SWON are delighted to be performing the premiere of ‘In Sunshine or In Shadow’ by David Loxley-Blount in our Autumn Concert of 2022. David performs in our orchestra, and we were delighted to sit down with him to discuss his inspirations for the piece.

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What was your inspiration for In Sunshine or in Shadow?  Do you have a connection to Northern Ireland? 

The iconic traditional tune known to most as Londonderry Air is a melody with which I had wanted to do something for quite a few years. What that something was I was not quite sure, it is often best to wait for the right opportunity to present itself. All composers generally have a long list of things they would like to work on, but have not managed to get around to yet, or the ‘right’ opportunity has not come up. However, when I saw that using Londonderry Air as the basis of a theme and variations form was listed as one of the set options for Sebastian Thompson’s Angels of Creation Composition Competition in 2019. Instantly I knew it was the option I would go for, and would probably enter the competition, although in the end it was a bit of a dash finishing the piece by the competition closing date. 

I do not have a strong connection to Northern Ireland where the melody originates from, but my mother worked there for a bit at the height of the troubles in the early 1970s. Not very many years after the Good Friday Agreement we stayed with a friend of hers in Belfast. I was only about 10 and Belfast still seemed pretty dangerous for someone not used to that kind of environment. So I didn’t get to see or do much. We were not there long as were stopping off between the Republic of Ireland and Scotland on a family holiday, we did visit the Giant’s Causeway on the way to the ferry though. I have not been back to Northern Ireland since, but hope to sometime in the future. 

This piece was originally titled Londonderry Air: Theme and Variations, but the week I was finalising the parts of the wind orchestra version was the week that the Queen died (before SWON’s first rehearsal of the term). This left me feeling maybe the piece should have and needed a less functional and bland formal title. The new title is lifted from the most commonly associated words, Danny Boy, and carries an additional in memoriam dedication and a reference that Londonderry Air is often used as an unofficial anthem of Northern Ireland above the original ‘for the Symphonic Wind Orchestra of North London’. 

To so many, even outside the UK in non-Commonwealth countries, she was just ‘The Queen’. You said ‘The Queen’ to someone and people instantly knew who you meant, despite there being a number of Queens in-post concurrently around the world. She was there in sunshine or in shadow; at the brightest moments that we all shared, and also at some of the worst and most difficult moments too. We will feel her shadow for a long time to come I feel. As a composer, I feel it is important to reference national events, when possible, sometimes subtly like this, regardless of what you think about the monarchy. 

With the new title it is equally valid to engage with thoughts of someone who or something that was, or is, special, significant, or important to you. Maybe they are not around anymore, or your interactions are now fleeting. Or it could be something you do not do anymore but helped to make you who you are today. I feel we all have these moments, interactions and experiences to draw on within us. There are always ‘sunshine’ and ‘shadow’ moments is so many things, I mean life, not just music. Another advantage was that the new title better reflected the differing and changing moods of the piece as you progress through the variations. The piece is in a way much like a cloudy day in our British weather. Where the sun pokes through every now and again, and one minute can be quite different to the next; the variations are each about a minute long.

In Sunshine or in Shadow started as a piece for solo organ, what were the challenges in adapting it for a wind ensemble? 

Yes, the organ version came first and was awarded 3^rd Prize in the Angels of Creation Composition Competition in 2019. It is not unusual for orchestral pieces to start as keyboard instrument sketches which then need to be orchestrated. The slightly more unusual thing is maybe that the keyboard instrument version has been played in public. Having the pedals to play extra material vs piano with only two hands does provide scope and capacity for the extra musical line/s that the composer may wish to accommodate. Sometimes I have notes in both feet at the same time to get everything harmonically needed into a chord where I want it to be. It works well for solo organ, but I always felt the piece had more symphonic tendencies that an organ could not do alone. It could and would always need to be unpacked and orchestrated later. After orchestration the versions are not 100% identical, there are some extra layers that would just not be possible in the solo organ version. Interestingly I got into a conversation with the American composer Nico Muhly at an event last week hosted by the Cathedral Music Trust at Southwark Cathedral and we both mentioned how we enjoy the possibilities to write in an orchestral way for a single organ and organist. In some ways enabling us to try things out with only one player when a large ensemble would not be realistic or viable for various reasons. There is a reason why the organ is sometimes referred to as the ‘king of instruments’. Organ is the only instrument where it’s possible to make so many different types of sounds at the same time with only one player and without using the assistance of software or electronics to layer musical lines on top of each other. This all depends slightly on the organ of course, as no two organs are identical. The organ version of this piece is suited more towards a medium to large organ, rather than a smaller organ. 

