[MUSIC] Berkeley on Bush

[rfmcdonald]

In today's Guardian, classical composer Michael Berkeley has an article describing his collaboration with Kate Bush on her song "Hello Earth", off of 1985's Hounds of Love.

Structure was carefully delineated, verses and choruses written out fully and marked up in colour, and she talked of the sound quality in the most graphic terms. Still not having been able to identify the music of the title sequence of Nosferatu or even the language it was sung in, she suggested that, if necessary, I write something similar but added that while the key of this chorus would need to relate, it could arrive as something foreign, harmonically a surprise, as though from another world. In other words, while it had to fit, Kate wanted it to sound "collaged". This superimposition of foreign sources is a technique pioneered by visionary composers like Ives and Stockhausen. I soon realised that Bush was pretty exacting on the precise fit of the "non-fit". Indeed, she was thrilled when I suggested we create our own new language for this chorus of the spheres.

It's interesting stuff, particularly when he contrasts and compares the composition methods of popular and classical composers.