‘I think of strings with a vocal quality’: Anna Clyne on SHORTHAND

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One of the first pieces I remember playing on the cello as a child was a minuet and bourrée by Bach, a composer who remains an important inspiration to this day. The cello has stayed with me on my journey to Edinburgh where I studied music, and then to New York City – arriving with just a suitcase and my cello – where I studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music.

Several years later, I found a violin in a charity shop for £5.99 ($7.50) - dating back to the 1800s, it was a bargain! This instrument became my muse as I went on to write several violin-based works. It also led me to taking Irish folk fiddle lessons and joining folk jam sessions in Brooklyn and most recently I used it to help write Time and Tides, a new violin concerto for Finnish violinist, Pekka Kuusisto, whom I first collaborated with during my role as associate composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra five years ago. 

During the pandemic, I explored writing for solo cello and strings in a piece called Shorthand which is inspired by Tolstoy’s quote that ’music is the shorthand of emotion’ and which quotes fragments from Beethoven’s ’Kreutzer’ Sonata, which inspired Tolstoy’s novella of the same title, as well as Janáček’s String Quartet no.1. Cellist Karen Ouzounian and The Knights premiered the chamber version at Caramoor in upstate New York, which I later expanded to a string orchestra version. This piece is the basis of my new portrait album, SHORTHAND, with The Knights and conductor Eric Jacobsen, which features music for strings and reflects decades of artistic friendships and collaborations, with soloists Avi Avital, Colin Jacobsen, Pekka Kuusisto, and Yo-Yo Ma performing the title track, Shorthand.

When I am writing music, I think about the spatial quality of the work – where the sound is coming from - from within the ensemble. Of the pieces on this album, this spatial awareness and placement is most prominent in Within Her Arms. This piece is composed of 15 individual parts and motifs dance around the ensemble. I wrote specifically where the different instruments are to be standing (or seated in the case of the lower strings) and I orchestrated the music accordingly. It’s wonderful to have an opportunity to capture this quality of the work in this recording. The piece also includes breaths which are marked in the score (in and out), and we were able to finetune these in the recording process so that they are more audible than, say, in a live performance setting.

In composing for strings, I think a lot about the physicality of gestures – where an upbow gives me the energy I want – or if I want a passage to shimmer with a sul ponticello effect for example. This understanding of how the individual bowed string instruments work in solo or as a section lies at the core of my orchestra work and concerti, and also stems from my early connections to playing stringed instruments. As part of my notation, I always write suggested bowings, and I also try to think of strings with a vocal quality. Unlike woodwinds and brass, strings don’t need to breathe in the same way, but I do always try to think of string lines as phrases and I add in rests to conjure a vocal quality. This is a signature of the solo string writing for Prince of Clouds, where Colin Jacobsen and Pekka Kuusisto bring these elements to life beautifully.

 In composing for strings, I think a lot about the physicality of gestures

Writing for the mandolin posed different challenges. Being a plucked instrument, it doesn’t sustain in the same way that a bowed instrument does, so this is something that I had to be mindful of when writing my mandolin concerto Three Sisters – employing tremolos in the solo part or trading gestures between the soloist and the ensemble to extend the phrase. In writing this work, I worked closely with the soloist and dedicatee, Avi Avital, to create the work – learning the idiosyncrasies of the instrument along the way. As part of the process of writing Three Sisters, I picked up a beautiful mandolin from Jalopy, a folk music shop in Brooklyn. My love of plucked stringed instruments is ongoing, and has included recent banjo lessons with folk musician, Bruce Molsky. I’m often inspired by folk music – be it the vocal quality of the melodic lines and gestures, or double stops and propelling rhythms. 

The creative process around the recording of SHORTHAND, which features all of the aforementioned works, allowed for a degree of experimentation, meaning that each artist could share their creative input and ideas – we all felt comfortable to make suggestions and sculpt the music together as we brought it to life. I have collaborated with recording engineer Jody Elff on many projects over the past two decades, from field- and studio-recordings to developing and implementing new technologies for orchestral composition and performance with the Augmented Orchestra (AO), the first major outing of which was at The BBC Proms at the end of July. The Knights, led by Eric Jacobsen, is one of my favorite orchestras to work with. The musicianship is at the highest level and the care and attention that they bring to my music is evident throughout these recordings. It has been an absolute joy and honour to collaborate with all of the artists on SHORTHAND and we can’t wait to share this music with you! 

SHORTHAND is released on SONY Classical on 23 August.

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