There is also a Brass Band version (as yet unperformed) which was one of my early Covid-19 lockdown projects having started learning to play the cornet at the start of 2020 (I was trying to do ‘a new decade, a new musical challenge’, but then the pandemic arrived). Brass Band does not quite have the variety of instrumental colour available that a symphonic wind orchestra does though. One of the challenges of adapting it for Wind Orchestra was that I started to work from the Brass Band version and adapt that, in hindsight starting again fresh with the orchestration and going back to the original and working directly from that might have been better, which for parts of the piece I did end up doing in the end. 

How do you normally start composing a piece?  Tell us a bit about your process. 

It really varies from piece to piece for me, in the past, I have written full orchestral works into full score without hardly touching a piano, but most of my pieces start life on an instrument; organ, piano, saxophone, or using the internal instrument we all have; our voice (often singing in my head not out loud though). 

This piece started with taking the Londonderry Air melody and re-harmonising it at the piano. If I’m working with a pre-existing melodic line this is often how I initially proceed as it then instantly gives me harmonic material that is my own creation. The re-harmonisation, presented at the opening of the piece as the theme, is not a wild one, but it is not the one you will find in any hymn book either. If the tune I am re-harmonising is contained within a hymnbook or elsewhere I often work with that open in front of me when exploring ideas of what I may do, so I actively try to avoid subconsciously lapsing into the known and often still in copyright harmonisation already out there.

Read the previous installments: I, II, III, IV

SWON: You played in the orchestra during our first rehearsal of Vortex and have also conducted some rehearsals, what was that experience like as the composer?

LEO: In both cases I take my composer hat off. I find the playing and conducting a very different act. The fundamental difference when it is my music, is that I am in the fortunate position of knowing the music very well (as you’d hope!). So, when conducting I act on my intimate knowledge of the music to aid my colleagues in the performance of it.

It’s always a very exciting and somewhat terrifying experience at a first rehearsal. Having spent months locked away writing, finally the moment has come to hear it in the flesh. As is nearly always the case, the first read of the piece is usually somewhat chaotic, as the performers quite rightly get to grips with what is being asked of them. This was certainly the case with SWON, so I wanted to be very encouraging and inspire everyone to persevere. It appeared that not much encouragement was needed as everyone was very keen to make it happen, and I am very excited to hear the final result!

SWON: On concert night, rumour has it you’ll be among the orchestra as well… is that something you often have the opportunity to do with first performances of your compositions? What is your ideal situation for the first outing?

LEO: I very rarely play the bassoon now, as I am primarily a professional composer and conductor. So, it is very unusual for me to be playing at the premiere of one of my own pieces, which I am very much looking forward to. Usually I’m the one flapping my arms around, which I much prefer to sitting in the audience. I tend to get very fidgety, questioning my compositional decisions and over analysing the audience reaction. I much prefer being in the action and making the music come alive!

Read previous installments here, here and here.

SWON: Do you feel it important that an audience is able to deduct the processes and ideas behind a work purely on the basis of the music? If so, how do you make them transparent?

LEO: Part of my interest in the Vortex structure is that it is a form that audiences can hopefully perceive. It is essentially a reimagining of classical theme and variation; whereby musical material returns elaborated and decorated. To achieve this, each section of music has a very distinctive character identified not only by motific material but also instrumental colour, rhythmic energy, dynamic shape and tempo. So even as the material constantly undergoes development, it is always within its “character.”

SWON: Did you face any particular challenges when composing this piece?

LEO: Vortex is consistently at a very fast tempo. Initially beginning at heart racing 152 beats per minute, it accelerates, at various moments hurtling along at nearly double that speed! For the composer, fast music means more notes, and more notes means more time needed to write. Vortex is also largely in compound time (dividing the beat into 3, rather than the more common 2) and computer notation programmes don’t respond so well in this metre, requiring a huge amount of editing. Therefore, the big challenge when composing this piece was time! For a 12min piece it took the best part of three months of fairly solid work to write.

Read the previous installments here and here.

SWON: This piece was partly inspired by the Vortex jazz club. Tell us why this was a source of inspiration for you?

