Music creator Fraz Ireland talks about the final preparations for the premiere of their piece with Blackheath Choir as part of Adopt a Music Creator...
Music creator Finn McLean talks about their collaboration with the Glasgow Community Concert Band as part of Adopt a Music Creator 2024.
Working with the Glasgow Community Concert Band over the past year as part of Making Music's Adopt a Music Creator project has been some of the most exciting, fun, challenging and rewarding work I have had the pleasure to do as a freelance musician.
I first met Alasdair, the band's MD, and Kathryn, an oboe player with the group, back in January at the launch event. I was instantly struck by the joy and passion with which they described their time with the band and the excitement they had for the forthcoming year working together. Alasdair shared examples of recent repertoire and Kathryn talked about the kind of music the band enjoyed, which influenced my compositional thinking instantly. I decided that during my time with the band I would focus on the joy of music-making and create something that was both consistent with my artistic sensibilities and also something the band could genuinely enjoy playing.
'...some of the most exciting, fun, challenging and rewarding work I have had the pleasure to do as a freelance musician.'
I met the band proper in Glasgow a month or so later, attending one of their weekly Tuesday rehearsals held at the beautiful Parkhead Congregational Church. I had prepared a short workshop for them based on a song I had written with friend and incredible singer-songwriter Mairi Sutherland. The song has a simple sing-along melody at the end which I notated and expanded into melody and harmony parts for the whole band (arranged broadly into low, middle and high parts). At the bottom of the tune's sheet music was a spread of notes which I explained could be used to improvise over the tune. All three parts of the score were important to me as I wanted to hear all different parts of the band performing different musical functions - melody, harmony and something unique to themselves. I also had my guitar with me and sang along with them.
I introduced the band to it piece by piece, first teaching them the melody and having everyone play it together, then slowly asking certain sections to switch to their harmony part, or for another section to drop out, get louder etc. Over the course of multiple run-throughs the band grew more and more comfortable, visibly and audibly, with the song and my shouting out various directions for them. I then introduced the improvising element and got to witness the band work together, both as a cohesive unit and the sparkling individuality of players choosing to improvise. I found the trust everyone had with each other to experiment like this very moving. I believe the band really enjoyed it by the end as well and I think it served as a perfect introduction to my silly musical identity.
'I found the trust everyone had with each other to experiment like this very moving.'
The next time I saw the band, I had them playing through a rough first draft of what would later become 'Sweet everyday treat' - the finished piece written for them. The band's feedback in this first draft stage was incredibly beneficial to the final piece's quality and success. From subtle changes to dynamics that I hadn't considered, being inexperienced with the instrumental power of a concert band, to grander ideas around whether certain parts could be played by different instruments, questions around the structure of the piece etc. that gave me plenty to think about and work on for the next draft.
Currently, the band are rehearsing the final piece in preparation for their winter concert on 1 December at Hutchesons' Grammar School and a recording a few days later. To my delight, I also learnt it will be programmed right beside a medley from Cats - a show I am not embarrassed to admit is very influential to me and my music! I am very proud of the final piece and feel it achieved my goal of representing myself as well as being something the band can enjoy and thrive playing. Seeing them rehearse it these past few weeks, I've been struck by just how naturally it seems to be coming together for them (with the help of their incredible MD Alasdair), and I have great confidence in them for their performance in December.
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