Anna Clyne
A er completing her degree in Edinburgh, Anna Clyne continued her studies at the Manhattan School of Music and is today based in the US. From experimental electro-acoustic music to broad orchestral strokes, she has developed a distinctive musical voice, which can be heard on her new album, Mythologies, on Avie.
There was never really an ‘I want to be a composer’ moment. I have just always loved it. I remember getting a pencil and drawing staves on some paper when I was little. I wrote a piece about the sea for piano; that’s the first time I remember writing music down.
I didn’t grow up in a classical music family. We listened to Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, Simply Red and Dire Straits and I think that has led me to love melody; I don’t shy away from it.
Studying with the composer Julia Wolfe was fantastic.
I think the most important thing she taught me was to really trust my intuition. She helped me find my voice and taught me how to develop a single idea. I think that’s one of the harder things of composing – the hardest thing is finding an idea, but then what do you do with it?
Collaboration has been a great source of inspiration. I’ve just done a couple of pieces with Uk-based artist Jyll Bradley;
one was commissioned by the Scottish Ensemble. I wrote a piece for solo viola, and Jyll created these beautiful light sculptures. We also did a film piece called Pardes, which was released online a couple of months ago.
Visual art is important in my work. I wrote Night Ferry when I was composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Riccardo Muti asked that I look to Schubert for inspiration. I read about Schubert and I discovered he su ered from cyclothymia, which is a form of manic depression with rapid moodswings. So I started by painting a dark, turbulent wave. Sometimes I make the art but, more o en, I’ll find inspiration in other artists.
I particularly love writing for orchestra. You have such a rich palette of sounds and there are infinite possibilities. I think of orchestration very much as painting; you can have a melody on just an oboe, but it is transformed if you double it with a viola and a vibraphone.