Composing ‘something new with its roots in the old’

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 23

Composing ‘something new with its roots in the old’

Setting Katherine Mansfield’s poems to music for a ballet was a stimulating experience for Edwin Carr, as he told DAVID CLARKSON

Repatriate New Zealand composer Edwin Carr had no idea that Katherine Mansfield wrote poems until he was asked to write the ballet music for a setting of six of her poetic works. He paid a brief visit to Christchurch from his home in Taupo last week to see the first performance of the work, choreographed by Patricia Rianne. The work was commissioned by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and written in less than a fortnight in July. Carr worked with three musicians in Wellington to record the 40 minutes of music for clarinet, cello and piano. Radio New Zealand recorded the work as one of the events marking the hundredth anniversary of Mansfield’s birth. “I have always been a great fan of Katherine Mansfield but I had no idea she had written poems. Even though they are light, they are very evocative,” says Carr. “It was a most enjoyable and stimulating experience.”

Although this work took little time between the composition and the performance, Carr points out that it is not usually the case. Next year, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will perform the premier of his setting of Solomon’s Song of Songs in Christchurch. Two harps will be flown from the North Island for a work which lasts for more than an hour. It is an aerial image that appeals to Edwin Carr. The commission was completed ' well over a year ago, and it will have been almost two years awaiting its first performance. “You get used to this when you are a composer. You have got to live to the age of 125 years to get everything out of the pipeline,” he says. Carr is from Auckland. He spent about 25 years working in London, Rome and Munich, and nine years teaching in Sydney before returning to New Zealand four years ago. He settled in Taupo, a strategic position from

where he can quickly, reach Auckland and Wellington. “I don’t think I’ll be there much longer, but it has been a wonderful time to write music and get out of the pollution of Sydney. I lived in big cities too long, and I felt I

needed to live in the country for a while.” He has been able to keep working as a composer by putting himself forward as chances have arisen. “I have done it by sheer determination. I am down in the market place, not

in an ivory tower,” he says. His Third Symphony is to be performed in Auckland in October. It was commissioned by the Philharmo.nia of Auckland. His Second Symphony, which he conducted with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, was recorded in May. The 34minute recording was sent overseas. Carr says it looks very promising for the New York company, Stradivari Records, to publish the work. He hopes that audiences will be comfortable with his music — but not too comfortable. “They have to come up a few inches to hear something which is new, but has its roots in the old,” he says. “I have very little hope for the avant garde. I don’t think anybody wants to listen to them much. It’s disposable. At my age, 62, I suppose people would call me slightly fuddy-duddy. “Since the Second World War there has been far too much experimentation. You can experiment for so long, but after a while you have got to consolidate. You can’t just keep on with gimmickry and intellectualisation,” he says.