LEO: As a composer of the 21^st century, I think it’s important to engage with, or at least be aware of, the rich variety of music that is being written and performed today. As to be expected, I closely follow developments in the classical “new music” world, but I also keep a keen eye (or rather ear!) on contemporary jazz. I live pretty close to the Vortex Jazz Club and regularly attend this home of cutting-edge jazz, improvised and experimental music. My new piece for SWON is in homage to the Vortex for hosting an inspiring programme of wonderfully unhinged jazz. Vortex, the composition, sits stylistically somewhere in-between contemporary classical music and contemporary jazz. Vortex also includes a number of solos which require the player(s) to stand, as it is practiced in Jazz.

SWON: As well as referencing the jazz club, the name of the piece is also influenced by the ‘vortex structure’ of the music. Please tell us about this and what has drawn you to experimenting with this structural form?

LEO: My music has always centred around motific development as means to create trajectory and structure. In the last few years I have been exploring works which unravel a singular strand of motific development throughout the entire duration of the composition, resulting in a form which I have called the ‘vortex structure.’ The form begins with the presentation of a musical phrase followed by an extended variation of the first. The third phrase is then an extended variation of the second, and so it continues; thus spiralling out as each cyclic variation becomes larger and increasingly more flamboyant. It is an enticing compositional challenge to write in this way, as it requires every singular note to be organically grown from the initial motif.

Read the first installment of our interview here.

SWON: What do you usually start with when composing? Tell us a bit about your process.

LEO: Without sounding overly profound, I think composing is my way of understanding the world.

Composing is my process of understanding art, literature and society. It’s also how I capture and record a moment in life. Once I know what it is that I want to express, I usually consolidate my ideas into a poetic preface. I’ll then sketch out some musical ideas as part of a structural plan. I’ll usually always deviate from the blueprint, but it’s always helpful to outline before I lock myself away and write the thing.

SWON: Does anything about your process change when commissioned to compose a piece for a specific orchestra or event, as in this case?

LEO: Beginning a piece is difficult. There are literally an infinite variety of options available. To overcome this it is all too easy to write within the parameters that you already know. Therefore, I always welcome a commission brief because it specifies the options you have available and consequently directs your creativity in a new and exhilarating direction.

To celebrate SWON’s 20th anniversary, we commissioned friend of the orchestra, composer Leo Geyer to write a piece of music. The result was Vortex, which was premiered by the orchestra at the 20th anniversary concert on 6th April 2019. Below is an interview with Leo about his relationship to SWON and the process and inspiration behind Vortex.

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SWON: How did you get into music and when did you realise you wanted to be a composer?

 LEO: My musical journey began from a dip out of the hat! My primary school offered flute and clarinet lessons and as they were oversubscribed, a lucky dip would decide the musical fate of the students. Thankfully, I was one of the few to get flute lessons. I immersed myself in the Lewisham Schools’ Music Service, and, in particular, the Concert Band. Though I diligently worked hard at the flute it didn’t quite chime with me. I really wanted to play the oboe, but the only double reed lessons available at the time was bassoon, so I had a taster lesson and fell in love with this huge bundle of sticks, despite that fact that it was taller than me at the time!

I had begun composing and arranging music almost as soon as I started playing. I used to get my friends together and we would play through my pieces for wind quartets and quintets. Gradually I became more ambitious and confident, eventually writing a piece for the Lewisham School’s Concert Band. I remember the rehearsal vividly. It was a life-changing moment hearing my music played by such a large group of people. It was in this moment that I decided that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.

SWON: How did you first become involved with SWON & what has been your connection to the orchestra?

LEO: I first became involved with SWON several years ago. Matthew Hardy (SWON’s current MD) and I had met at a conducting masterclass in Manchester and were both impressed by each other’s flapping! Matt asked if I might be able to come in to take a woodwind sectional rehearsal and I’ve continued to do this ever since, as well as taking rehearsals in Matt’s stead when he has been away. Over the last three years I’ve got to know the band pretty well and seen it grow in size and ambition. It’s been a pleasure!

SWON: What do you usually start with when composing? Tell us a bit about your process.

LEO: Without sounding overly profound, I think composing is my way of understanding the world.

Composing is my process of understanding art, literature and society. It’s also how I capture and record a moment in life. Once I know what it is that I want to express, I usually consolidate my ideas into a poetic preface. I’ll then sketch out some musical ideas as part of a structural plan. I’ll usually always deviate from the blueprint, but it’s always helpful to outline before I lock myself away and write the thing.

