Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations and Music Examples
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- I Introduction
- II Some Autobiography
- III An American Apprenticeship
- IV Writings About Music
- V Literary Connections
- VI Peter Dickinson on his own Music
- VII Interviews and a Memoir
- VIII Travels
- Appendix 1 Peter Dickinson: Chronological List of Works
- Appendix 2 Peter and Meriel Dickinson: Discography
- Index
3 - Peter Dickinson with James Jolly
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 June 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations and Music Examples
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- I Introduction
- II Some Autobiography
- III An American Apprenticeship
- IV Writings About Music
- V Literary Connections
- VI Peter Dickinson on his own Music
- VII Interviews and a Memoir
- VIII Travels
- Appendix 1 Peter Dickinson: Chronological List of Works
- Appendix 2 Peter and Meriel Dickinson: Discography
- Index
Summary
This interview with James Jolly1 for Gramophone in association with EFG International, the private bank for classical music, took place at the Garrick Club, London, on 11 November 2014
JJ The milestone we’re celebrating is the eightieth birthday of composer, pianist, scholar, teacher, author and Gramophone contributor Peter Dickinson. I asked him if it was difficult juggling the various strands of his musical life.
PD There were times when I had so much of my own work to do that I checked out of the academic system, mostly in the 80s, when I had a high profile – The South Bank Show did a feature with Melvyn Bragg; the Piano Concerto was in the Proms; the Violin Concerto was a BBC commission. Before that it was possible within a teaching job to find time for composition, as long as you don't insist on writing too much music. I like to think of composers who consider what they do carefully and don’t churn it out. Elliott Carter seems to be a model of how to spend a year on a good piece.
JJ As a teacher did you find it stimulating for your own composition to spend time with young musicians?
PD Yes, I did. But the further up you go in the academic hierarchy, the more time you have to spend on administration. I had a big department at Goldsmiths, University of London; less so when I was teaching at the College of St Mark and St John, then in Chelsea; then at Birmingham University, in the Extramural Department where we put on courses for adults. I was able to pioneer a weekly programme where people came on Tuesday to study the music being played by the CBSO on Thursday. This was very rewarding. It gave me an interaction with people and I had that too in my career as a pianist with my sister, mezzo-soprano Meriel Dickinson. We did all-Satie programmes, with readings, round the festivals, which we recorded and broadcast; then we did single poet programmes in the Purcell Room and for Radio 3 – settings of Joyce, Auden, Stevie Smith, E. E. Cummings. [See Plates 3 and 5.] I’ve always had a strong literary bent as you can tell from my song cycles. All these things add up.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Peter Dickinson: Words and Music , pp. 258 - 264Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2016