Breaking the moulds: awarding-winning women composers

Breaking the moulds

To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, Clare Stevens spotlights the work of award-winning female composers Hildur Guðnadóttir, Anna Meredith and Shiva Feshareki, who are smashing the boundaries between genres to build unique careers

Above: Clare Stevens Photo: Alex Ramsay

Arguments have been raging in the media over the past few weeks about the lack of diversity LQQRPLQDWLRQVIRUÀOPDQGWHOHYLVLRQLQGXVWU\ awards such as the BAFTAs and the Oscars. But one category that has provoked no arguments this year has been ‘best score’. The Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir has swept the board, winning DQ2VFDUIRUWKHÀOP Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics Choice Association and Society of Composers and Lyricists awards, and a Grammy for the HBO television mini-series Chernobyl 6KHLVWKHÀUVWVRORZRPDQWRZLQD Golden Globe in the 77-year history of the awards, and only the third woman to write an Oscar-winning ÀOPVFRUHIROORZLQJ5DFKHO3RUWPDQDQG$QQH Dudley, who won the awards for ‘Best Original Musical or Comedy Score’ in 1997 (Emma) and 1998 (The Full Monty) respectively. Guðnadóttir is a classically trained cellist, who VWXGLHGDWWKH5H\NMDYLN0XVLF$FDGHP\EHIRUH developing her interest in composition and new media at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and the University of the Arts in Berlin, where she is now based. She has been performing as a solo cellist and as a singer since her mid-teens, with bands such as the Icelandic experimental group Múm, ZKLFKVKHMRLQHGDJHGWKH)LQQLVKHOHFWURQLF PXVLFJURXS3DQ6RQLFWKH$PHULFDQPHWDOEDQG 6XQ2DQGWKHVHFRQGLQFDUQDWLRQRIWKH(QJOLVK pioneers of industrial music Throbbing Gristle. She told the Guardian in December 2019 that after the restrictions of classical music, full of ‘dos and don’ts’ she relished the sense of freedom she got from playing with bands.

*XêQDGyWWLU·VÀUVWVRORDOEXP0RXQW$ZDV released in 2006 and three more have since been added to her catalogue, all critically acclaimed. Her latest single, Fólk fær andlit, was released last month on Deutsche Grammophon and is a largely choral track, an evocative response to the deportation and

PLVWUHDWPHQWLQRI$OEDQLDQUHIXJHHVZKRKDG been denied permits to stay in Iceland, with video LPDJHVE\,QJLEM|UJ%LUJLVGyWWLU

As a composer she has been commissioned by institutions including the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Icelandic National Theatre, Tate Modern, 7KH%ULWLVK)LOP,QVWLWXWH7KH5R\DO6ZHGLVK Opera in Stockholm and Gothenburg National Theatre. In 2018 she was nominated for a Discovery of the Year Award at the World Soundtrack Academy in Ghent and received several prestigious DZDUGVLQFOXGLQJWKH$VLD3DFLÀF6FUHHQ$ZDUG for Best Score (Mary Magdalene) and Best Score at WKH%HLMLQJ,QWHUQDWLRQDO)LOP)HVWLYDOIRU-RXUQH\·V (QG6KHKDVDOVRZULWWHQVFRUHVIRUHSLVRGHVRI the Icelandic TV series Trapped. So her success with the music for Chernobyl and Joker did not come from nowhere. Distinguished by their extraordinarily creative use of special HͿHFWVQRWMXVWDSDOHWWHRIVWDQGDUGLQVWUXPHQWV Guðnatóttir’s scores have their roots in her teenage interest in sound design software and playing about with sampled street sounds. For Chernobyl she spent a day at the decommissioned power VWDWLRQLQ/LWKXDQLDZKHUHWKHVHULHVZDVÀOPHG recording the ambient noise of the building itself, which then became the building blocks for her eerie, doom-laden music. For example, as she recalled in an interview with the Times: ‘There was a door in the power plant which was making the strangest sound. It was making an almost inaudible, high-pitched melody — it was so high that I had to bring the frequency down so that human ears could hear it.’

Guðnatóttir’s score plays an even more important role in Joker5DWKHUWKDQDGGLQJPXVLF WRWKHFRPSOHWHGÀOPDVXVXDOO\KDSSHQVVKH was commissioned by director Todd Phillips to write from the script. She has described how her

FHOORHͿHFWLYHO\EHFDPHWKHYRLFHRI3KRHQL[·V character, Arthur, and her music helped the actor WRÀQGDZD\RIWUDQVIRUPLQJ$UWKXUSK\VLFDOO\ and mentally into the villainous Joker: ‘His hand gestures were the same types of movements that I felt when I wrote the music. It was one of the strongest collaborative moments I’ve ever experienced.’

The Scottish composer Anna Meredith has H[SORLWHGWKHSRVVLELOLWLHVRͿHUHGE\$XJPHQWHG 5HDOLW\$5DQG6SDWLDO$XGLRZLWK¶PRRQPRRQV· a track from her latest album, FIBS. In collaboration with designer Arthur Carabott, she has created an app version of the piece which embellishes the listener’s sonic experience – you download the moonmoons app to your phone, open it up, ‘place’ each of six virtual speakers around your room, plug in your headphones, press ‘play’ and walk around WRKHDUGLͿHUHQWOD\HUVRIWKHSLHFHPRUHFOHDUO\WKH closer you are to each ‘speaker’.

‘Moonmoons are the moons of moons, and this idea of intergalactic worlds within worlds and of doubling and playing with scale, of zooming in and out is explored right through the piece, down to the cascading climactic slowing down textures which are actually constructed using the rest of the electronics compressed into two second gestures,’ explains Meredith. The focus of the track is a cello solo by Maddie Cutter, interlaced with ripples of arpeggiated synths, unearthly swooping and atmospheric non-pitched sounds, and low percussive power played on a thundersheet by percussionist Sam Wilson.

