It’s a real pleasure to be able to present another instalment in my ongoing occasional series The Dialogues. This time, my guest is UK composer Naomi Pinnock, whose music has been a persistent highlight on my radar for the last decade or so. We’d been talking about recording this for several years, but the pandemic made it impossible, and even when we finally got together, late last year, our conversation was preceded by his and hers Covid-19 tests. Strange times. We met at Pinnock’s parents house in the north of England – where she had been staying during the pandemic – and i want to express my gratitude both to Naomi and to her parents for being so generous with their time and hospitality.
For more information about Pinnock’s work, it’s best to check out her website; in addition, lots of her scores can be viewed on her Issuu channel, and all of my previous writing about her music can be found here.
Not much of Pinnock’s output is available in recordings, so most of the excerpts that i’ve included throughout our conversation are taken from live recordings. A list of all the excerpts and the approximate times when they occur in the Dialogue are shown below, together with, where applicable, links to obtain the music.
List of excerpts
- 00:00:05 Words – III. again nothing why (on forgetting) [excerpt] (from Lines and Spaces)
- 00:09:14 Obstinare [excerpt]
- 00:15:50 Four Humours – II. Melancholia
- 00:22:38 IS – II / III. Frozen
- 00:29:45 Four Humours – IV. Phlegmatic (from Open Score)
- 00:37:09 RE-sonare [excerpt]
- 00:44:39 ukuðr – III / IV
- 00:52:23 Nostos – II
- 00:58:50 Oscillare – III. Icarius. Erigone [excerpt]
- 01:05:52 Always Again [excerpt] (from Miniaturised Concertos)
- 01:13:28 String Quartet No. 2 – II [excerpt] (from Lines and Spaces)
- 01:26:17 Fanfare for Berio
- 01:35:11 String Quartet [excerpt]
- 01:44:31 Everything changes [excerpt] (YouTube)
- 01:52:57 Lines and Spaces – Space I / Line I / Space II: On a Clear Day [excerpt] (from Lines and Spaces)
- 02:01:31 The writings of Jakob Br. [excerpt]
- 02:08:49 Between [excerpt] (from CrashLands)
- 02:16:19 I am, I am [excerpt]
- 02:23:06 Music for Europe – V. rising, rising [excerpt] (from Lines and Spaces)
- 02:31:47 The field is woven [excerpt]
Thank you for that podcast. Really inspiring and interesting interview with an exceptional composer – I listened to it in one go.
Thanks Ian, i’m glad you enjoyed it!