If you want to pigeonhole Caroline Shaw, you are in for a struggle. The American composer kneads pop, jazz and classical into a unique, musical language. Her versatility is widely appreciated, because both classical stars such as Anne Sofie von Otter, and pop artists like Rosalía are queueing up to collaborate with her.
You are active as a composer, violinist and singer. Those worlds seem to constantly intertwine.
Caroline Shaw: “I started playing at a very young age, and I was already creating songs in my head at the age of six. When I turned eleven, I was given a music manuscript notebook in which I began to write down all my ideas in granular detail. But I kept it hidden for a long time, even from my friends with whom I played music. I didn’t know of any female composers, and I also thought that you couldn’t combine performing with composing. Of course, I know better now, and this is probably why all these musical practices are so powerfully interwoven inside me – I never see them as separate entities.”
At Bozar you are singing in at least three projects. Surely that takes considerable effort?
Shaw: “I think it’s fantastic that I can perform my own music on stage. I’m able to interact directly with musicians, and I learn from their ideas too. So it’s correct to say that I’m deeply involved – I’m certainly not standing on the sidelines and looking on. What’s more, it’s also truly thrilling to introduce more popular genres into the classical world.”
Does the way that you compose vary? I imagine that a choral work or string quartet requires a very different approach to a collaboration with the percussion quartet Sō Percussion, or the singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane.
Shaw: “That’s right. I mainly compose works for ensembles in isolation at my desk, but a collaboration with Sō Percussion demands a huge amount of dialogue with the musicians. Our new album Rectangles and Circumstance does not contain a single piece that I have composed entirely by myself. We wrote everything together. It’s true that I’m the songwriting lead, but the melodies, rhythms and harmonies come from all the musicians who have collaborated on the album.”
Does a collaboration with the Spanish pop phenomenon Rosalía work in a similar way?
Shaw: “Rosalía is a fantastic character. She doesn’t see herself as a composer, but I certainly regard her as such. And as an extremely good one at that. In our collaboration, she decides on the melodies and structures, and I then weave in the choral fragments. It is a balanced collaboration, without either of us having overall control.”
“I think it’s fantastic that I can perform my own music on stage. I’m able to interact directly with musicians, and I learn from their ideas too.”
Where do you get your most inspiration from as a composer?
Shaw: “I can literally get inspiration from anywhere, so I’m never short of it. (laughs) For my string quartet The Evergreen, my inspiration came from a tree in a Canadian forest, for example. As I was looking at the tree, a whole host of melodic ideas and sounds came to me. Classical music is also a huge source of inspiration. I have an exceptionally long playlist, above all of early music. At the moment I’m having another one of my obsessions, this time with Das Wohltemperierte Klavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. The tiniest harmonic shift in one of the miniatures can already serve as the foundational element for a new composition.”
Do you have a favourite piece of classical music?
Shaw: “That changes constantly, to be honest. Last year, An die Musik by Schubert was probably my favourite. The final track on Rectangles and Circumstance is an arrangement of that song. Schubert’s chord progressions are so exceptional, so magical, as if they contain a world of emotion. Mozart’s The Magic Flute was also a long-term obsession, but at the moment I can’t even bear to listen to it anymore. (laughs) It was on repeat for just a little too long.”
You write a great deal for voice and strings. Are those the instruments that lie closest to your heart?
Shaw: “I have a close bond with string instruments and so I absolutely love writing for string quartet. There is a wonderful repertoire for this line-up. It is also exceptionally enriching to write for four string players who are well attuned to one another. With an orchestra, you do of course have more options when it comes to instrument combinations and sound colours, but I find the construction process, in which every element must be fitted with great precision into the structure, less sincere as a result. But the most personal instrument is probably the voice, because my expressive possibilities with that are endless.”
What projects are you working on at the moment?
Shaw: “I’m working on far too many projects! Sometimes I find myself eagerly looking forward to my retirement. One of my biggest challenges for the coming years is an opera for the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, despite my having said that I’d never write an opera again. In addition, I have several composition commissions, and I’m constantly working with my partner Danni Lee on our pop band Ringdown. More than anything, I’d love to do another project with Rosalía. And if I’m allowed to put music to one side for a moment, I’d also like to spend more time on the flowers in my garden.”
This is the first time that you will be performing in Brussels. Are you familiar with the city at all?
Shaw: “When I was 22, I stayed in Brussels for a few months, and I fell in love with the city. Naturally, I visited Bozar a few times then, and it’s a truly special place. I’m greatly looking forward to the day that my music will resonate through this iconic building.”
Caroline Shaw is performing at Bozar with Kamus Quartet (30 September), Sō Percussion (26 November) and Gabriel Kahane (12 March). Roomful of Teeth (21 November) and Il Gardellino & Flemish Radio Choir (29 May) also perform works of her.
