Page 48 - April.indd

INTERVIEW WITH 3 CANADIAN CHORAL COMPOSERS

Competition), college and university singers (Focus! player. The vibes player retorted with one of those
Professional Development Program), elementary and life-changers: “Man, you’re s’posed to be thinking
secondary school students (Onsite Schools Program), about your LINE!” He was right... It changed every-
and various other workshops and residencies on tour thing!
and at home. At the Vancouver Chamber Choir, I also University was intimidating. There were “real” com-
felt I was often teaching future teachers in our regular posers around. I did take a choral arranging course at
daily work, for many of those 140 singers have moved Illinois one semester. We did some exercises and then
on to become conductors and teachers themselves. one real piece, where I think I put it all together for the

first time, though it wasn’t what you would call auspi-
3) Young, aspiring composers sometimes fal- cious. My instructor (Joe Flummerfelt) seemed to like
ter as they work to develop their skills and es- it, though, saying it had a structure, some direction, an

tablish their reputation. What challenges did effective climax, and a pleasing overall aspect. But I
you face when you started composing? tucked those comments away for a later date and con-
tinued avoiding any serious approach to composing,
NICKEL: The challenge for many young composers except for a few little pieces for my church choir.
is that they have no support system: no one to relate Some years later, I had one of those chance con-
to; no one to evaluate what they are doing. I remem- versations that can make such a difference. It was with

ber writing music while wondering if my eff orts would a working musician, a pianist-bassist-composer-teach-

ever find a voice. My first choral compositions were er type. We were standing out in front of the music
really pathetic, yet a director at the college was kind building on a chilly Vancouver day. It was about two or
enough to include some of my music in his choir rep- three years after I’d started my professional choir, and
ertoire. I think most composers will agree that hearing hearing we were beginning to build a good reputation. Out of
a c hoir perf or m y our o wn m usic is both de v asta the blue, he asked, “Do you compose?”
a choir perform your own music is both devastating ting
t motiv
xhilara

ting and (mor
ea
r
cantly) g
fi
e signi

and exhilarating and (more significantly) great motiva-a- “Not really,” I replied.
and e
r
tion to kee
tion to keep working at the craft. the craft. “Why not?”
p w
t
king a
o
I entered the International Baccalaureate program “I guess I’m just not the composer type. I’ve never

in India when I was thirteen years old. We didn’t have had a natural fluency like some guys I know.” Him:
a piano at home, so I “made up” my fi rst music on an “Well, you’re missing the point. You don’t need to
accordion. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but compose because you’re good at it. You need to com-
my mom and dad were avid singers, and we sang as a pose because you’re not… It doesn’t matter whether
family before every meal. Didn’t all families do that? It the result is great or not… Think how much about
had a huge impact, in retrospect. the inner life of music you’ll learn by doing it. It’d
help you to understand the composers whose music
WASHBURN: When I was a high school kid, com- you conduct all the time by approaching it the same
posing didn’t seem important to me. I’d written some way they did… the composer’s angle instead of the
pop songs and some joke pieces (like that famous “Un- performer’s.”
started Symphony” with its pages of fi nal cadence). I wonder if he ever knew how radically he turned
But the discovery of jazz as I graduated from guitar to my attitude around. After that, composing just seemed
bass fired my creative energies. It was a while before I like a natural part of my work, no matter whether the

realized that improvising a bass line was composing of pieces were good (a few) or bad (many). My confi dence
a sort... inventing right on the spot. I vividly remember really developed.

a session sometime after the release of Miles Davis’s After that, the main problem was finding time. The
Kind of Blue, when we were experimenting with modal answer to that seemed to be having deadlines, so I
things. I complained that playing for twenty minutes created them by announcing new pieces in the VCC’s

on just one chord was kind of stultifying for the bass season’s brochures. Then I HAD to find the time
46 CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9