Edward Gregson
Born in Sunderland, Gregson studied at the Royal Academy of Music. His music ranges from large-scale orchestral works to string quartets, and he’s made a large contribution to the brass band repertoire. Chandos has made several recordings of his music, including London Brass’s Music of the Angels, out this month.
What appeals to me about writing for brass ensemble is the immediacy of the sound and the incredible presence. I’ve been wanting to record two works for some time: the Symphony in Two Movements and Music of the Angels. The latter is a piece drawn from the revelation of the apocalypse, in which the angels were given seven trumpets. It’s a large-scale work, with seven trumpets for starters, and it’s in tribute to Olivier Messiaen.
I am inspired by composers from the past, whether it’s Haydn, Bach, Beethoven or Brahms. Stravinsky and Bartók have influenced me in terms of rhythm, harmony and melody. I find inspiration in Shostakovich because of the emotional content he imbues in his music. When I was a student in the 1960s, he was frowned upon. Now we’ve come full circle to find that Shostakovich was one of the great composers of the 21st century.
I had a terrific teacher called Alan Bush. His music isn’t much heard nowadays, but Hugh Wood
singled out Bush’s String Quartet Dialectic as one of the finest string quartets of any British composer. He was an interesting intellectual who studied with the pianist Artur Schnabel in Berlin. For me he was a towering figure, not only musically but in terms of art, culture and philosophy.
Being a composer is more than notes on the page. It’s a complex thing, and in the end, it is about communicating your ideas about the world and yourself to an audience, sharing your experience and explaining how it has come to you as a human being. It never ends. Here I am in my 70s, and I’m still learning and looking at my last piece thinking, ‘is that good enough?’.
Writing a string quartet is the single most di cult thing to do. You have four instruments and you can’t get away with anything. You have to explore the basics of your compositional technique, ideas and inspiration to create something meaningful. When I listen to music at home now, it’s chamber music.