Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage: My classical music doesn’t get much air time
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British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage says that his musical compositions do not get “played much” on classical music radio stations. The 64-year-old, who has created music for ballets and operas, composed the music for the opera-version of Coraline, based on the novel of the same name by British author Neil Gaiman that was made into a film.
Turnage told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs programme that “there’s a lot of opposition” to modern classical music. The Ivor Novello-winning composer said: “I remember, like, once reading, I think it was like (in) GQ magazine, where it listed the biggest turn-offs, and contemporary classical music was number one on the list.. And I was like, that was my world, and I was thinking, ‘Oh, come on, that’s sad’.
“I don’t write music… (like controversial composer Karlheinz) Stockhausen, it’s not really, really difficult music, but, still, it doesn’t get played much or at all on Classic FM.”. When asked why he thinks that is, Turnage said: “I think when people are in concerts, I think they’re trapped, or they feel they’re trapped. If you go to an art gallery and there’s a picture you don’t like, you just move away straight away.
“But if you’re in a concert where this music is being played, you’re in the middle of the row, people are polite, they don’t walk out. “So, I think people feel a bit oppressed by it. I do actually understand it, I have difficulty with a lot of contemporary classical music, obviously naming no names.”.
