Cheryl Frances-Hoad, composer

Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

Growing up playing the music of Bach, Beethoven and Britten (amongst others!) on my cello whilst I was a student at the Yehudi Menuhin School is the first thing that springs to mind. I started composing very young – I can’t remember a time before I wrote music and have no idea what spurred me to start, but I think it must have felt like a natural extension of playing.

I have been lucky to have some wonderful teachers – Malcolm Singer, David Knotts, Robin Holloway and Silvina Milstein – who mostly just let me get on with it whilst providing constructive criticism. I also look back on the hours and hours spent studying harmony and counterpoint, tonal composition and writing a weekly fugue (or at least a fugal exposition!) at university – I’m very glad to have had such rigorous training in these areas.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Getting enough work, earning enough money, staying on top of endless admin, banishing frequent self-doubt, and summoning up enough willpower to actually write the piece once you get the commission!

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?

I am lucky to have had a wide range of commissions, from those that are extremely open (e.g. write what you want, for who you want, and make it however long you want) to extremely specific. I really enjoy the balance – sometimes it can be a huge challenge working out how to respond to a brief (for example, I was recently asked to write a work for choir and orchestra that used both the text and music of William Byrd’s O, Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth: it took an awfully long time to get my head around how I was going to do this in a meaningful and interesting way!). But often, wrestling with a problem like this can result in some of the best musical ideas…

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles or orchestras?

In the majority of my work, I try to write pieces that are specifically tailored to the artists I’m working with, but not to such a degree that nobody else will want to perform them! It’s great fun to identify what it is that most appeals to you about someone’s playing or singing, and then create a composition that really brings this to the fore. You never stop learning when working with other musicians – there’s always something to improve upon, something new to discover.

Of which works are you most proud?

Perhaps my cello concerto, Earth, Sea, Air, for Laura van der Heijden and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra? I’m not sure, in all honesty – I rarely think in this way. Sometimes I think I wrote my best piece when I was 14 years old, but this probably isn’t true.

How would you characterise your compositional language?

My favourite review of my work states that my music is “melodic, passionate, equal parts humour and reverence” (American Record Guide). I really like this description, and can’t think of a better way to describe it!

How do you work?

I start by writing lots of words in my notebook, then I move to the piano and generally noodle around, writing very intuitively at first. Once I’ve got my initial musical ideas, I analyse them and plan the structure of the work, and then it’s a sort of endless feedback loop of noodling, analysing and planning. I try to write as much of the work as possible at the piano, on manuscript paper, mostly with a trusty Bic biro… but move to typesetting on the computer in the final stages, when I’m sure of how the piece goes and only have some of the filigree detail to work out.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

Obviously, the most important thing is to feel you are writing the best music you possibly can. But it’s nice to be busy (but not too busy), to be valued by your peers, and to be appreciated by your audience too. And to feel you are being paid what you are worth.

What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?

To keep going, and be brilliant at coping with rejection. And to proofread your score one more time after you think you’ve found every mistake.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?

Ultimately, everything comes back to proper music education in schools.

What next – where would you like to be in 10 years?

I’d like to be in pretty much the same position, but writing more orchestral music. And I’d like to have completed the opera that I’m currently trying to make happen!

Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new choral cantata ‘Five Beacons of Light’, with words by Di Sherlock, receives its world premeire at Worcester Cathedral on Saturday 25 April, performed by Youth Choral Worcs, Sonoro and the English Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Neil Ferris. Find out more / book tickets