This blog provides a short overview of the research I did for my practice-based PhD as a composer at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire 2016 to 2020 and the further developments born from that research.
My research was entitled Quilt Song: Quilting as a model of new operatic compositional practice. Through it, I investigated via the composition of Quilt Song how to open up opera to new practices in the 21st century.
Quilting has proved itself to be a flexible model of practice on many levels which allows for experimentation via organic processes. Compositionally this means that music does not necessarily have to be created in the order of a dramatic narrative, which in turnenables thematic material to be cross-fertilised and developed in unexpected ways. This process of compositional quilting as amethodology is not easy to explain via a neat table of rules, rather it involves submitting to an intuitive process.
“All I know about method is that when I am not working I sometimes think I know something, but when I am working, it is quite clear that Iknow nothing.”
John Cage (Larson, 2012: 239)
Ten-minute introduction to Quilt Song
Marina Sossi at the opening of Quilt Song, 2018.
I have now been a full time composer for 12 years, following on from a career as an opera singer. I composed throughout my operatic career and as an undergraduate, I was a joint first study voice and composition at The Royal College of Music.
I have sung solo roles in many of the opera Houses of Europe, however one of my frustrations was in the area of the creation of new opera which seemed to follow old-fashioned principles, particularly in the areas of plot development and production. Many facets of new opera promote outmoded stereotypes.
Creating opera for broader audiences focusses on developing an approach to composition that will provide the tools to produce an opera that promotes inclusivity. To some extent I am subversively led by the views of non-opera goers to choose approaches that do not conform to current trends in contemporary opera.
As my research at Birmingham developed, I became more and more excited about the possibility of using interdisciplinary techniques and modes of collaboration. In Quilt Song I incorporate a lot of technology particularly in the area of creating abstract soundscapes and video.
To create Quilt Song, I intentionally surrendered my compositional output to embrace eclecticism. From quilting flowed many compositional possibilities which I have continued developing since I completed Quilt Song, in particular, the way in which materials can be organically developed, cross-related, juxtaposed and transformed. Resonances with this approach can be seen via the iconic artist Robert Rauschenberg’s imaginative practice in which he observes
“the objects not only suggest new possibilities, things I would have never thought of if I’d stayed in the studio - they also set up resistances that I find very useful.” Rauschenberg, 2017: 235
1. Embodied in quilting practice is the potential to develop artistic and compositional process in concert with sociological issues.
2. Diverse materials, musical themes and peoples can co-exist within the framework of a pattern, a score or a social structure.
3. By developing a structured notated score alongside improvised-sound technology, contrasting textures can be simultaneously woven to establish an architecture which is underpinned in a similar way to a quilt’s template.
4. The psychological substructure of a libretto’s plot can be subliminally embedded into the quilting musical grid to convey themes, dramaturgy and individual characterisation.
5. By placing quilting’s methodology within the field of minimalist and post-minimalist techniques incorporated by composers like SteveReich, Philip Glass, John Adams, Louis Andriessen and Max Richter, its innovation is supported by a significant body of compositional practice.
6. By applying collage techniques as used by György Ligeti and Charles Ives, atonality and polytonality can simultaneously exist to express differing time frames, cultures and narratives. Ives ‘layered up’ music by juxtaposing polytonality against well-known tunes, while Ligeti’s eclectic approach resonates with quilting in that, according to Searby, ‘the music in Le Grande Macabre is unusually varied in style and compositional process, and tends to be built from short, fragmentary sections.’ (2010: 29)
7. By allowing paradoxes of compositional style to rub up against each other, welcoming access points for the listener are opened up such as positioning familiar consonance beside abstraction.
I am interested in promoting diversity and involving audiences. Traditional opera house-based companies can feel hemmed in by the criteria of size, cost of the administration, orchestra and the chorus. All this means that opera often equals a narrower artistic presentation than is desirable. Through research I discovered many different expressions outside opera houses. For example, I composed Freedom Bridge for Birmingham Opera Company, which was performed in the Central station and in a shopping mall. This reached out to normal people who wouldn't ever go near opera. I love this kind of approach.
Alison Rose in Freedom Bridge: Self, Birmingham Opera Company, 2017.
I am fascinated to use technology. I currently use Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and make my own videos. I regard all these activities as part of the composition. It is also part of my interdisciplinary to work with people who aren't opera singers.
Opera might enhance its accessibility to a broader spectrum of audience if it included singers of different genres. The field of alternative approaches to voice in new opera reveals exciting departures from traditional opera singing such as in Andriessen’s Writing to Vermeer (2004) which features a high vibrato-less soprano. This further demonstrates that ‘for many years now microphones easily allow a singer with a pure non-vibrato voice to be heard over an ensemble’ (Reich, 2002: 173). Technology leads on to a wealth of possibilities which could incorporate singers from other traditions and allow them to be heard over a large orchestra, such as the jazz singer in Goebbels’s Surrogate Cities in ‘Where the dogs dwell’ (2000). Integrating other approaches to voice has been extensively taken up in the field of contemporary music such as Meredith Monk’s Gotham Lullaby (Monk: 1981) sung by Björk, who demonstrates extended vocal technique unwrapped in the throat of an expert pop singer. Monk herself also sings with amplified extended voice.
For my latest opera Corset Story, I have been working and collaborating with the performance artist, Marina Sossi. I love it that she is also singing part of the opera even though she's not a trained opera singer. We would never say that modern dance could only be danced by classically trained ballet dancers. I see the potential to use a vast range of vocal performers from all walks of life, disciplines and cultures in new opera.
SELF & SOSSI rehearsing Corset Story 2024
Particularly, I want to compose music that will appeal to a broader audience but still use abstract ideas. I also want to compose music that will be enjoyable for the players and singers to perform: Since I finished my PhD three years ago I have composed four operas, three of which were commissioned by Tête a Tête:
I am currently working on my third large choral work in three years, Magnificat.
Sea Requiem was a substantial score, yet the material flowed naturally… the extended silence which followed this conclusion…. was a tribute to the audience’s rapt concentration and the cumulative effect of Susannah Self’s fervent, directly expressive music. Paul Conway, Musical Opinion 2023
STABAT MATER 2023 in Ely Cathedral
https://youtu.be/YZwU3PJYTic?si=C9B3xjz_vPq3E2oP
I am also lucky to be teaching young composers at Guildhall Young Artists on Saturdays. I have learnt from them about audio, virtual reality, AI etc, an area that I want to explore more myself. Another aspect of my work at Guildhall Young Artists is to run improvisation / composition workshops. Here I have been developing a methodology of curating their musical ideas to create a collective piece. This is a fascinating area to develop further with audiences so that they could have more ownership of creative material.
Earlier this year I created a new opera about the artist Artemisia Gentileschi from the Renaissance. I worked with amateur singers in North Norfolk to put on three performances. I collaborated with the singers so that we put the production together as an ensemble rather than having a director. This created a great atmosphere in rehearsals and performances. This exemplifies my principles of compositional quilting technique, in other words I am working at every level of a work right down to the politics!
Ultimately I seek to demystifying the role of composer as heroic creator, by instead reframing the role as a collaborator.
