Manchester Evening News article 16 October 2015

COMPOSER Jonathan Dove has a premiere in Manchester on October 25. And not a note is written yet.

The creator of Pinocchio and Swan Hunter (both written for Opera North and performed here in recent years), and other orchestral and choral favourites, is contributing to the Manchester Science Festival with The Wave, commissioned for the occasion.

It’s at the Museum of Science and Industry and a response to artist Tania Kovats’ installation, titled Evaporation – a sculptural piece with three large metal bowls reflecting the shape of the world’s oceans – at MOSI from October 22 to the end of the following week.

The thing about Jonathan Dove’s work is that it will be improvised. He’s working with performers from the Royal Northern College of Music, and their joint creation will take place more than once during the day. Hang around long enough and you will probably hear four different pieces.

“Improvisation with community groups and young musicians is something I’ve used as part of my process of creation before,” says Dove. “But here it’s got a different purpose and character.”

Jonathan wrote music for the BBC Proms last year called Gaia Theory, which is a key to his keenness to be involved here.

“James Lovelock, the man who proposed the idea of the world as a single organism, with both animate and inanimate parts collaborating in a way that is congenial to life – which he calls Gaia – likens the process to a kind of dance.

“That’s the starting point for me. My impulse as a composer has always been to celebrate: I don’t want to use music to lecture, so even if this delicate organism is something we’re about to destroy, it’s good to see it as it is now.”

“In The Wave there will be singers and instrumentalists,” says Jonathan. “I don’t know how many, or what instruments will be available.

“I’ve obviously got quite a lot of ideas up my sleeve, but it will be very different from a composed piece. The important thing will be how each musician responds to what’s happening.”

Jonathan’s not finished with us, either. He’s writing a piece for the Hallé Children’s Choir to sing with the orchestra next summer (no tickets available yet). “It will be about the creation of the world,” he says. “So, as it happens, my next two contributions for Manchester are both on a global scale!”