SWON: Does anything about your process change when commissioned to compose a piece for a specific orchestra or event, as in this case?

LEO: Beginning a piece is difficult. There are literally an infinite variety of options available. To overcome this it is all too easy to write within the parameters that you already know. Therefore, I always welcome a commission brief because it specifies the options you have available and consequently directs your creativity in a new and exhilarating direction.

SWON: This piece was partly inspired by the Vortex jazz club. Tell us why this was a source of inspiration for you?

LEO: As a composer of the 21^st century, I think it’s important to engage with, or at least be aware of, the rich variety of music that is being written and performed today. As to be expected, I closely follow developments in the classical “new music” world, but I also keep a keen eye (or rather ear!) on contemporary jazz. I live pretty close to the Vortex Jazz Club and regularly attend this home of cutting-edge jazz, improvised and experimental music. My new piece for SWON is in homage to the Vortex for hosting an inspiring programme of wonderfully unhinged jazz. Vortex, the composition, sits stylistically somewhere in-between contemporary classical music and contemporary jazz. Vortex also includes a number of solos which require the player(s) to stand, as it is practiced in Jazz.

SWON: As well as referencing the jazz club, the name of the piece is also influenced by the ‘vortex structure’ of the music. Please tell us about this and what has drawn you to experimenting with this structural form?

LEO: My music has always centred around motific development as means to create trajectory and structure. In the last few years I have been exploring works which unravel a singular strand of motific development throughout the entire duration of the composition, resulting in a form which I have called the ‘vortex structure.’ The form begins with the presentation of a musical phrase followed by an extended variation of the first. The third phrase is then an extended variation of the second, and so it continues; thus spiralling out as each cyclic variation becomes larger and increasingly more flamboyant. It is an enticing compositional challenge to write in this way, as it requires every singular note to be organically grown from the initial motif.

SWON: Do you feel it important that an audience is able to deduct the processes and ideas behind a work purely on the basis of the music? If so, how do you make them transparent?

LEO: Part of my interest in the Vortex structure is that it is a form that audiences can hopefully perceive. It is essentially a reimagining of classical theme and variation; whereby musical material returns elaborated and decorated. To achieve this, each section of music has a very distinctive character identified not only by motific material but also instrumental colour, rhythmic energy, dynamic shape and tempo. So even as the material constantly undergoes development, it is always within its “character.”

SWON: Did you face any particular challenges when composing this piece?

LEO: Vortex is consistently at a very fast tempo. Initially beginning at heart racing 152 beats per minute, it accelerates, at various moments hurtling along at nearly double that speed! For the composer, fast music means more notes, and more notes means more time needed to write. Vortex is also largely in compound time (dividing the beat into 3, rather than the more common 2) and computer notation programmes don’t respond so well in this metre, requiring a huge amount of editing. Therefore, the big challenge when composing this piece was time! For a 12min piece it took the best part of three months of fairly solid work to write.

SWON: You played in the orchestra during our first rehearsal of Vortex and have also conducted some rehearsals, what was that experience like as the composer?

LEO: In both cases I take my composer hat off. I find the playing and conducting a very different act. The fundamental difference when it is my music, is that I am in the fortunate position of knowing the music very well (as you’d hope!). So, when conducting I act on my intimate knowledge of the music to aid my colleagues in the performance of it.

It’s always a very exciting and somewhat terrifying experience at a first rehearsal. Having spent months locked away writing, finally the moment has come to hear it in the flesh. As is nearly always the case, the first read of the piece is usually somewhat chaotic, as the performers quite rightly get to grips with what is being asked of them. This was certainly the case with SWON, so I wanted to be very encouraging and inspire everyone to persevere. It appeared that not much encouragement was needed as everyone was very keen to make it happen, and I am very excited to hear the final result!

SWON: On concert night, rumour has it you’ll be among the orchestra as well… is that something you often have the opportunity to do with first performances of your compositions? What is your ideal situation for the first outing?

LEO: I very rarely play the bassoon now, as I am primarily a professional composer and conductor. So, it is very unusual for me to be playing at the premiere of one of my own pieces, which I am very much looking forward to. Usually I’m the one flapping my arms around, which I much prefer to sitting in the audience. I tend to get very fidgety, questioning my compositional decisions and over analysing the audience reaction. I much prefer being in the action and making the music come alive!