Samuel Holloway hopes his music has the power to suggest other kinds of possibilities, things people may not have thought about. Charmian Smith talks to the 2013 Mozart Fellow.
During his tenure as this year's University of Otago Mozart Fellow, he has written and had performed several pieces, one of which will feature in a concert at Marama Hall on November 11.
He came to the fellowship thinking he might write an opera or tackle other grand projects but ended up working on a lot of smaller things, he said.
They include Upright Piano, for a show called ''Michael Parakowhai et al'' in a dealer gallery in Auckland in February and March this year. The score, the modified painted piano and other elements have been bought by the Chartwell Trust so he hopes it might have further realisations.
Also among this year's works was Matter, for piano quintet, a commission for Chamber Music New Zealand for its ''Einstein's Universe'' tour, which was performed in Dunedin earlier this year, a commission for an Austrian ensemble and Hard Science.
''I probably wouldn't have written those works if I hadn't been here this year because I wouldn't have had the time,'' he said.
For the past five years he has taught part-time at Unitech in Auckland and tries to keep a balance between his teaching, his composing and other activities, such as being musical director for contemporary music group 175 East.
Holloway (32) grew up in Auckland and learned piano from an early age, but, encouraged by his teachers, started composing music while at high school.
''I was a perfectly adequate pianist but I wasn't one of those people who can practise for great periods of time. I didn't have the discipline so I think composing was a good way for me to continue to engage with music but not have to sit there and learn scales.
''I got pleasure from it and found it was something I could do.''
His early compositions were based on what he could do as a pianist, he says.
''I think there was a great moment for me when I realised I didn't have to stick to my own abilities as a performer and that actually there were a whole lot of other people out there I could write for and I didn't have to play it myself.
''Nowadays I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the practicalities of what performers and instruments can do, and partially I think that's a freeing thing. It means I don't have to think about the possibilities of performance.''
However, when he was younger, it bothered him that what he wrote had to be interpreted by a performer which took it out of his control.
''I didn't realise that sometimes you actually have to let go. That's a positive thing, not something to worry about. It enriches the art rather than takes something away from it.''
He writes for traditional orchestral acoustic instruments, sometimes used in unusual ways like bowing a guitar and unwinding the strings, and recently he's been experimenting with flexible instrumentation so works can be played by different groups of performers.
''I think in general my music more recently tends to avoid a lot of the things that might tie a part to a particular instrument, so a lot of those things we think contemporary music might have, such as extended techniques, have faded out of what I do, and that makes the music more transportable to other instruments. It's not why I've done it but it's a consequence.''
His compositions have their beginnings as abstract sound or structural ideas or processes, he says.
''I find it a challenge to create something that is new and has value and adds to the collection of things in the world in a good way. I find it a good thing to be doing.
''It's got to be work I think has value and reflects the kinds of concerns I'm thinking about. I suppose they are mostly abstract ones around processes and repetition. At the moment I'm interested in having a kind of clarity in my work.
''Usually I think that is manifest in how my works present themselves formally, but I think often where my work is more complicated for people is that the emotional tenor seems to be more opaque. I suppose I tend to try and avoid typical musical gestures so some of those signifiers for people are not there on the surface,'' he said.
''Another thing I've been thinking about a lot with recent pieces has been around how we perceive things as wholes or parts and so a number of pieces have been singular sound objects, where there's a kind of tension between the singular nature of it and all the constituent parts.''
Holloway has written little for voice or orchestra because he finds them problematic. In the case of art music and voice you are dealing with classically trained singers which has issues as well as advantages, he says.
''Then there's the issue of the text and how you successfully marry the text with everything else. I don't know many contemporary composers working right now who deal with text particularly successfully. It's a challenge I'd like to grapple with at some point but it's a really difficult one.''
The fellowship has meant he's had time to read. Finding texts he has a connection with is not a problem. The problem is how to add, or at least not detract from the text, he said.
He also finds some orchestral traditions problematic.
''For a start you have performer expectations and not all orchestral performers are contemporary music specialists, in fact most of them aren't so I guess that's a practical thing, but it's fair to say I've had unsatisfying experiences. I don't want to say more.''
Although he says he would like to write more orchestral music, at present he prefers to write for small ensembles.
''It's something I enjoy, particularly in the past when my music has tended to complexity, writing chamber music has meant I've had enough players so enough can go on, but not so many players that it becomes a mess.''
''I suppose one of the good things about this year is I've been able to think about my work and clarify some things and make less clear some other things.''
His work to be presented on November 11 is Hard Science. It was written for Stroma, a contemporary music ensemble and is for a sextet. It explores some of his musical concerns such as process and repetition.
''I guess I was thinking about how the music might have a kind of objectivity: music that's objective, clear and precise and presents the material and doesn't make any other kinds of claims. I suppose I was also thinking about parts and wholes. The music really consists of a collection of these discrete notes and chords laid out one after the other, sometimes with silences in between and sometimes not.
''I'm interested to see how this coheres, how the sounds connect with one another or whether they sit as discrete objects and whether the piece then becomes a whole thing.''
Experience it
Besides Holloway's Hard Science, Stroma's concert at Marama Hall on November 11 at 7.30pm will also feature works by two other former Mozart fellows, Anthony Ritchie and Michael Norris.