Meredith too was classically trained. She KDVEHHQ&RPSRVHULQ5HVLGHQFHZLWKWKH%%& 6FRWWLVK6\PSKRQ\2UFKHVWUDDQGWKH536356 &RPSRVHULQWKH+RXVHZLWK6LQIRQLD9L9$DQG her CV includes many prestigious commissions for the concert hall, including Five Telegrams, a YLVXDOV RUFKHVWUDSLHFHZLWK3URGXFWLRQV commemorating the centenary of the end of World War One, co-commissioned by the BBC Proms, (GLQEXUJK,QWHUQDWLRQDO)HVWLYDODQG1RZ and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, WKH3URPV<RXWK(QVHPEOHDQGWKH1DWLRQDO<RXWK Choir of Great Britain both inside and outside the 5R\DO$OEHUW+DOODWWKH)LUVW1LJKWRIWKH3URPV and outside the Usher Hall at the opening night of WKH(GLQEXUJK)HVWLYDO

However, she tours and promotes her music in the same way that pop and rock musicians do, playing clarinet and electronics with her band DQGVXSSRUWLQJWKHLUDOEXPVDQG(3VZLWKD range of merchandise, available via her website IURPDQRQOLQHVKRS2WKHUUHFHQWSURMHFWVKDYH included installations for Sleep-Pods in Singapore and Park Benches in Hong Kong, the world’s ÀUVW&RQFHUWRIRU%HDWER[HUDQG2UFKHVWUD

Above: Shiva Feshareki Photo: Victor Frankowski

and orchestral arrangements for Laura Marling, The Stranglers, the David Bowie Prom and Sigur 5RVDQLQVWDOODWLRQIRUWKHOLIWVLQEHWZHHQ0 6DQG Selfridges for Manchester International Festival, remixes, and an installation for custom whirly tubes and UV lights for the Barbican Centre.

Six short pieces by Anna Meredith make up Tripotage Miniatures, performed by the Aurora Orchestra and released this spring on the NMC label (NMCD239) together with works by Colin Matthews and Alexander Goehr on a disc of new British chamber music. Supported by the 5DGFOLͿH7UXVWWKHSHUIRUPDQFHZDVUHFRUGHG live at Wigmore Hall, London. Meredith’s favourite translation of the French term ‘tripotage PLQLDWXUHV·LV¶MLJJHU\SRNHU\·DQGVKHVD\VKHU pieces are about ‘messing about with things’: sounds change and stutter and tonal colours drain DQGEHFRPHPXUN\LQVWUXPHQWVLQWHUUXSWDQG sound like they are trying to trip one another up. Composer and turntablist Shiva Feshareki is another musician who seems to see no boundaries EHWZHHQGLͿHUHQWJHQUHVRIPXVLF¶&UHDWLQJPXVLF and experimentalism has been in my life since early childhood,’ she says. ‘As far as I can remember I have been composing all my life, even before I had a perception of what creating music was. I was always obsessed with listening to everyday sounds, observing them and creating my own music in response.’ With the encouragement of a school music WHDFKHUVKHHQWHUHGKHU*&6(FRPSRVLWLRQSLHFH IRUWKH%%&3URPV,QVSLUH<RXQJ&RPSRVHUV· FRPSHWLWLRQKHUÀUVWVFRUHGSLHFHDQGZRQ6LQFH then she has written for numerous orchestras including the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Nationale de Lyon. With works such as GABA-analogue, Dialogue for Live Turntable Manipulation and Orchestra, and Mediation on a Spiral Staircase for Turntables and 6SDWLDOLVHG%UDVV(QVHPEOHVKHGHVFULEHVKHUVHOIDV engaging with sound as a ‘sculpture in space’ and ‘a medium bending through time’. Her solo turntable performances use sampled cuts from drum and bass, garage, gabber, deep minimalism and classical orchestral works, manipulated to create complex OLYHFRPSRVLWLRQVWKDWIXVHGLͿHUHQWVRQLFSDOHWWHV Asked how she perceives the role of composer – is the term even recognisable or relevant to what she and others of her generation are doing? – Feshareki acknowledges that she is at a ‘fringe age’ generationally in the sense that she remembers OLIHZLWKRXWWKHLQWHUQHW¶7KLVRIFRXUVHDͿHFWVP\ perceptions, but nothing is ever black and white. More than ever we need music to expand our thinking and open our minds to experiencing new things, to inspire us to broaden our perspectives and encourage our own individual opinions for freedom of mind and harmony with others.

‘For me, the role of composing and artistic creation is to expand my own creative perspective on a constant, progressive level, so that every SLHFHDQGSURMHFWLVDQH[SDQVLRQRIWKLQNLQJ or a new perspective on what has come before,’ Feshareki continues. ‘In turn, it has allowed me WREHZHOFRPHGLQWRVRPDQ\GLͿHUHQWDUWLVWLF scenes and cultures all over the world, having a constantly shape-shifting existence. This helps me FRQWLQXDOO\H[SDQGP\SHUVSHFWLYHVDQGRͿHUQHZ perspectives to others. I get moving messages from DOONLQGVRISHRSOHIURPDGHDISHUVRQVD\LQJWKH frequencies I created in my Proms performance in 2018 were emotional to feel, to a professional chef telling me that listening to my music inspired the way he cooks! It makes what I do worthwhile and meaningful to me, and in turn the cycle of positive inspiration grows.’ hildurness.com annameredith.com shivafeshareki.co.uk internationalwomensday.com

The BBC Young Composer competition 2020 is now inviting entries; the closing date is in May and full details can be found at bbc.co.uk/proms