What's it like to be Gráinne Mulvey?
A short, informal question and answer interview with Gráinne Mulvey.
Originally published in 2004.
1. How and when did you get interested in composing?
I started when I was 23 and a student at Waterford Institute of Technology. It was when I began studying free atonality that I realised I would like to pursue studying composition.
2. Is composing your 'day job' or do you do something else as well?
Composing is my day job for the most part, but I also teach composition at the Dublin Institute of Technology.
3. Where do you mostly get your ideas?
It varies. Lots of external influences have affected my work. For example, my piece Sextet Uno was influenced by a David Attenborough documentary on eels! Another piece, Jealous Moon, was inspired by the lunar eclipse which took place in January 2001. Sound is also an important factor: my Clay and Wood piece for tape manipulates raw sound sources from wooden and clay objects. Anything visual or aural can inspire or help to formulate ideas and structure a piece.
4. What are you working on at the moment?
I am working on a piece for the National Symphony Orchestra to be performed on October 22nd, 2004.
5. Describe your typical working day.
I'm usually up at around 8.00 to 8.30am except when I'm teaching, then I have to be up at 6.30am. I start composing after my breakfast, about 9.00am, keep working until 1.00pm and break for lunch. I continue until 4.00pm. This is a good day. Sometimes I start later (if I'm making no progress early in the day) and keep going well into the night, especially if the piece is gaining momentum. On a very bad day, I look at scores, listen to music, learn some Csound, prepare lectures for work, check my email and attend to anything outstanding...like bills, etc.
6. What is it like hearing a new piece played for the first time?
Terrifying, but it gets a little bit easier each time. It is then that the good parts of the piece and the mistakes are taken into account. If there are any problems, I try to sort them as quickly as possible.
7. What has been the highlight of your career so far?
There have been many highlights, from working with Jane O’Learyand Concorde to working with the NSO, performers, orchestras and ensembles abroad. One of the highlights of this year was working with the Mercy Convent Girls’ School in Waterford, where they produced an imaginative ten-minute composition.
8. What has been the lowlight of your career so far?
Writing pieces which were to be performed and then never played.
9. What is your greatest ambition?
To keep composing and write larger-scale works.
10. Which musician in history do you most admire and why?
Bach, because his music is perfectly constructed, wonderfully paced and expressive.
11. Which present-day musician do you most admire and why?
Xenakis (although he's dead); his music always sounds fresh and is innovative, but Stockhausen's music is most impressive too.
12. Which period of history would you most like to have lived in and why?
Probably the 1950s. New ground-breaking compositions were being produced by Stockhausen, Messiaen, Xenakis and others. It would have been interesting to have been able to interact with these people.
13. What is the best thing about being a composer?
Writing for performers and the rehearsals of pieces.
14. What is the worst thing about being a composer?
Writing out the instrumental parts of pieces.
15. If you weren't a composer, what other career might you have chosen?
I would have loved to have studied science and become a cosmologist, but the choice of subjects given in my first year at secondary school didn't allow this.
16. What is your concept of heaven?
Being able to compose at any time.
17. What is your concept of hell?
Not to be able to compose.
18. What is your favourite food?
Asparagus, potatoes, chicken, Braeburn apples and lemon cake.
19. If someone gave you three months off with unlimited travel and living expenses, what would you do?
I'd like to do a mini-world tour and record various sounds of people, cities and ethnic musics. I'd bring manuscript paper and a mini-disk player.
20. If you could have one thing in the world that would really help you as a composer, what would it be?
A mini-recording studio and a new computer!