An Interview with Gráinne Mulvey
Gráinne Mulvey speaks on video to Jonathan Grimes about her working methods, the need to be versatile as a composer, visual references in her work, and her desire to write an opera in the future.
Originally published in 2004.
Jonathan Grimes: Gráinne, looking through your list of performances so far this year you’ve had quite a few new works premiered. Is this period a particularly busy one or is this the norm?
Gráinne Mulvey: This year is probably the busiest year in my life so far in composition. I’ve had a good few commissions, which is not normally the case; usually you get one or maybe two commissions a year, but it’s never been as busy as this year. I don’t understand why that is -- it’s just good fortune on my part.
JG: And so many things come together -- a bit like the buses!
GM: I bit like that, yes!
JG: And what exactly have you done so far this year? I notice that one of your works is for the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
GM: The Fastnet Rock Lighthouse [remarkable 54-metre granite tower off the south-west coast of Ireland]; it’s to commemorate the centenary of the building. I’m working purely on electronics for that. I visited the lighthouse last year and stayed a couple of nights on it; I really enjoyed it. I recorded lots of sounds and have been working with these and putting them through Csound and ProTools; I’m finishing that off at the moment.
JG: And when is this being performed?
GM: They’re trying to get it showcased at some stage so I’ll just have to wait and see where this will be.
JG: And will it be on the lighthouse itself?
GM: I don’t know; they might do this at some stage. It would be unusual but it would be nice.
JG: There would be a small audience for that I think!
GM: [laughter] Very small!
JG: Do you devote yourself full-time to composition or is there another side to your makeup?
GM: Well, I teach in DIT [Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music] part-time. I enjoy that, and for my own writing purposes it’s really helpful as well. I get quite a lot from teaching and that spills into my own work. But mostly I’m writing, and at the moment it’s been really busy trying to juggle two different situations.
JG: Do you find it hard to strike a balance between composing and the other things you do? A lot of composers have to grapple with this from what I hear; is this difficult?
GM: It is, because it takes up a lot of time: not only are you teaching but you’re preparing a lot of information. That makes it quite difficult because the preparation time is much more than the teaching time. Still, it’s very enjoyable and very rewarding. It was something I didn’t expect to be doing, but I’m actually really glad now that I have this double situation -- it makes a very full life.
JG: Because you have a different sort of contact?
GM: Yes, that’s it exactly.
JG: And is it composition you’re teaching in DIT?
GM: Yes, and I’m teaching Arrangement as well.
JG: And because of this, do you think there’s a greater need in your composing for a routine so that works do get composed on time, or did you always have a routine where you compose at certain times of the day, for example?
GM: I find that quite difficult. It depends; some days you get an awful lot done and other days you get very little done. Between trying to organise and plan the structure, and pace the piece -- that takes up, I find now, more time than the composition time. I prefer to have some sort of good mental idea where I’m actually headed when I’m writing. It doesn’t mean that you have to slavishly follow it all the time; at least you have a reservoir if you get stuck.
JG: And do you compose all the time or do you wait for the inspiration or perhaps the commission to come?
GM: Well, it depends. When it comes up to this time of year usually[with teaching] it’s really busy and that would interfere [with composing] quite a bit. You need a good few hours to write and you can’t get interrupted -- it’s the worst thing to be interrupted in the middle of trying to write, you have to have a four- or five-hour stretch. Once you’re interrupted, it’s very hard to get the train of thought back again. It’s like a meditation, I suppose: you get locked into writing and you have to stay at it. When a busy time like the end of term comes, I’m not usually writing so that I can concentrate on the students. In the summer I can write with a lot of ease, which is great.
JG: Essentially you need a block of time of four or five hours which is, in effect, a whole day.
GM: Yes, you do. And then time becomes suspended because you don’t realise that you’ve been working on something for a couple of hours: it’s a nice thing.
JG: And as to the composing method itself: how do you work? Do you work at the piano, or in sketches, or do you think the whole thing out in advance, or do you use a combination of everything?
GM: It’s a combination of everything at this stage. Usually, I like to know what I’m writing for. If I’m writing for an instrument, then I’m concerned with the orchestration [of that instrument] and researching everything the instrument can do. Then it would come to what I’m writing about, or what I want to write about, so any ideas that come to mind, either visual or literature, that give me any spark will start the piece. It can be different mediums that inspire me, anything really.
JG: If I could ask you to step outside yourself for the moment: how do you see yourself as a composer? How do you like to be defined musically, or is this possible in this day and age where composers like to stay out of boxes?
