Melissa Smey in conversation with composer Matthew Martin on writing for The Tallis Scholars

Q. How did you first come to know Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars?

A. The Tallis Scholars are very famous of course, but my first experience of their work was while I was at school as a teenager. There were various tenuous connections to the ‘old’ Oxford choral scene of the 1970s and 80s through a couple of schoolmasters—one of whom had a collected edition of John Sheppard’s works from his Oxford days (edited by David Wulstan). He had obviously come across all that through knowing about ‘The Clerkes of Oxenford’ and had set about transcribing some of the motets for us to do in the school choir. Around about the same time, The Tallis Scholars released a new recording of a chunk of John Sheppard, and so this extraordinary music really became the soundtrack to my teenage years!

Q. This is your second time composing for The Tallis Scholars, they commissioned you to create Lamentations of Jeremiah in 2016. Are there ways that experience informed this new commission?

A. Yes, certainly. The Lamentations piece was very ambitious and rather experimental in style—and they did it brilliantly, of course. But I have learned since then that sometimes the simple ideas are the best ones!

Q. How did you decide Salve Regina would be the text for this new commission from Miller Theatre?

A. It was really both Peter and I who decided that a Marian text could work well for this—and, principally, might be useful in the future. I think we were also considering the timing of the December concert in New York (Advent) and what could chime in ‘quasi-liturgically’ with that. We were also thinking along the lines of some of the great ‘Eton Choirbook’ settings of Magnificats and antiphons—and wondering if something of that scale could work well. Not that my piece could be anything approaching the masterly craft of those pieces— but good to have something to aspire to!

Q. You’ve devoted your career to studying, creating, and sharing music. In what ways is the medium of vocal ensemble meaningful to you?

A. I think that at the root of so much music of all kinds is singing—and the voice—almost whatever the medium. Certainly, for me, singing and choirs have been part of my life for (almost) as long as I can remember. It’s really the sheer variety of the music and choirs – made up of an almost infinite variety of individual voices and personalities—that makes every commission and performance so different. Add to that the many different buildings in which we perform—from giant cathedral to dry concert hall—and you almost never get a performance which sounds the same. The sheer breadth of expression of the human voice inspires me—whether it’s solo or simple polyphony, to the full force of the Dies Irae in Britten’s War Requiem!

Q. Are there contemporary influences for your approach to vocal polyphony?

A. Yes, definitely. As mentioned above, I was lucky enough as a youngster to be exposed to what one might describe as a particular style of ‘early’ vocal music—Byrd, Tallis, Tye, Palestrina, Sheppard, etc.—so that always feels like a core to my musical make-up. But it wasn’t long before I got seriously into a lot of 20th-century (and other!) non-choral music too—particularly Britten, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Walton, etc. You may wonder how that all influences the way I approach choral writing, but it certainly does—particularly in terms of architecture, form, and approach to writing lines. I always feel that harmony and counterpoint are inextricably linked: counterpoint is harmony—and even when I’m essentially writing a chordal or mainly ‘harmonic’ passage, it’s often drawn out of lines and how they interact with one another. Good part-writing is essential, and if studying Palestrina was good enough for Mozart and Schubert, it’s good enough for me!

As far as ‘modern’ choral music goes, I really admire the work of (particularly) Kenneth Leighton, James MacMillan (who was taught by Leighton), and Judith Bingham—and all three have been influential in their different ways.

Q. Some ensembles consider the venue as an additional member of the ensemble. Is this a factor you consider while composing?

A. Yes, it can make a huge difference to how a new piece is received (and composed). I will always consider the space (and general occasion) for which a new work is intended—but not too much! It’s important for new works to be useful and to live beyond the first performance and for other groups in different spaces. So, for a work to live or die based on the acoustic of a building (or even a particularly expert choir—as is the case here) is potential folly, I think. This new Salve Regina is an example (I hope): it will ideally sound at its best in a generous acoustic with a brilliant group of singers, but there is space built into the music for a drier building, plus flexibility in the vocal writing to allow for less expert choirs to take it on. So, I hope that it could work in a small church or concert venue too. As with most new compositions, time will tell…