety of periods, especially those fundamental truths which evolved during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Without these there is the danger of becoming rudderless in your work.
The second, even more important thing, is to speak in your music honestly and openly. After all, your music, more than anything else, is a voice which is speaking from you those things which words cannot express.
What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?
First of all, potential young audiences need to come to the realisation that live music offers something which recorded music does not. Not only is there a vital social element to concert-going, but also live music has a deep effect on the ear, and consequently the emotions, which listening through headphones or speakers does not. Classical music must also ask itself exactly what it is those potential audience members desire but are not being given. The answer surely lies in a style of music which is beautiful and alluring but, most importantly, coherent and wholesome.
What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about but you think we should be?
We should be talking about what comes after modernism and post- modernism. In a hundred years’ time people will look at our own present and see a new artistic period evolving. What are the characteristics that will define this new period? What type of music can we write that will put
an end to modernism once and for all and reengage audiences? I am currently writing a book – The Renovation of Music – which covers these issues and more.
What next – where would you like to be in 10 years?
I would like more of the same! If I will be working in attractive surroundings as I am now, and if my creative tank is as full as it is now, then I will be content. I feel God has given me a gift to write music and all I want to do is to use that gift to the very best of my ability. In particular, I would like to be writing operas and ballets.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
In terms of my life as a composer perfect happiness takes the form of any joyous experience which brings about an awareness of God’s greatness and loving kindness. Giving birth to a piece of music and hearing it performed by stupendous musicians in front of an audience which understands and cares is the closest I can ever come to perfect happiness. Drinking a G&T with my partner surrounded by our four cats while listening to Renaissance music isn’t bad either!
What is your most treasured possession?
A wooden crucifix that hangs in my office. It was carved at my request by my father a few months before he died.
What do you enjoy doing most?
Apart from taking holidays in the sunshine, and clearing my head of thoughts both related and unrelated to music, the greatest fulfilment and enjoyment I experience is creating. For the most part of course this is writing music, but recently I have so enjoyed writing my book The
Renovation of Music and, during lockdown, I took up painting with acrylics which I absolutely love.
What is your present state of mind?
I feel full of optimism about the future. My creative tank is full and I am so looking forward to completing my new work The Son of Man for the Houston Chamber Choir. As someone who suffers with clinical depression, I am thankful that I am in the best frame of mind I have been
in for some years.
The Nativity, Patrick Hawes’ new album of Christmas music, is available now on the Signum Classics label
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