GM: I don’t think I like to be categorised at all. You often hear people say, ‘Well they write in that style, so maybe they can’t write in another style.’ That always worries me. I like to be as versatile as possible, or to be considered versatile. That comes with learning; new avenues are always presented to you all the time. I’m not afraid, at this stage, to take on any difficult musical challenges that might be presented to me; I like that.
JG: I notice the quote on your composer page [on the CMC web site]says that you relish challenges: you obviously do like to be challenged, whatever the situation.
GM: Yes, I love it really.
JG: Taking you back to your formative years, were you always interested in composition or did this come at a later stage in your musical education?
GM: Yes, it came at a much later stage; I was twenty-three when I started to get interested. Even then, I was so naïve. When you start off [composing], you’re finding a way through all the techniques that you’re being presented with and you don’t really have an individual voice. I grew up with people who sang, so that was a natural thing for me: to sing at a young age. There were lots of different musical tastes in the family.
JG: Lots of diversity?
GM: Yes.
JG: So you studied music in Waterford Institute of Technology underEric Sweeney, the composer. And then you went to Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University, Belfast. After that you went to theUniversity of York where you undertook a DPhil in Composition with the composer Nicola LeFanu. How did you end up going to York? What made you choose it?
GM: Nicola was an adjudicator at a competition [Composers’ Class of the RTÉ Musician of the Future] I entered in 1994. I won that and met her afterwards and we had a chat. I felt she already grasped some of the problems I was confronting. She was interested in teaching me and I was delighted with that. I went [to York] in January 1995 and was there until the end of 1998.
JG: How important was this period in York to your development as a composer?
GM: It was unparalleled. I can’t say how grateful I am to have had the chance to go there and what a great mentor Nicola was. She sorted out an awful lot of problems that I had. She got me to organize and structure pieces properly and introduced me to lots of different techniques that were a big help. It changed my life really, because I think I developed from then. You know where to go and look for things when you finish something like this [a DPhil] -- seek out software or whatever information you need. It has helped me no end really, it was such a great experience.
JG: And you were a trailblazer in a way: you were the first composer to go to York, and since then the Arts Council, prompted by the Contemporary Music Centre, has set up the Elizabeth Maconchy Composition Fellowship. Other Irish composers have followed you to York, among them Marian Ingoldsby and Andrew Hamilton.
GM: I’m delighted that it did work out and that there was a scholarship set up. It’s largely due to CMC and to Eve [O’Kelly, CMC’s director] and all the efforts to try and get people from Ireland established, and to get them some time to study.
JG: And how would you assess the situation for composers studying in Ireland today compared to how it was when you were looking to study composition in 1994? Has it changed?
GM: I think it has dramatically changed. There are lots more young people coming into composition. Trinity [College Dublin] has a very good setup for music technology and seems to be doing very well; Queen’s [University Belfast] has the huge electronic studio, SARC. It’s much more vibrant that it’s ever been.
JG: Turning to your music, you have written a number of orchestral works, including Diverge and Merge and Horrendous Elation, as well as a Trombone Concerto. How do you find writing for orchestra? Do you enjoy the challenge?
GM: Yes, it’s fantastic when you’ve got every instrument available. Of course, it presents a hell of a lot of problems -- you have got so much sound. When I get the opportunity [to write for orchestra], I never refuse it!
JG: And maybe you’d tell me a little more about one of the works I mentioned: Horrendous Elation. It’s an intriguing title; where did it come from?
GM: There was a meteor shower that I saw one night. It was incredible: there was a shower of small stars and one fairly sizeable one; and then they just vanished. The way they came in was like a cascade. I found that it was terrifying and yet amazing at the same time. I suppose that is why it struck me to use an oxymoron as the title, like some of the other titles of my pieces such as Rational Option Insanity. That’s mainly what the catalyst was for the piece.
JG: Reading through some of the programme notes for your works, I’m very much struck by the visual associations that some of your works contain: Horrendous Elation which you just mentioned was inspired by a meteor shower; Diverge and Merge was influenced by landscape sketches; and more recently your chamber work, Jealous Moon, which you wrote for Concorde, takes its inspiration from a lunar eclipse. How important are visual references to your work?
GM: I suppose they help me to plan. Maybe the visual translates into music, although it’s not descriptive. It’s like my own personal blueprint for the piece to hang together. If it’s something visual then I try and imagine the characteristics of the music for that particular point. Sometimes a piece doesn’t just begin at the beginning; it can begin in the middle so then you've got to think how you arrive at that point. While the title helps me to organise it, somebody else might get a completely different perspective on it, but that’s OK.
JG: And do you think of titles before or after the piece is written?
