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Appraisal Extract from an Appraisal by Michael White When Benjamin Britten famously declared his intention to be ‘useful’ and to be to the ‘living’ he throws down a gauntlet that not many – and certainly, not enough – composers of our century have taken up. There has never been a time when serious new work seized the interest of so small a segment of the listening public; never a time when composition was so specialised in its address. But that said, there are composers around who have clearly thought about what it means to be of ‘use’, and about what it takes to reach a wide, ‘living’ audience (without resort to doggerel). They tend not to be composers at either the hard edge of the avant-garde or the gilt edge of fashion, but they work on with an integrity that sooner or later attracts notice. Richard Blackford is a good example: a composer who picked up Britten’s gauntlet at early age and has carried it through every twist and turn of a remarkable career. Like Britten, Blackford is a literate composer, drawn to words and drama. Mirror of Perfection, a cantata geared to be performable by both proffessional and amateurs, sets texts by Francis of Assisi with a deep and eloquent simplicity appropriate to the subject. Its enduring stature has, I think, been confirmed by subsequent performances, the Sony recording and the BBC film. When I reviewed the Mirror Of Perfection in The Independent on Sunday, I wrote that there is a need for this kind of music and not enough composers of consequence around who seem willing or able to meet it. I stand by the view. It’s not that Blackford is a populist – if he were, he’d be less interesting – but he is a composer who wants to be enjoyed by a wide audience and knows how to do it. He engages listeners and players at all levels of sophistication. If more composers had that 360 degrees reach, the future of music would be brighter than it sometimes seems. MICHAEL WHITE 1999
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