Composer Anna Clyne, a radical melodist with a painter's eye
There was a time not long ago in the classical music world when melody was considered passé. Young composers making their way through academia were encouraged to leave hummable tunes behind in favor of atonal angularity, a style embraced by early 20th century modernists like Arnold Schoenberg and dutifully imposed on succeeding generations.
That era has given way to a more open-minded approach, where a composer such as Anna Clyne can thrive. The 44-year-old London native, who now lives on three rural acres in New Paltz, N.Y., believes that melody is a fundamental way to tap into emotions that connect to listeners. Two fine examples are Within Her Arms, a moving piece for string orchestra which rivals English pastoralists like Ralph Vaughan Williams in its expansive, lyrical lines and richly upholstered harmony, and her cello concerto DANCE, where the soloist makes the instrument sing sublimely, high above the orchestra.
Clyne hasn't traveled a conventional path. In college, she planned to study literature, but made a last-minute switch to music — and though she'd experimented with writing small pieces as a child, she was already 20 before attending her first formal lessons in composition. After moving to New York in 2002, she worked as a florist and flirted with investment banking. Her career sparked after she met Steve Reich, who read her scores and introduced her music to John Adams. Now Clyne is peaking: As one of the most performed living composers, she fields commissions from major orchestras and institutions, and within the past seven months she's welcomed five major world premieres, including a new piano concerto debuting March 28 with soloist Jeremy Denk and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
These days, Clyne composes in a quaint brown cottage on her property that she calls her "hobbit house." Inside are an upright piano, a table lamp fashioned out of a post horn, a large computer monitor, photographs of and and books ranging from Anthony to the Dalai Lama's . From her studio, Clyne joined a video chat to talk about the potency of melody, her newest concerto and how the pandemic is still changing music.