GM: Sometimes I think of a title after the piece is written because I’m trying to describe what it was. I often think, ‘Should I call it this or should I call it that?’ Sometimes, I agonise over the title. But I know what I’ve based it on -- I’m trying to get something that ties in neatly or wraps it up. It usually starts with the inspiration, then you start organising your pitch and then you come up with your title if you have the concept.
JG: Are there any other sources of inspiration that you draw on as a springboard to writing a piece, or do you take your ideas from everywhere?
GM: Yes, I’ll take them from anywhere. Anything sound-wise at all is great. I like any type of really bizarre sound or electronic sound. Anything can start me trying to organise it. That’s probably the problem: once I see something, I try to organise it!
JG: So there are no boundaries or limits really?
GM: Not so far anyway. I’m sure I’ll come up against some limitations at some stage!
JG: You’ve written a work that marks the one hundredth anniversary of the admission of women students to Trinity College Dublin, which will be premiered at a graduation ceremony in July. As a woman composer, how do you assess the situation in Ireland and elsewhere for women composers today? Does the fact that you are a woman composer matter anymore in 2004, or do you still feel that you have to carry that baggage of history in this regard?
GM: No, I don’t find that any more. I think in the past you would feel that [being a woman composer] was something different. There isn’t a gender issue any more, or at least I haven’t come across it, not for a long, long time; that’s very satisfying. There are lots of female composers around, which is a great sign. It’s wonderful to see it because it’s been a hard struggle for them initially. I don’t find a gender issue; I’ve never really thought about that too deeply.
JG: I think it’s probably consigned to history at this stage.
GM: Yes, that’s good.
JG: You mentioned your electro-acoustic works and the work you’re doing for the Fastnet Lighthouse. You’ve also written a number of other works in this genre in the past, more recently the Sonic Studies, which you did as a collaboration with a wood turner and a potter in 2002. Is the area of electro-acoustic composition something you’re drawn towards and do you see yourself composing more electro-acoustic works in the future?
GM: Certainly, it’s definitely something to be drawn to. It’s limitless really; you can do anything. I wouldn’t like to be just classified as an electro-acoustic composer because I love the interaction of instrumentalists. It’s definitely worth pursuing from the point of view of understanding sound and getting the most potential from your instruments as well. It’s an area that interests me and I will be working on it in tandem with working for instruments.
JG: We’ll look forward to that. What about other directions you’d like to go in musically? Do you have any other works that you want to write?
GM: I’d love to do something for dance and I’d certainly like to do an opera as well. A lot of my pieces [to date] are quite short in a way and it’s because I’ve thought in a scheme of time, or else the requirement for that commission can’t exceed a set duration, so you’re restricted to how you write. I’d love to do something on a larger scale at this stage; I think I’d be ready for that.
JG: So you’re collecting lots of ideas for that opera in the future?
GM: Yes, I am!
JG: I won’t ask you about it, as it’s probably not good to talk about a work you haven’t written! What about works that are in the near future? Are there any new works planned later this year or in the following year?
GM: There is a commission from RTÉ in October for an orchestral work.
JG: Another orchestral work?
GM: Yes, that’s just happened. I’m delighted about it because it’s not something that happens every day -- getting a commission for an orchestral piece. I’m looking forward to working on that over the summer, it’s got to be done fairly quickly. That’s coming up in October and after that, I really don’t know what’s going to happen, but it goes like that.
JG: The premiere will be in October -- that is quite soon.
GM: Yes, I know. Don’t scare me any more! [laughter]
JG: Final question: you mentioned in 1994 about winning the Composers’ Class of the RTE Musician of the Future competition -- that’s exactly ten years ago. How do you think you’ve changed as a composer in the space of ten years? Have you got to where you want to be?
GM: I never feel like I’ve got to exactly where I want to be but that’s the nature of the craft. For me, it’s evolving: you’re getting more and more familiar with the palette of sounds, and then you are being presented with more options. I’m much happier about how I want to develop. I think that it is going to be an ongoing thing because it takes a long time to develop a craft, and it takes a lot of life experience as well. I don’t know at what point I’ll say ‘I’m comfortable now’, but I don’t think I ever will; I wouldn’t like to -- I’d worry if I did.
JG: Because then you’d stay the same?
GM: Exactly, and there are always mistakes you make and you feel, ‘I wish I hadn’t done that.’ You’re learning all the time from it. I’m glad I feel that way about it.
JG: Well, here’s to the next ten years! Thanks, Gráinne.
Gráinne Mulvey was interviewed on video by Jonathan Grimes in the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin, on 31 May 2004.
The views expressed in this interview are those of the persons concerned and are not necessarily those of the Contemporary Music Centre.