KNOWING THE SCORE

Rory Boyle on his latest work and 50 years of making beautiful music

From a rural upbringing on a farm in Stirlingshire, to renowned composer and Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Rory Boyle has certainly followed an unexpected career path.

‘Music doesn’t particularly run in my family,’ he says. ‘Although I was always really jealous of my mother’s ability to play songs by ear. She was a very good pianist. You could say “what’s that song from Guys and Dolls?” and she would sit down and play it.’

Boyle started on his musical path as a chorister at St George’s in Windsor and he believes this had a massive effect on him, although he didn’t know it at the time. ‘It was wonderful training, doing all that singing,’ he recalls. ‘I did have piano lessons from an early age, but my sister and I would kick the piano when we were made to practise.’ Perhaps his musical genes came from even further back in his family tree. Boyle’s great grandfather was the organist at the Episcopal Church in Florence.

‘I suppose I decided I wanted to be a composer when I was about 14 – mainly because I was rubbish at everything else,’ says Boyle. ‘And also because I had a lot of encouragement. My piano teacher at Windsor, Clement McWilliam, was the most remarkable man. A truly inspirational teacher.’

Boyle started writing music at around the age of 16 and has been doing it ever since. ‘I turned 64 the other day, so I’ve been doing it for around 50 years. I played myself a Beatles tune on the piano instead of Happy Birthday!’

His latest project, Watching Over You, gave Boyle the chance to write for Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill. Edinburgh poet and writer Dilys Rose wrote seven songs based on her diary about motherhood, and Boyle to set them to music.

‘I am a father and a grandfather, but I can’t have that extraordinary relationship that a mother has with her child, but I hope that I’ve done her wonderful words justice.’

The intimate show features the Red Note Ensemble and Cargill, who Boyle holds in the utmost regard. ‘She has such a great voice, she can fill the Met in New York, but can equally have audiences in floods of tears singing unaccompanied.’

Boyle puts paid to the idea that composing music is a romantic profession. ‘It’s nine-tofive hard work. People have this vision of me walking around the woods with a notebook, humming a tune in my head. When I actually have breakfast, I then try to prevaricate for as long as possible unless things are going well. Then I’ll shut myself away until lunchtime and perhaps do a bit more in the afternoon before I reward myself with a large whisky. It’s a job.’

And right now Boyle’s job sees him writing film scores, piano duets, a test piece for the Santa Fe piano competition and recording a CD of clarinet music, along with teaching at the Conservatoire. However, he has yet to dip into the world of ballet scores, so if anyone is in the market for a ballet composition, Boyle is open to offers.

Watching Over You is being performed in St Andrew’s in the Square in Glasgow on 19 May and at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on 20 May.