Stephanie Martin (f. 1962)
Den här veckan presenterar jag den kanadensiska tonsättaren Stephanie Martin, som svarat på några frågor via mail! Läs hela intervjun på engelska längre ner. English below! Här en en kort summering på svenska!
Stephanie Martin började komponera redan som barn och studier i musik lade grunden för hennes karriär som musiker och dirigent. När hon jobbade i en församling i Toronto (St Mary Magdalene) tog skrivandet fart på allvar, då hon hade en fin kör som motiverade henne att komponera för gudstjänstsammanhang.
Martin inspireras av de ensembler hon skriver för, och för varje körs specifika möjligheter. Texten är alltid central och den sätter igång fantasin, menar Martin, som ser som sin uppgift att genom musiken ”måla” texten, att lyfta fram textens budskap.
2012 lämnade Martin jobbet i St Mary Magdalene, och i samband med detta fick hon fler beställningsuppdrag. Komponerandet hjälpte henne genom sorgen efter maken, som gick bort samma år, och hon fann tröst i att kunna fokusera på något kreativt.
Martin har skrivit flera större verk, bland annat ”WATER: an environmental oratorio”, som handlar om det livsnödvändiga i att vara rädd om miljön och vattnet som vi inte kan vara utan. Martin tipsar också om stycket ”Nothing Gold can Stay”, som har sjungits av Canada National Youth Choir, och flera körer över hela landet.
Jag fastnade för ”Missa Brevis” för tre röster, då det i mindre församlingar kan vara svårt att få ihop fyrstämmiga körer. Martin berättar att hon även skrivit en hel antologi med stycken som passar för mindre ensembler (länk till noter finns längre ned!).
Några andra tips är ”Four motets”, den mer avancerade ”Missa Chicagoensis” och ”Requiem for all souls” (SATB div, 8 satser, 25 minuter långt).
Jag frågar Martin om hennes favoritkompositörer (kvinnliga), och hon nämner Hildegard av Bingen, Ethel Smyth, Imogen Holst och Elisabeth Poston. Samt de kanadensiska tonsättarna Ruth Watson Henderson, Eleanor Daley, Laura Hawley, Tracy Wong, Sarah Quartel, Katerina Gimon, Gerda Blok-Wilson, Sherryl Sewepagaham.
Jag rekommenderar ett besök på Martins hemsida, där det finns en tydlig och informativ uppställning över hennes verk för olika besättningar!
För damkör tipsar jag om den vackra Missa Lumen.
Prenumerera gärna på kommande inlägg genom att fylla i din e-postadress nedan!
This week I am presenting the Canadian composer Stephanie Martin. How would you introduce yourself as a composer, to a Swedish audience?
I welcome interest in my music from Swedish choirs and audiences! I’ve been involved with choral music all my life and creating new works for choirs is a great pleasure.
When did you start to compose? Do you remember your first pieces, and what you struggled with in the beginning?
I started to compose as a very young child, but musical education prepared me to make my living as a performer and conductor. It was not until a little later that I returned to composing seriously. My writing solidified when I was working as music director of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Toronto where I had an excellent choir, and strong motivation to create new liturgical music.
Which are your inspirational sources when you compose? How would you describe the process from start to end when you write a new piece of music?
I am most often inspired by the choir I am writing for, and their purpose. I have written music for health workers’ choirs, schools, churches, professional choirs and community choirs, and it is each group’s individual character that inspires me. From that point, it is the text that gets my imagination working, and shapes the form, melodic and harmonic character of the piece. My job is to elevate and paint the words of the poem; to communicate its meaning through music.
I read on your website that you have had a marvelous career. Which was your first commission, and which of your many works are you most proud of?
My first commission was for a folk opera when I was too young to be daunted by such a task! My commissions started to become more frequent after I left my post at St. Mary Magdalene’s in 2012. My husband passed away in that year, and writing music became a solace and a way of focussing my traumatized mind on something positive and creative. My clients are now international, including choirs in the USA, England and Ireland. I have three larger works for choir that can be classified as oratorios. I am very proud of ’WATER: an environmental oratorio’ since it addresses the very important, existential issue of protecting water, the source of life on our planet. Though I am also proud of one little gem ’Nothing Gold Can Stay’ which has been sung by our National Youth Choir of Canada and choirs across the country.
What is the most enjoyable and what is the greatest challenge in being a composer?
I enjoy engaging with texts and poetic sources, working with conductors and choirs, researching and telling stories through music. A challenge in the beginning of negotiating a commission is working out all the parameters of the project. After the piece has been premiered there is follow-up: deciding how to disseminate the piece, through a publisher or an institution like the Canadian Music Centre, and how to achieve a high quality recording so that listeners can hear the piece, and perhaps decide to perform it. It can take years from initial concept for a piece to come to fruition.
I found your ”Missa brevis for three voices”, which I found very interesting. I work in a small congregation in the Church of Sweden, and it is particularly hard to find singing men, especially tenors. In my opinion there is a great need for repertoire for three voices. What is your experience?
I have had similar experiences with some of the groups I have worked with. In addition to the mass for three voices (Published by Cypress https://cypresschoral.com/composers/stephanie-martin/missa-brevis-for-three-voices/) I composed an entire anthology of ’flexible’ pieces intended for small church choirs, where you might not be quite sure who will appear on any given Sunday! Here is the publication info for ”Sacred Songs for Small Choirs” published by Renforth: https://www.renforthmusic.com/works/rmach725.php
Many of my readers are church musicians. You have a vast amount of sacred music for choir. Which of your works would you especially recommend for use in services or church concerts? Have you written anything for solo organ?
I would start with my ’Four Motets’ published by Cypress. https://cypresschoral.com/composers/stephanie-martin/four-motets/
I have more challenging mass settings in my ’Missa Chicagoensis’, and my ’Requiem for All Souls’. I also have anthems, litanies and Tenebrae responses, all found through my website: www.stephaniemartinmusic.com
I also feel that new texts that express our current fears and concerns are appropriate for church use. ’Weavings’ is a new piece that expresses our anxiety about the ’other’ and how we can be reconciled with other humans. Here’s a video sung under Canadian conductor Kai Leung:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGAjEIh0HXc
I haven’t yet written anything specifically for organ solo, but since I do love that instrument very much I hope to set aside some time to write some pieces in the future.
I have a passion for women composers, and I think it is of great importance that we strive to present music of both men and women to our choirs (and in the concert houses, organ concerts, etc etc), I wonder: who is your favorite woman composer?
There are so many! I love the ancient music of Hildegard von Bingen, and the historic figures of Ethel Smyth, Imogen Holst and Elizabeth Poston, as well as our own Canadian composers Ruth Watson Henderson, Eleanor Daley, Laura Hawley, Tracy Wong, Sarah Quartel, Katerina Gimon, Gerda Blok-Wilson, Sherryl Sewepagaham and many, many others.
Do you know if any of your music have been performed in Sweden? If not, which of you works would you be most happy to introduce?
I believe Joakim Olsson Kruse has performed some of my church music in Kristianstad.