Joburg composer hits iTunes high note
by Eugene Goddard,
2016-02-18 15:30:43.0
AWARD-wining Johannesburg classical composer Caroline Leisegang’s debut album Øyeblikk was named by iTunes SA as the best classical composition for 2015.
Øyeblikk is a rewarding, 10-track meditation on the quality of quietude, or "moments", according to its Norwegian title. What makes it so compelling is its understated power to enchant. At first listen, its minor-key intonations are reminiscent of French minimalist composer Erik Satie.
But Leisegang prefers to reference Chopin and Beethoven, influences made apparent by Øyeblikk’s contrapuntal piano touches.
To think of her as a dissident as well, insofar as academia is concerned, is almost too hard to contemplate.
"I’m not technically qualified," she says about dropping out of a degree in music at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). "I left in my third year and then got this outrageous idea to apply for a master’s course at Trinity College of Music in London."
Ignoring the impediment of not having an undergraduate qualification, she went for an audition and got in. "Essentially I wasn’t a master’s student and yet I did all the modules and seminars, including a final composition."
Although she completed the course, the crowning glory of donning a gown and receiving a scroll decorated by degree particulars was, in the end, not hers to experience.
"I don’t see why it’s necessary to have a formal qualification that states what you’re good at," she says.
Leisegang says she didn’t really enjoy Wits and "probably learnt everything I know at Trinity. I also got accepted into ManiFeste-2015 (a Paris music academy) where I learnt more than I could have imagined."
What’s to be made then of having no official piece of paper to show for her academic efforts? Does it mean she is scared of formalising her art, losing something of the wonder of music through the demystification of analysis? "I think so," she says, adding: "Actually, I’m just lazy." Or maybe it’s creative whimsy, giving her "scatterbrained" thoughts free rein.
Leisegang recalls that Øyeblikk started when she was tapping away at a few keys in the studio at Trinity.
"I was kind of just plonking notes into Sibelius," the music software she was using at the time. "At one point I took some of it over to my lecturer and he listened to it. He said it was okay and asked me: ‘Were you thinking about what you were doing?’ I said: ‘Not really’, so he banned me from using technology. He said I must be serious about what I’m doing."
She began to concentrate on her writing, observing the minutiae and majesty of things around her, transforming what started off as idle tinkering into Himmelen II, one of Øyeblikk’s first tracks.
Watching a line of ants from her flat in London became Forstørre, meaning "to magnify".
Another moment was inspired by rain against a burnished sunset and was captured as Rød Regndråper, or "red raindrops".
She puts the Norwegian down to a kind of misanthropy.
"Music students are pompous and pseudo-intellectual. They suck thumb as much as possible and come up with the most larney titles for their compositions. So I was like, ‘You know what, if you’re going to come up with fancy nonsense, I’m going to come up with these strange titles’."
Ironically, enough, Leisegang believes the Nordic middle finger she gave her pretentious peers "actually works out really nicely because no one knows what the titles mean. Without a direct image, the music is free to speak for itself."
The titles are actually the closest Øyeblikk gets to Leisegang’s roots. It may sound like it was recorded sailing down a fjord, but its seasonal influences took root in Johannesburg, Paris and London, which, says Leisegang, were "freezing, rainy and grey" — cold enough for Øyeblikk’s largely wintry appeal.
Now, in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, SA’s youngest composer has a lot to contemplate in topping the acclaim of her stunning debut.
• Caroline Leisegang officially launched her debut, Øyeblikk, on Wednesday night during a multimedia concert at Circa gallery in Rosebank
Caroline Leisegang’s debut, Øyeblikk, was named by iTunes SA as the top classical album of 2015. PICTURE: Eugene Goddard
AWARD-wining Johannesburg classical composer Caroline Leisegang’s debut album Øyeblikk was named by iTunes SA as the best classical composition for 2015.
Øyeblikk is a rewarding, 10-track meditation on the quality of quietude, or "moments", according to its Norwegian title. What makes it so compelling is its understated power to enchant. At first listen, its minor-key intonations are reminiscent of French minimalist composer Erik Satie.
But Leisegang prefers to reference Chopin and Beethoven, influences made apparent by Øyeblikk’s contrapuntal piano touches.
To think of her as a dissident as well, insofar as academia is concerned, is almost too hard to contemplate.
"I’m not technically qualified," she says about dropping out of a degree in music at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). "I left in my third year and then got this outrageous idea to apply for a master’s course at Trinity College of Music in London."
Ignoring the impediment of not having an undergraduate qualification, she went for an audition and got in. "Essentially I wasn’t a master’s student and yet I did all the modules and seminars, including a final composition."
Although she completed the course, the crowning glory of donning a gown and receiving a scroll decorated by degree particulars was, in the end, not hers to experience.
"I don’t see why it’s necessary to have a formal qualification that states what you’re good at," she says.
Leisegang says she didn’t really enjoy Wits and "probably learnt everything I know at Trinity. I also got accepted into ManiFeste-2015 (a Paris music academy) where I learnt more than I could have imagined."
What’s to be made then of having no official piece of paper to show for her academic efforts? Does it mean she is scared of formalising her art, losing something of the wonder of music through the demystification of analysis? "I think so," she says, adding: "Actually, I’m just lazy." Or maybe it’s creative whimsy, giving her "scatterbrained" thoughts free rein.
Leisegang recalls that Øyeblikk started when she was tapping away at a few keys in the studio at Trinity.
"I was kind of just plonking notes into Sibelius," the music software she was using at the time. "At one point I took some of it over to my lecturer and he listened to it. He said it was okay and asked me: ‘Were you thinking about what you were doing?’ I said: ‘Not really’, so he banned me from using technology. He said I must be serious about what I’m doing."
She began to concentrate on her writing, observing the minutiae and majesty of things around her, transforming what started off as idle tinkering into Himmelen II, one of Øyeblikk’s first tracks.
Watching a line of ants from her flat in London became Forstørre, meaning "to magnify".
Another moment was inspired by rain against a burnished sunset and was captured as Rød Regndråper, or "red raindrops".
She puts the Norwegian down to a kind of misanthropy.
"Music students are pompous and pseudo-intellectual. They suck thumb as much as possible and come up with the most larney titles for their compositions. So I was like, ‘You know what, if you’re going to come up with fancy nonsense, I’m going to come up with these strange titles’."
Ironically, enough, Leisegang believes the Nordic middle finger she gave her pretentious peers "actually works out really nicely because no one knows what the titles mean. Without a direct image, the music is free to speak for itself."
The titles are actually the closest Øyeblikk gets to Leisegang’s roots. It may sound like it was recorded sailing down a fjord, but its seasonal influences took root in Johannesburg, Paris and London, which, says Leisegang, were "freezing, rainy and grey" — cold enough for Øyeblikk’s largely wintry appeal.
Now, in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, SA’s youngest composer has a lot to contemplate in topping the acclaim of her stunning debut.
• Caroline Leisegang officially launched her debut, Øyeblikk, on Wednesday night during a multimedia concert at Circa gallery in Rosebank
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