CAROLINE TYLER

How did you get into composition?
I don’t remember a time not being interested in making music, having always messed about on instruments and been in choirs and music groups as a child, and writing music for school theatre productions when I was a teenager. I specialised in solo piano performance at music college and was offered a double principal study with composition, but found the workload of piano (all the technique, memorisation and performance) so demanding that composition definitely took a back seat while I learned how to be a professional instrumentalist. I still made some solo piano arrangements; they need a lot of creative decisions and this eventually led me naturally into making more of my own music again, especially during the pandemic when I wasn’t performing. Instead I made a little shop called Composify where I sold piano music as gifts by turning the letters of people’s names into music notes, and making original piano miniatures from that data. Then I got more into making music for other musicians to perform, and was lucky enough to get commissioned as well as responding to some calls for scores, and have gone from there while performing again and including more of my own music.

What sort of music do you like to write?
I’m still discovering this. An overarching thing I’ve always thought is that music is about creating order from chaos, so it needs a discernible thread to follow. I’m excited by connection and interplay, and layering of ideas. I’m interested in how the instrument affects the music; though I do believe in the value of arrangement, it needs to change with the instrument. I like music which feels alive, has a sincere and natural emotional connection, or something about it that makes it feel well thought-out. Anything that becomes random-sounding makes me immediately switch off, so I don’t write in that style. But the opposite is also true when it’s too predictable or repetitive, so I’m finding my own balance point along that spectrum. I still haven’t reached the end of my attachment to major tonality and have come to terms that I might never. At the moment the concept of time really fascinates me, partly because I’ve been reading material about the nature of time by the physicist Carlo Rovelli who writes for people like me who don’t know much about physics, so I’m interested in how the listener perceives the passing of time via musical and rhythmic effects. I definitely don’t always achieve all the things I want to yet, but that’s where my interests are at the moment.

What excites you most about being part of Opus 1?
Playing with ideas, working with wonderful musicians, getting inspired by hearing what other people are doing, learning, meeting new people and writing new music. There are a lot of demands on my time so I need to know who or what I’m composing for; it’s a really important thing for me personally and psychologically to have contact, a brief, a timeline, and an endpoint.

What 3 pieces of music would you have on your desert island?
1. The complete Bach violin and cello solos in sheet music form, bit of a cheat but essential, plus I could kill time arranging them all for solo piano

2. Something long and complex and new I’ve not yet heard

3. Mozart's Laudate Dominum (the recording with minimal vibrato in the soprano voice), it simultaneously breaks and heals the listener.

What is the best snack?
Can’t go wrong with a cup of tea and biscuit or five.

Caroline graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with honours as a pianist and won various competitions, allowing her to perform all over the UK and abroad including venues such as Barbican, London and Martinu Hall, Prague. Her favourite repertoire to perform includes sonatas by Prokofiev and concertos by Mozart and Rachmaninov, her own arrangements and compositions, and other new music. Recent collaborations include performances with the Piccadilly Sinfonietta in London, Ensemble Reza in Sussex, and the Guildhall Session Orchestra and Session Singers. Piano arrangement has been a natural gateway into composition, with arrangements featured in BBC Music Magazine followed by success in calls to scores in choral, instrumental and piano music, with some original music published by ABRSM and EVC Music.