ACNMPIn our new blog series, Canadian Composers Interview with ACNMP board member and organist Matthew Boutda, we endeavour to illuminate the artistic process of select working composers from across Canada.
Alex Eddington is a composer, theatre artist and arts educator based in Toronto. Alex has had his music commissioned and performed by a diverse list of musicians, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Continuum Contemporary Music, junctQín keyboard collective, Da Camera Singers, violinist Contrad Chow, and singers Kristin-Mueller-Heaslip and Derek Kwan. His music has been performed across Canada, in parts of the USA, and as far away as Poland and Taiwan.
His many pieces for young musicians includeLiving Soul, which was premiered by over 100 students of the Suzuki String School of Guelph. Alex was commissioned by the TSO and Mississauga Symphony to composer Dancing About Architecture, a two-minute “sesquie” fanfare for the 150thanniversary of Canada’s Confederation in 2017.
Matthew: Would you mind sharing a few words about your personal and musical background?
Alex: I grew up taking piano lessons, and later got serious about trombone. I don’t come from a musical family, although my mom had a lovely singing voice. I went to U of T as a trombonist, but intending to move into the composition stream in second year. Played trombone professionally, but chose to stop playing by 4th-year U of T partly because of an injury, partly to focus on composition. Then I went off backpacking in the U.K. for a year. Then I got a Master’s degree in composition from U of Alberta.
Matthew: What inspired you to composition?
Alex: I got interested in repertoire really early – listening a lot to Beethoven and Bach during high school, and learning their pieces on piano. Loving music made me want to make my own. I also believe that for some composers, we want to bring order to the sounds of the world.
Matthew: What makes your works different from others?
Alex: I’m pretty open in terms of style or genre. I’m not concerned about always sounding either “experimental” or “classical”. I use the toolbox or soundworld that works for a particular piece. The piece is what it is. There’s almost always something from outside that comes into my music: a text, a location (building or land feature etc.), a sound from nature, or quotations of other music. I’m a theatre artist as well as a composer, so I believe I think about story, and audience, and dramatic/comic tension, more than most composers.
Matthew: For beginners learning how to compose, what advice do you have for them?
Alex: Listen to everything and find what you love. Then listen to more of it. Spotify is built for this kind of listening, so is SoundCloud, so are parts of YouTube. YouTube has channels with scores of recent pieces scrolling along with the music, which is amazing.
Matthew: How can more people be exposed to Canadian music?
Alex: The Canadian Music Centre is such a good resource for scores and recordings, plus the albums that they produce are available online. I wish that more young students of music would learn Canadian repertoire. The RCM piano syllabus has included quite a bit, but the ACNMP fills a very important gap here through the Contemporary Showcase syllabus.
Matthew: Are you currently working on a new composition?
Alex: Yes! I’m chipping away at a track for an album of my vocal music – a collaboration with soprano Kristin Mueller-Heaslip who I’ve been working with for 17 years now, ever since my undergrad. I’m also feeling inspired to write more choral music, so I’m reaching out to choir directors at the moment.
Six works by Alex Eddington are included in our Contemporary Showcase Syllabus including ‘So Joab Blew A Trumpet’ for solo trumpet (CLASS 2003D Advanced). Below is a performance of the work.