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Sally Beamish - Composer
Sally's work is performed & broadcast extensively. She composes vocal, choral & orchestral music. She lives near Aberfoyle, Forth Valley and was a Guide."Creating something can heal the deepest hurts, and make you feel happy and confident."
I have written several pieces inspired by Orkney - particularly The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone, a concerto for saxophone and orchestra, which is about Maes Howe, the ancient tomb where a shaft of light penetrates only once a year, at the Winter solstice.
I am writing a stage musical at the moment for my local
Theatre Company, who put on a musical every year. My
daughter Stephanie, who is 10, loves singing, and I
particularly wanted to write a musical with children
in it.
It is about a family's struggle in the Highland
Clearances - losing their home, having to work in a
Glasgow spinning mill, and then emigrating to Canada.
I would love to write a ballet, because I am fascinated
by the stage. The problem with opera, and sung words,
is that you can't always hear them properly.
But with
dance, you understand everything from the movements
on stage, with no words at all. Sometimes I think I
would like all my music to be danced to, just to help
the audience to understand it straight away.
I trained as a viola player and pianist, and both have
been enormously helpful to me as a composer. Through
the viola, I have learnt about what it feels like to
play in an orchestra, and I have worked with musicians
who play all the other instruments, so I've learnt from
them too.
And the piano was my first instrument - it's
great to be able to play the piano because it's complete
in itself, and you can bring a piece of music to life
immediately.
I think it was the badges that attracted me to the Guides. I joined quite late, when I was 13. When I joined, no-one in my Guides troop had ever done a badge, so I started a craze, and we all worked through one after the other. I was pleased to get my Signaller's badge, which meant learning Morse code and semaphore, because my father was in the Signals during the war. He helped me a lot with it. I can still remember some of the letters.
Don't worry about whether what you're doing is 'any good' or not. Just keep going with your ideas.
But do listen to advice from people you respect, and try and imagine what it would be like to play the music you are writing. Are you giving the players clear instructions?
My mother is a violinist (she still plays professionally at the age of 78!) and because of her, I never thought it was strange to want a career in music. She taught me to read and write music when I was four, before learning to read words, so in a way it is my first language!
I have written lots of pieces for my children, but men do that too! I don't think it's any different
being a 'woman composer' - the trouble is that because it wasn't seen as a woman's job in the
past, very little women's music has survived.
Lots of girls become players these days, but they still have trouble seeing themselves as composers,
because they think of composers as male!
I think the most important thing in my life is being creative - to be able to make something out of an experience or a feeling.
I hope she finds a language she can use to do this, whether it is art, writing, dance or composing. Creating something can heal the deepest hurts, and make you feel happy and confident.
To find out more about Sally please see Scottish Music Centre
