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Newent Orchestral
Society Bill's Musical Notes, September, 2009 The Heath Robinson Style of Composing Music Watching the BBC2 programmes featuring first music critic, Paul Morley and then drum-and-bass MC, Goldie, trying their hands at music composition, without the aid of digital sampling, made me ponder the whole process of creative expression through writing music. In the past, the whole thing was clear cut. There were certain formal structures that were acceptable; there were certain chord progressions that were deemed to be OK; there were particular harmonies that worked and ones that didn't. That was all later chucked out of the window and the great experimentations of the 20th century ensued. Then, only a couple of months or so ago, along came Paul Morley and Goldie, neither of whom could read, let alone write music, but both with ideas and a passion to express them. With the help of the resources made available to them, they came up with two excellent works which were performed successfully, particularly Goldie's piece, "Sine Tempore", which was performed at the Royal Albert Hall Family Prom.
Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist whose fantasmagorical cartoon inventions involved totally impractical, imaginative, eccentric, positively dangerous, mechanical solutions to everyday problems, for example, his pancake-making machine illustrated here. Think of orchestral music as a complicated machine made of cogs, levers and connecting rods, all whirring and working together to deliver its end purpose, whatever that might be. The old formal structures are not necessary; harmonic patterns and progressions are no longer subject to rigid rules as the modern ear will listen to and accept almost anything. So the bits and pieces that go to make up a music score can be put together in such a way that, as long as these component parts work with oneanother and "fit" as cogs in a machine, the end result will be musically satisfying. And here's the rub, anyone with a little musical knowledge - oh, and preferably a computer, which can save a lot of time - can do it. I've tried and it works. Heath Robinson rides again.
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It was interesting to hear what these
fledgling composers wanted to express and both had clear ideas about how their music would
sound and would be an expression of philosophical thoughts. To compose their music, they
were not limited by musical history or convention but had all the resources of that
musical history at their disposal. It seems to me that the door is now open for what might
be called the Heath Robinson school of music composition.
Bill Anderton, September, 2009