Background and Context

When composing this opera, there were many more factors to consider concerning the audience. Unlike my electroacoustic compositions and acoustic concert music, a large proportion of the audience for Flight Paths, particularly at the Bridlington

performances, would be the people of the community and not necessarily the same audience that would attend a concert of contemporary music. The opera itself formed part of a larger project of urban regeneration, as well as to engage the people of the East Ridings area in opera and the act of singing22. My intention when composing Flight Paths was not to compose a Popular Music opera or to compromise my musical language and vision; however, I did want to produce a piece of music that would be fit for purpose in that it should neither alienate the local community nor patronise them. As part of this vision, I wanted to retain my musical language, yet clothe it in a manner that would engage the audience, rather than alienate them.

The local community and its involvement was crucial to the success of Flight Paths, as, not only would they be the audience, but they would also provide sixty musicians in the form of the Buckrose Concert Band and the Bridlington Community Ladies’ Choir. Both ensembles were made up of community members, and neither ensemble

21 _{An audio recording of this piece can be found on CD 2 in Appendix 2 – Recordings}

2. A DVD of its performance can be found on DVD 1 in Appendix 3 – Recordings 3.

22 _{In the period leading up to the premier of the opera, community singing workshops}

had been taking place around the Bridlington area. A number of community members who had taken part in these workshops became the Bridlington Community Ladies’ Chorus, which played an important role in the opera performances.

enforced an entry requirement level, which meant both ensembles contained some absolute beginners, as well as some good, keen amateurs.

This also was to be my largest-scale work to date and would last between seventy- five and ninety minutes. The duration was an important factor in how I dealt with degrees or levels of information. For example, Extrapolations III, discussed earlier in this commentary, has, in terms of rhythm and pitch information given, a high degree of information per minute. For a work of Flight Paths’ duration, this degree of

information for that length of time would require a high level of concentration and would be exhausting, even for an audience member accustomed to contemporary music concerts.

These restrictions were in no sense an obstacle or hindrance; in fact, they offered an opportunity to synthesise techniques and language developed prior to the

commencement of my Ph.D. and the practice developed during my Ph.D.

candidature, as well as the new skills developed alongside it in commercial music.

I created a hierarchy of degrees of complexity that could be given to the musicians. The most complex music in terms of rhythmical and pitch information would be allocated to the string quartet, as they would be reading from parts and would, therefore, not need to memorise the music. Also, the music would be specifically written for the Voxare Quartet, who had previously performed my piece for string quartet and live electronics called Residue (of a similar level of complexity to String Quartet) and had had no difficulty in playing it, even with very limited rehearsal time.

Below the quartet in this hierarchy were placed the professional singers, soprano Nadine Mortimer-Smith, mezzo-soprano Taylor Wilson and soprano Anikó Tóth. I knew from their previous work that these musicians were highly skilled and familiar with contemporary music, but they would also be required to memorise their parts over a two-week rehearsal period.

The Buckrose Concert Band, the Bridlington Community Ladies’ Chorus and the Flamborough School Choir occupied the third level in the hierarchy. All the musicians in the two adult ensembles were very keen amateurs and were very committed to the project. Neither ensemble had an entry requirement, so ability ranged from absolute beginner to competent amateur. The real challenge here was to integrate these musicians within the project as an important part of the overarching ensemble and to stretch their abilities without taking the fun out of the project or making the success or failure of the project depend on professional performances from amateur

musicians. The children were untrained singers from a very small rural school and so needed music that was very simple, but memorable, and within a fairly limited pitch range.

4.9.2. Musical Language

A good example of my musical language - developed through the earlier pieces in this Ph.D. portfolio - being integrated into the more accessible medium in which I was working, is the sequence when we first encounter the character Spitfire Irene, played by mezzo-soprano Taylor Wilson. This sequence begins at bar 668, when Irene’s entrance is heralded by the accompaniment of the popular Noel Coward song ‘I’ll See You Again’. In Figure 41, from bars 688 and 689, we begin to hear a little