Eric Mcelroy
Being a pianist and a composer are the same identity for me. I started playing the piano when I was three – my mother is a piano teacher. I can’t remember a time when the piano wasn’t there. When I compose, I work in two places. I’m either at the piano or walking. The thing that connects those two is that they’re physical activities; for me, music and movement are completely intertwined. I do everything by hand, which again loops back to the idea of the physicality of it; I believe it matters that it’s pen on paper. Once the piece is finished, I’ll put it all into score software so somebody else can read it.
I love music and I love poetry, so song is the ideal genre. The idea of poetry and music being sister arts is one that I really believe in, and I wish there was more unity in the academic/ education sphere.
I love setting things by living people. Tongues of Fire features poetry by Gregory Leadbetter, Grevel Lindop and Alice Oswald, who are all alive and well. But
why haven’t they been set before? I’m the first to do it. Alice Oswald is Oxford’s Professor of Poetry, the first woman in history to hold that chair and one of our greatest living English poets, but this is the first art song ever done of her work. Obviously, I’m extremely proud to have been the first, but on the other hand I’m frustrated by that.
I’m going to be doing this until I drop. And I’d also like to do it all. I’ve had ideas for operas since I was ten, and the only thing keeping me from writing one is having the funding to do it. I don’t have the heart to commit myself to a project that might take five years or more to write, and then either never have it performed or wait 30 to 40 years. It’s all about practicality; I write things for soloists or chamber ensembles because I can ensure they get performed. I would love to do more large ensemble things – I have a commission from the English Symphony Orchestra and it would be great to get more of that.