Ahead of Lamb & Hayward Masterworks: Cowan, Bruch, Price we asked Claire Cowan a couple of questions as we prepare to premiere her new Cinderella Concert Suite!


You composed the score for the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 2022 production of Cinderella. What were the main considerations or challenges when adapting it into a concert suite for CSO?

A ballet suite is basically a 'best of' album for a ballet! So, the considerations were 'let's get all the favourite musical moments in there'. I looked at taking out movements that were perhaps useful for the narrative of the ballet but not as musically interesting, then sewing up the transitions between musical works that are newly neighboured.

Were there particular scenes or musical moments that you knew had to stay in the suite, no matter what? And were there any favourites that were hard to leave out?

Definitely 'The Void' as this is the key emotional heart of the ballet. It's a scene with the Prince and Cinderella dancing in a black void, unaware of each other and exploring their parallel struggles with their parents' expectations and their feelings of new love developing (not for each other!).

I had to make a few difficult choices to leave out the Stepmother’s theme, and the Dressmaker’s themes. Two thirds of the ballet is left out of the suite, so there were also scenes I had to abridge slightly. It all makes reasonable sense with what I included in terms of the story!

Cinderella’s story has been interpreted musically by many composers over time. When composing the score initially, what musical idea or themes did you want to explore that felt uniquely yours?

The score for this Cinderella stems from the feisty nature of our heroine herself, and the larger-than-life cast of characters surrounding her story. The score I wrote bends and breaks the rules about what is expected, similarly to the character Cinders (Cinderella). Cinderella is usually depicted as a somewhat helpless character who has no other dream but to marry rich. We knew that we wanted to flesh out her character and make her inspirational.

She takes her situation and (with a little magical help) turns it around. She defeats her evil stepmother by fighting her, literally, with a fire poker. This is symbolic, obviously – her name is 'Cinders' and the first time we see her is in sooty rags after she literally falls down the chimney and out of the fireplace. So, like our Cinders, our score defies expectations of a classical ballet score. It features instruments spanning as many centuries as the Royal castle – hurdy-gurdy and recorders through to 1980's game boy sounds and pumping electronic beats at the ball. There's also a Spanish flamenco influence with the classical guitar in the orchestra – flamenco is the fieriest dance of them all, and a personal folk favourite.

Were there any particular instruments or textures you leant on to bring the fairytale world to life?

Things really come alive in Act II at the Royal Ball. We decided the dancing should begin rather traditionally, with a sort of 'court dance' style, and then as people drink more and more (there are champagne towers) the dancing and behaviour gets wilder, with literal swinging from chandeliers, so too does the music gets wilder and more beat driven.

The sound of clocks ticking was a thematic device musically throughout, and when the clock strikes midnight at the ball, the music ends in a massive power-cut, leading to a moody and sonically spooky section of orchestral textures while characters search with torches for Cinderella all around the theatre.

How do you see your voice as a composer evolving with this piece? 

In all the work I do I hope to push myself in a new direction and I always aim to challenge myself musically, but at the centre of everything I do is the narrative. The story comes first, and I find creative ways of serving that purpose. I always fall in love with the characters too and really try to explore their inner thoughts and feelings, which is so important for dance when there are no words to communicate with the audience. And luckily, I get to have a say in shaping those characters and inventing them sometimes too! In this version of Cinderella, we invented 'The Royal Messenger' who becomes Cinderella's love interest, and 'The Fab Five' team of dress makers for the Fairy Godmother. Prince Dashing is another new character who becomes the love interest for Prince Charming.

For those who missed the ballet and haven’t heard the score before, can you share what they can expect?

Expect a folky, playful and surprising journey through Cinderella's story beginning with her 'Music Box' theme (which represents the memory of her mother, and harnesses the power to conjure the Fairy Godmother!), the arrival of the invitation to the ball, The Royal Messenger and the chemistry with Cinderella! Then travelling through to the forest where we meet the Prince doing some fencing practice. There he finds another mysterious Prince in the forest, and they develop a beautiful friendship – listen for the classical guitar in the Princes duet. Towards the end of Act I you'll hear the Fairy Godmother theme when the music box motif returns, and before you know it, we're at the ball!

In our version, the ball is a gaudy beauty pageant where hopeful maidens parade around in front of a thoroughly bored prince. But then the champagne comes out and the stepsisters start to swing on the chandelier – listen for the smashing of glasses, and the stepsister’s tasteless tribute to a famous moment in Swan Lake!

Quickfire!

What’s another story you’d love to compose the score for?

I would love to do Jack and the Beanstalk!

What’s your favourite fairy tale from your childhood?

Thumbelina

When you’re not composing, what kind of music do you listen to just for fun – guilty pleasures welcome!

You'll usually find me listening to some sort of indie folk or pop songwriter stuff. Artists I love - Sufjan Stevens, The Staves, Muna, First Aid Kit, Björk, SJD. Love a bit of RNZ Concert in the car though!

If you could listen to one piece of music for the first time again, what would it be?

Ravel's The Fairy Garden from the Mother Goose suite. I love it so much I had it played at our wedding.

What’s the strangest sound you’ve ever tried to include in a piece of music? Did it make the final cut?

In my first ballet I had snoring trombones. Cinderella has a 'coin collect' Gameboy sound in it. I used a dial-up modem in a piece of film music I wrote. And in my last ballet I used the sound of a badminton shuttlecock, the sound of air through rigatoni pasta, and tuned teacups. Nothing's off-limits!