AFTER HOURS
Musicians and their hobbies
JACK WHITE Composer CHEESE
Around seven or eight years ago, I started working in a cheese shop in Cardiff while doing my PHD. Before that, I only knew runof-the-mill supermarket cheeses, but when I started tasting cheeses from across Europe, I started to get enthusiastic about them. I still work in the shop today, and have learnt over the years about the sheer variety of cheeses and the lengths to which producers go to achieve quality. Encouraged by fellow composer Hannah Kendall, I recently used my love of cheese as inspiration for Three Afterdinner Pieces for trombonist Peter Moore. In it, the way I have tried to capture the essence of each of three cheeses has depended on visual and structural cues inherent in them – for instance, in ‘Stilton’ I saw the blue veins as fanfares spreading out across the surface. If I had to name a favourite cheese it would be Eppoises from Burgundy. I avoided it for many years because, being rind-washed, it is quite strong and pungent. However, my palate has developed over the years for denser, closer textured and smellier cheeses.
Peter Moore and Richard Uttley premiere ‘Three After-dinner Pieces’ in Bristol on 27 Sept