Tender Pray:
Larry Goves on The Devotions Interview : Abi Bliss The Manchester-based composer tells hcmf// about his new J.D. Salingerinspired work for BIT20 and why he writes music to watch people by Not yet 35 and already onto his fifth appearance at hcmf//, Larry Goves' sizable list of works ranges from the solo to the orchestral. With a CV that also includes collaborating with Mira Calix and performing electronics as part of the house of bedlam, he's currently curating a series of concerts at the Royal Northern College of Music, whilst his most recent recording, Just Stuff People Do, features Sarah Nicholls, Oliver Coates and London Sinfonietta.
I personally love small repetitious rituals and the privilege of being let in on something completely private Not yet 35 and already onto his fifth appearance at hcmf//, Larry Goves' sizable list of works ranges from the solo to the orchestral. With a CV that also includes collaborating with Mira Calix and performing electronics as part of the house of bedlam, he's currently curating a series of concerts at the Royal Northern College of Music, whilst his most recent recording, Just Stuff People Do, features Sarah Nicholls, Oliver Coates and London Sinfonietta. As the title suggests, his new work The Devotions explores themes of prayer and ritual; Norway's BIT20 Ensemble give the world premiere at hcmf// on Saturday 22 November, in a concert which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. hcmf//: What do you mean when you describe The Devotions as 'music as secular prayer'?
idea of 'praying without ceasing' and of the changing meditativelike states and deeper understanding through repetition that she relates to this. It is uncomfortable when she actually practises this how separate she seems from the middle-class American backdrop. I love the evocative suggestion of sound through repetition, the narrative shift from speculation to practice and the stark juxtaposition of two worlds. hcmf//: What musical ideas or techniques are you introducing in the piece? LG: Two of the movements of this piece are dramatic elaborations of ideas explored in existing pieces which take the sounds into (hopefully) new territory. The first three sections of music are from three separate ensembles that are stated separately then gradually come back together. As they come back together each section undergoes a large number of permutations. When they finally realign the material is dramatically transformed and throughout the piece the collisions that take place in the music generate surprising sounds and interactions.
Larry Goves: This idea began with a short extract from the Salinger novel Franny and Zooey but became a starting point for a sequence of musical explorations. In my mind were ideas related to prayer but separated from religious faith; ideas of private ritual and repetition, of pleading, of deliberate isolation and love. The second is three simpler sections of music with a gradually transforming diatonic accompaniment for vibraphone, piano More precisely, the very short story Franny [part of Franny and and harp. This trio is rhythmically independent and as they stray systematically further and further from the original material the Zooey], was the starting point for the piece. Franny, disillusioned with a life of privilege and excess, talks about the music becomes increasingly idiosyncratic. I have also added a