ORIGINS

This book grew from a gift, a leaving present of money given to me with the wish I use it for the commissioning of a new piece of music. I decided to use it for something that could be performed in schools and other community contexts. As a novice commissioner, I started searching for a composer whose music I enjoyed and wanted some part of. After much listening, I felt my commission would be safe with Howard Skempton. Several years later Promenade, the score Skempton wrote for me (for piano and optional violin, or, as we subsequently agreed, any other melodic instrument within the range), was the result (see Plate 3.9). It exemplifies what I admire about his music: how he delights the connoisseur yet pleases the more casual listener in equal measure. An apparently innocent melodic gesture saunters into existence only to be deliciously transformed through rhythmic and then melodic re-orientation. Promenade exemplifies austerity and discipline, with perhaps a nod to the constructivist painters Skempton so admired. Skempton turns in the smallest space, making the slightest detail count; yet there is lyricism as well, even pathos (given the title), in the lopsided, optional countermelody.

MOTIVATIONS FOR THE PROJECT

What makes someone compose? This question, at once both naive and profound, crossed my mind as I developed the commission for Promenade. I was, of course, aware that the stories composers tell of their “origins” and “intentions” may be just that – stories – and that musicologists no longer believe it possible to arrive at definitive answers about creativity, if they ever did. At the same time, there is an enduring school of thought, newly bolstered by psychological theory, which claims we need to make sense of the world in teleological, narrative terms. Whatever my ideology, it is hardly surprising that, finding myself in the privileged position of being in contact with such a creative mind, I wondered if I might try to deduce something essential of how Skempton came to be a composer, and how his compositions come into existence.

As our discussions continued, I found Skempton to be a searching and reflective composer with profuse and profound ideas going far beyond his own art. He is also a wonderful raconteur, with a prodigious memory for detail. In short, I felt he had a book about music in him.