This weekend I shall be conducting the winning entries in a new composition competition, to be broadcast at a future date on Radio Three’s Early Music Show, from York Minster.
This weekend I shall be conducting the winning entries in a new composition competition, to be broadcast at a future date on Radio Three’s Early Music Show, from York Minster. Why it is thought appropriate to air the works of a 16- and 23-year-old on this particular show beats me, except that they will be sung by the Tallis Scholars and are written for unaccompanied voices. Still, whatever the forum, I am glad the competition is receiving this kind of exposure since the original entries, from all over the country, were of an encouragingly high quality. Who would have guessed that there were so many promising composers hidden away in the much-derided music departments of our schools? Nor were they all from private schools.
One of the requirements for entering the competition was to write a piece suitable for performance in a space such as York Minster, with the idea that the composer would be following in the footsteps of their greatest predecessors like Tallis and Taverner who, for the purposes of this argument, were held to have written their music specifically for the buildings in which they worked. I’ve wondered about this for some time, and often been asked about it. But I don’t really get it. How would a composer write a piece suited to York Minster and not, for example, to Westminster Abbey? What’s the difference between the two buildings in terms of sound? The only answer can be the length of the reverberation, which is measured in seconds and usually falls between three and six.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in