Sonic MosaicsConversations with ComposersBy Paul Steenhuisen

Sonic Mosaics is an ad hoc collection of interviews with thirty-two contemporary music composers conducted and compiled by Paul Steenhuisen between September 2001 and November 2004. Most of these were originally published in Wholenote Magazine, a monthly Toronto publication covering all aspects of musical activity within the Great Toronto Area.

James Harley: “I’m willing to argue that all music is algorithmic.”

In his Introduction, Steenhuisen aptly points out the lack of adequate written information on contemporary composers in Canada. By presenting these interviews together Steenhuisen hopes to foster ‘a greater sense of the cultural context and creative milieu in which the music is made.’ He also discusses the ‘practicalities of life as a composer,’ focusing on the economic challenges faced by some Canadian composers. Akin to the preface of an ethno-musicological dissertation he goes to great lengths to discuss his interview procedures, his relationships with the interviewees and how each interview came about. The most interesting aspect of this writing is the final section on the ‘interconnectedness of the composers’ and their geographical movements.

John Oswald: “ It’s easy to say you like Beethoven, a bit harder to say you like Tchaikovsky.”

Some of the interviews are brief and cover a singular topic (such as Alexina Louie’s opera) while others have far more detail as in Martin Arnold’s. One harmonizing factor is they are all in their own particular way ‘in depth’. Even in the shorter interviews Steenhuisen is able to scratch under the surface and illicit interesting, engaging and sometimes quite personal responses. This quality makes for some very interesting reading. Steenhuisen’s fearless inquisitiveness has his interviewees give us some direct and at times provocative answers.

Barbara Croall: “Intuition is an immediacy of transferring your feelings into the outcome, whereas theory is thinking through all those stages and figuring out a method.”

Books such as this are not only defined by who’s in them but by who is not. Despite stating his book covers a range of composers who come from ‘diverse ethnic, educational and economic backgrounds’ one is quick to notice the demographics Steenhuisen chose to cover: 85% of the interviewees are white Caucasian men; 98% have been trained at university music schools or the equivalent; and, 53% are either currently tenured or retired professors.

Michael Finnissy: “I try to acknowledge influences openly. Why try to hide them? We live in a sort of mausoleum-culture, so much music from the past taking precedence over what we write, so few people giving us any credit. I’m making an inventory – or, I’m cannibalizing the past…”

Although this book is lacking a stronger contribution from female, non-Caucasian composers, not to mention non-academic composers and those of Atlantic Canada, to be fair, covering composers from all demographics across the country was not his focus. If anything, his contribution shows just how small the world of contemporary classical music can become in major urban centres. By focusing on composers who were visiting Toronto and Edmonton, whose pieces were being featured in concerts of new music, he inadvertently gives us a picture of a tiny “global village”.

Udo Kasemets: “The beauty and the beast, they are always living together – this is what life is about, and we cannot put it into clear compartments.”

In the end, the interviewer interviews himself with an Afterword that devotes eight pages to Steenhuisen’s own music. One very admirable section at the end of this book is the Selected Discography – a wonderful way to lead people to the composers’ works. However, not all composers interviewed are included in this section.

Linda Catlin Smith: “Christian Wolff said that in the end, everything is melody. I’ve become more melodic, and part of the reason for that is pleasure.”

Perhaps this book will inspire further interview collections with a wider range of contemporary Canadian composers, adding more to the Canadian cultural purview. Unfortunately as several of the book’s interviewees point out, writing about composers is a rare thing in our culture. Hopefully Sonic Mosaics will start to fill the void of recognition that these and other important cultural contributors - our composers - so desperately need.