In preparation for the announcement of the winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award we spoke to finalist Ihlara McIndoe about her piece Mirror Traps, being a composer in Aotearoa today, and sharing this experience with her husband Nathaniel Otley.
How did Mirror Traps come about? Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it and the journey to completing it.
I had been wanting to work with Hera Lindsay Bird’s poetry for a long time. Her writing is so gorgeously raw and sentimental and sharp and warm and ironic and vulnerable, and infused with delicious contradictions and perfect imperfections. Her approach to form and rhythm in particular, which embraces the excitement of abruptness created through intentional inelegance, is something I have for a long time felt a connection to as a composer. When the opportunity to write a work for Johanna Vargas and Ensemble Court-Circuit for performance at Festival de Royaumont came up, the timing felt right to explore Hera’s work in my composition, and I am grateful to her for allowing me to do so. There were multiple poems of Hera’s which I was intrigued to draw upon, but Mirror Traps really stood out to me for this particular project. The fractured lines across the page, the sense of disembodiment and fragmentation, the return of the internet buffering symbol, the constant ache of loneliness - there are so many facets of this poem that were intriguing to explore through the composition process and musical performance.
As for the journey to completing the score, I began by annotating the text, filling my photocopy with abstract notes and graphics and ramblings of ideas that might turn into musical matter. I then moved to graphically mapping out the skeleton of the work (my usual composition process), before moving to the first phases of notation. In refining the notated score, I worked with Johanna via zoom, as well as the Royaumont Foundation faculty (to whom I am incredibly grateful: Diana Soh, Du Yun, and Philippe Leroux), through various stages of revision and redrafting, including on the ground at Royaumont where I was able to spend more time exploring the full potential of the modern Sidey harpsichord, and the sonic qualities of the performance space.
Did you encounter any challenges while composing this piece? If so, what were they, and how did you navigate them?
Something that I was conscious of in this piece was keeping the text as close to its original form as possible. This is not always important to me when setting text, but felt vital in this particular project (not because of any instruction from Hera, but just because of an innate feeling I had about the text). So I had to shift my perspective a little when it came to composing. I couldn’t take scissors to the text with the vigour of a five-year-old giving their younger sibling a haircut that I might otherwise bring. At first, I was a little bit stumped about what this meant for crafting the work, and I wondered whether it would close off creative possibilities. But I think it was beneficial because it meant I had to push myself to be more creative, in different ways from what I was used to. I couldn’t rely so heavily on approaches and techniques I’d used in the past that I knew were effective. In the end, the process was even more artistically fulfilling than I imagined.
Mirror Traps was premiered by Colombian soprano Johanna Vargas and Ensemble Court-circuit from France. What was it like to work with and have your piece premiered by such high-calibre performers in the beautiful setting of Royaumont Abbey?
Yeah it was pretty great. Johanna and Court-Circuit are phenomenal. I’m so grateful to them for their enthusiasm for the project, their care during the rehearsal process, their commitment to the text (the ensemble also communicates elements of the text), and their phenomenal performance. Johanna and I emailed and chatted over zoom during the drafting process, and she shared with me an online folder of audio materials demonstrating her range, and various vocal effects she enjoys. To write for someone with such an incredible range and skillset was quite wild, and I really appreciate the time she spent in the early stages of the project discussing possibilities with me.
As for Royaumont itself, it’s a magical place. The Abbaye itself of course holds such a rich history, and is simply stunning, visually and acoustically. But I think it’s the people that really make it such an incredible place. It’s an inspiring setting to make music within, surrounded by fellow composers and performers, as well as dancers, visual artists, poets, and theatre practitioners. The team at the Royaumont Foundation, and their generous supporters, do fantastic work in championing research, dialogue, and the transmission of knowledge between artistic languages and practices.
Mirror Traps was composed using text from Aotearoa poet Hera Lindsay Bird Text. How do you approach setting an existing piece of text to music? (How does it differ from starting from scratch)
As I mentioned earlier, I took a different approach to setting Mirror Traps to how I usually approach text. I’ve composed a few works with my own text, and in those cases, I love tearing the text to pieces. I’ve also taken a kind of abstract or collage approach to setting text by other people in the past. But I felt a really strong impulse to avoid this approach for the most part with Mirror Traps, largely because Hera employs such fascinating use of fragmentation and space to begin with, which I wanted to reflect in the music. So I think my approach to composing is less about whether there is an existing piece of text or not, and more about the specific text itself, what I interpret to be its most vital qualities, how it speaks, and so on.
