Andrew Staniland
NAC Affiliate Composer
The Interview
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What is it about Mozart's music that inspires you as a composer?
Mozart's music is attractive to me on many levels. What I find most remarkable is the purity of his unique musical language, and the elegant balance his music can attain in terms of its overall shape. -
Do you have a special musical memory from when you were very young?
I remember a time when I was about six years old. My family had an old guitar in the house that I loved to play. It was in such rough shape that it was impossible to tune. It had multi-coloured strings, which enabled me to devise a colour coded notation scheme to capture my improvisations on paper. Guitar has remained my primary instrument. -
When did you first start composing music?
My colour coded guitar compositions were not my first compositions. My family also had an upright piano in the house, which my older brother took lessons on. I also played the piano frequently, though I had never taken lessons, nor did I know how to read music: I would simply improvise and attempt (with varying degrees of success) to remember my pieces. -
How long does it take you to compose a work? Do you have a favourite place to compose your music?
The time I invest in writing a piece is variable, and in part depends on the length of the piece, the size of the ensemble, and the strength of my inspiration. It has taken me as long as one year to compose a piece, and as short as three days. A great deal of the creative process can happen sub-consciously, in between the times that I actually sit down to compose.
There is no direct relationship between the quality of a piece and the amount of time spent on it. Painters are often asked how long it has taken them to paint a work. My favourite response, from artist Eileen Raucher-Sutton, is “…it took me four hours to paint this piece, but it took over twenty years to learn howâ€.
I usually compose in my studio at home, where I have a long desk surface to write on. But there is no ‘magic' place where I need to be to be able to compose. -
What instruments can you play? Do you need to play all the instruments you compose for?
I play the guitar. I need to understand how the instruments that I write for are played but I don't actually need to be able to play them. The more experience I have writing for an instrument, the more I come to understand the mechanics and acoustics of the instrument. -
Does your music sound particularly "Canadian / Mexican / American"? If so, why?
I do not think my music has any nationalistic character to it although, I identify myself as a Canadian. -
What is the source of inspiration for your compositions?
The source of inspiration for each piece is different. The source could be an idea about the world, or it could be purely musical idea. I often find inspiration in visual art and poetry. -
What advice would you give a student who would like to compose?
I would say expose yourself to as much as you can – painting, sculpture, film, literature, politics, history, music…It is important to realize that music is inseparably linked to us and to our world. The more we are aware of and understand the world we are part of, the more we will understand art.
