There is one guiding principle that runs through the composition of my music: it is that anything is allowed, technically or stylistically which will bring my conception of the music clearer into view. I have no qualms about juxtaposing seemingly disparate musical elements in the same piece (though the guiding principles and procedures that create these contrasting sound worlds will be linked). It can surprise the listener familiar with the tribal isms of late twentieth century western music to encounter the diversity of realms within my works.

The unashamed catholicism and range of reference in my music can, perhaps be put down to my eclectic tastes as a listener. As with other musicians born in the nineteen sixties, my love of rock and pop initiated an interest in composition as a song-writer for various bands. An enthusiasm for cello playing (ignited back in that brief, but wonderful time in the seventies, when any child who wanted to learn an instrument received free lessons) led me towards western classical chamber and orchestral repertoire. My time as a music student, cello teacher and rock musician in the eighties, along with a move to multi-cultural London coincided with the explosion in the popularity and availability of world-music - hitherto available to only the most intrepid collectors. I too, was seduced by these musics, especially the music of the Far East.

Simon Speare
composer

Email: simon@simonspeare.co.uk

"… proved to be a brassily exuberant concert overture … Skilfully layered, neatly tailored, it did what it needed to do in five minutes, then stopped. If only all new music were so concise."

Nick Kimberley, The Independent

So, when I decided to seriously study composition in the early nineties, I sought to develop a technique that would not constrain my freedom to express a wide spectrum of emotions in any way. Mine was to be a musical world in which, surprise, repetition, melody, homophony, polyphony, unusual instrumental effects and sonorities, traditional techniques and newly devised processes could all combine to form a rich palette at the service of any musical idea.

It is important to me that my music is honest, that the essence of the music is not shrouded and distorted by tricksy devices and cleverness. This is not to say that all the rewards are gained during the first hearing of a Speare work. There are layers within layers that are always revealed on repeated hearings. Whether it is music of fear, love, sadness, pain, contentment, or joy, the truth should be naked. Emotions will be stirred.