With Mirror Traps, the punctuation and spacing of words on the page is such an important element, so I spent a lot of time thinking about what this means for the music. The circular internet buffering symbol returns frequently throughout the poem, which I tried to embed into the work in various ways, from melodic lines which turn back inwards on themselves, to performance techniques that involve a sense of circularity (such as bowing and breathing). Punctuation as well, such as long lines of ellipses, was also something I felt was important to reflect through the music, sometimes literally through silence/suspense, other times through reinterpreting punctuation as musical articulation (i.e. staccato or percussive techniques).
Do you have a favourite moment in the piece, why is it your favourite?
I think that the journey towards the conclusion of the piece is quite special, from around the end of the fifth movement (from the line “there is something wrong with you that is also wrong with me” - I loved Johanna’s interpretation of this phrase) through to the end of the work. There’s a delicacy and sensitivity that the whole ensemble brings to the closing section of the work, especially in the final movement, which was a lot of fun to workshop together. I felt like we were so in sync with the soundworld and emotional effect we wanted to leave on the stage. Our first rehearsal of that final movement was a real “wow” moment for me. It was like, “yeah, this is what I want to be doing” as a music maker.
How does being from Aotearoa New Zealand influence the music that you compose?
I don’t really have a clear answer on this, aside from knowing that probably the most significant influences on my composition are the people who have supported my artistic growth (and continue to do so), and the opportunities I’ve had to learn and develop my craft, many of which are Aotearoa-based. My teachers at the University of Otago - Anthony Ritchie, Peter Adams, Graeme Downs, and Mozart Fellows Chris Gendall and Dylan Lardelli - were hugely influential on my composition in many different ways, and while my musical language sounds very different to that of my first teachers, I don’t think I’d be composing in the way that I do now if it were not for their early enthusiasm and encouragement.
I’m still navigating what it means to be a composer from Aotearoa New Zealand who is, at least currently, largely composing for overseas performances. I know that making art as a career is a real privilege, and one which I (for now, it seems) am in the fortunate position of being able to pursue. I worry about the state of music composition in Aotearoa, with the outright political dismissal of the value of the arts, the increasing commercialisation of creativity and the tertiary sector, and the limited number of commissioning opportunities for composers. It’s a precarious livelihood (increasingly so), being a composer, and like many people, I worry that the political and economic pressures surrounding the arts in Aotearoa risk us losing important and diverse voices in music composition. I’m trying to figure out how these concerns impact my practice as both a composer and musicologist, and the responsibilities that come with the privilege of being able to dedicate my time to musicking.
What does it mean to you to be a SOUNZ contemporary award finalist?
It’s a wonderful surprise to be a SOUNZ contemporary award finalist this year, and an opportunity I’m very grateful for. I’m honoured to be a finalist alongside Karlo Margetić (who I admire so much as a composer, and whose 2013 SOUNZ-winning work, Lightbox, has been played many times on my car stereo!) and Nathaniel Otley (who I’ve grown alongside as a composer, and who was the one blasting Lightbox and other new music through our rattly Mazda Demio speakers), and to join the company of previous finalists, many of whom have been important inspirations and mentors to me.
What is the best piece of composition advice you have ever received?
Something that was really significant was a question that both Chris Gendall (University of Otago Mozart Fellow, 2016, 2017) and Dylan Lardelli (Mozart Fellow, 2018, 2019) would pose frequently during our meetings, which was simply, “why have you done X?”. ‘X’ might have been a particular melody, texture, technique, dynamic, or anything really. But the question would come up quite frequently, and I’d often panic a bit trying to answer it! But over time, it became clear that “why have you done X, Y, or Z?” was a question of awareness. It was a question designed to get me to think about exactly what I was composing and why. And this mindset has been of immense value going forward, trying to actively think about each detail I put to paper, so that every decision has a reason behind it.
Your Husband Nathaniel is also a 2024 SOUNZ finalist, how does it feel to be sharing this experience with him?
It’s really special to share this experience with Nat. We’ve been doing this composition thing together for almost a decade (since our first year of university composition studies!), which has come with so many wonderful moments, as well as plenty of challenges. We have seen each other at our best and worst, been each other's hype-person at premieres, proofread orchestral parts at 3am, calmed each other after unideal rehearsals, baked for each other to celebrate success or to comfort after disappointment, and so on. It’s such a joy to be at a point in our careers where we can support each other as we pursue our independent projects, and share in the celebration of successes such as this SOUNZ finalist nomination. Nathaniel is my biggest support and inspiration, personally and professionally, and I feel so fortunate to be on this journey together.