For composer and pianist Chris Goddard, pursuing composition as a career came out of a desire to better understand music. After starting piano lessons at the age of seven and participating in boys choirs around this same time, he began to avidly explore music and eventually went on to study theory and composition at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. It was at this point that his musical curiosity grew even more, and as he puts it, his “fate was sealed” to become a composer.
These days as a writer, Chris explains that he’s very flexible in terms of instrumentation and prefers to have others perform his compositions – both good attributes in terms of the format of the Graham Sommer Competition. “Usually I'm energized by whatever opportunity that comes my way, whether it's for a more familiar instrumentation or not,” he explained. “Rightnow,I have a slight tendency away from pieces for solo instruments, probably because of my affinity for polyphony, but I'll likely evolve from that position.”
“It’s a weird and enlightening experience to play my own music, but for me far more is gained from hearing an outside interpretation and through collaborating with others on a score. I've learned that if a realization of your music doesn't match your expectations it's likely a shortcoming in the notation rather than in the performer's execution of the piece, so this feedback is very important. I understand the need among some of my performer/composer colleagues to be the ambassadors for their own work, but this shouldn't be required in music such as mine that I would say is quite referential or 'synthetic.'”
When looking back on his previous compositions, Chris described his evolution as a composer as very gradual. “There was never a sudden rupture from one work to the next, despite my circumstances changing quite a bit. Perhaps because of this, I already see the majority of my works asjuvenilia, and can only stand firmly behind a small handful of them today. During my training I usually felt at odds with the compositional aesthetics of my surroundings, with its residues of minimalism orspectralismor whatever, because of my inclination towards active bass lines, etc.ButI think that this was all very positive tension, and for whatever reason these days I'm feeling a bit more like a participant than an outsider.”
“In my recent work I've been experimenting with a 're-purposing' of the consonant triad into a non-tonal language, an approach that reached its culmination in a big recent chamber piece. The piano quintet [for the Graham Sommer Competition] will capture glimpses of this concept, but I'm beginning to move in a different direction. Thankfully, I have no idea where it will lead. Fornowmy ambition with each piece (whether I realize it or not) is simply to improve my writing skills – to expand the range of techniques and sounds at my disposal, to sharpen my ear for instrumentalcolour, to enhance my creative stamina – and this usually produces results that I find interesting.”
Besides being a finalist in the Graham Sommer Competition, there are many other exciting events coming up for Chris in the coming months. He’ll be defending his doctoral dissertation at the Schulich School of Music in the Fall, getting married around the same time, and Esprit Orchestra will be premiering his next piece in Toronto this upcoming January.
