VQ Composer Spotlight #3: Chris Roe & "Jetez!"

 

Jetez! jumped out to us like a flash of light in this competition. At just over 5 minutes, Chris Roe's piece presented a concise musical idea filled with texture, unique harmonies, and rhythmic challenges.

Taking its inspiration from watching people throw stones off the edge of a cliff, Jetez! similarly throws notes back and forth the instruments of the string quartet.  Alternating between intense glissandi and fast-paced semiquavers, Chris uses these techniques to create the energy build-up before being thrown over the cliff, as well as the suspension of soaring through the air.  The piece also travels in waves--melodic lines climb, and then fall.

 

 

One of the constant challenges we work on as a quartet is achieving unity of sound.  How does a quartet of four separate instruments, all with different colours, timbres, sounds, etc., work together to create one harmonious, balanced sound?  There is no easy answer...except that we have to work hard for it.  Jetez! in many ways helped us, because the quick figures passing between each instrument forced  us to hear the line as if sung by one single instrument--which is essentially what a string quartet should aim to be!

Despite the tricky rhythms (jumping between 5/8 and 7/8 meter is no easy task!) and technical challenges of Jetez!, we were struck by the harmonies and intervals Chris used.  Weaving rich harmonies through seventh chords--no doubt due to Chris's background as a jazz pianist--the middle section of Jetez! erupts into a brief jazz riff with pizzicato accompaniment before falling once again into soaring glissandi. The sound fades away in the end, perhaps representing the last object being thrown into the air and taking flight, floating away and escaping gravity.

Chris Roe is a composition student at the Royal College of Music, London, studying under Kenneth Hesketh.  He is winner of the 2011 International Antonín Dvořak Composition Competition, and his works have been performed by the RCM Wind Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, and vocal ensemble Ottovoci.

 

Where are you from?
I live in London now, and grew up in a town near to London called Sevenoaks. However, I also lived in Manchester for three years whilst at university there.

What got you hooked on composition?
I always enjoyed improvising at the piano (usually very slow, atmospheric Debussy imitations!) and sometimes would write them down. But my first taste of composition as I now know it (ie working on a piece past these initial stages, writing it down, giving parts for other people to play etc.) was when I wrote Millennium Swing for the New Beacon school big band!  I'm not sure it actually had anything to do with the Millennium, unless its minor key was an attempt to comment on the Y2K panic gripping the world!  But hearing something that I had imagined in my head being played by other people instead of just by me sitting at a piano or computer screen was a great experience, and one of the main things that drove me to keep composing throughout my time at Sevenoaks School then onto Manchester University and now the Royal College of music. 

Who have been your biggest musical influences?
Of course there are too many influences to mention here, and I'm sure that a lot are subconscious, but I was always drawn to the music of Debussy and Ravel, particularly by the harmonic colours that their work brought into focus. Then, struck by its connection with the 'French' harmonic language, amongst other things, I started becoming more interested in jazz, particularly the piano playing of the legendary Bill Evans. His characteristic voicing of altered seventh chords, carrying on from the French tradition, continues to influence my approach to harmony today.
Another recurring feature of my music, I think, is its dynamism and rhythmic energy. My biggest influence for this side of my music is probably Stravinsky, with jazz musicians from Charlie Parker to the Brecker brothers also influencing the shape and momentum of a lot of my musical ideas.

More recently important influences for me have been composers such as Phillipe Hurel, Ana Sololovic and Unsuk Chin, as well as the insights gained from my most recent studies with renowned composer Kenneth Hesketh.

What are some of the advantages or challenges in writing for string quartet?
Though it can be challenging writing for a group of instruments with such a legacy of great pieces written for it, and perhaps a more limited palette of instrumental colour available than other ensembles, I think the main advantage of the string quartet is the similarity between the instruments. This is unlike any other established type of ensemble that I can think of (except maybe the piano duo) and in Jetez! I tried to use this to my advantage by rapidly passing lines and gestures (often descending glissandi) around the quartet without changing the quality of the sound between instruments. In this way, each player can quickly switch from taking the lead to an accompanying role, without affecting the overall balance.

Anything else you wish to say about your piece "Jetez!" ?
The programme note goes into more detail about the ideas behind Jetez!, but the most important idea that I want to come across in the music (helped by the intensely energetic playing in this performance) is the physical action of throwing an object into the wind; stored up energy (like a coiled spring) which is suddenly released to disappear over the edge. As a good friend recently summed up, Jetez! - 'a piece inspired by some French blokes throwing stones.'

 

www.chrisroemusic.com