Sarah Class on composing for documentaries and the coronation
6 min read
Musician Sarah Class tells us where she draws her inspiration from in her compositions, and the story of her composition for King Charles III's coronation
Sarah Class is an award-winning composer and a singer-songwriter. She has composed pieces for documentaries by David Attenborough including Madagascar and Africa, and has been nominated for Emmy and Classical BRIT Awards for her work.
She was one of the few musicians chosen to compose a piece for King Charles III's coronation; they have worked together previously on projects concerning their mutual love of the environment. Her latest release, "The Saviour in the Shawl (We Still Sing)", was recorded with the BBC Orchestra and Singers, with lyrics by Grahame Davies focusing on environmentalism and modern society.
Sarah tells us how her love of both the environment and of music began, where she draws her inspiration from in her pieces, and how it led her to compose "Sacred Fire" for the coronation.
How did your passions for environmentalism and music begin?
Sarah's love of music and the environment stems from her upbringing on the Isle of Wight (credit: Altaf Shah (Pexels))
My dad is a great nature lover
and runs a nature reserve. He was a biologist, and he got me and my sister into
loving nature. We grew up on this nature reserve on the Isle of Wight. It's a
very beautiful place, being on the island you’re surrounded by water, and he was
always getting us to identify plants and wildlife. My love of music comes from
him as well: he taught me piano when I was very young. I think having that childhood
probably informed my whole life.
What do you think is the relation between music and nature?
Both have this transcendent
nature, or the ability to take you someplace else and to lift your mood. Both
have a vibratory quality; when you go to nature, if you're on top of a mountain
or by the ocean, you've got these negative ions that make you feel elated. And
it's the same thing with music—music can be destructive, but at the same time,
mainly, it's uplifting, and you resonate with it. There's a spiritual quality in both.
"There's a spiritual, uplifting quality in both music and nature"
Nature is the most amazing,
creative thing. When you look at nature, and you start to analyse a small petal
of a flower, for example, or the most interesting aphid, you think, "wow, this
has been created"! We're all creators. There’s a massive correlation between the inventiveness of music and the inventiveness of nature.
What inspires you when you compose for TV and film?
For me, writing music is like a
spiritual download. I think I'm a very empathetic person anyway and tend to
feel too much, which is a great thing in music, but not as great when you're
trying to navigate your way through life. But I think it's good because you,
you absorb the sense of a scene, whether it's dialogue there, or there's
nothing —silence is just as important as music.
You go into another world, and
then suddenly, what comes out is music, and you sometimes find that it almost
comes through you. And you think, "gosh, did I actually write that?”
because it comes from another place. You always hope that you've captured the
scene—for example, you might have a chase sequence with people fighting each
other. The director might like a heavy guitar score underneath strings or some
jazz elements; you also have to keep them happy. It's multidimensional.
A script can inspire you. Sometimes,
the director will have some music there already, and they say, “we really
love this music, but we don't like this bit”. I try to listen to that music
once —if it's inspiring, great, if it isn't, I will go back to the scene with
the sound muted and then just feel what's happening in the scene.
Instruments and ideas will come
to me, like "oh, perhaps that's more of a flute" or a duduk, and then
a sense of place. That's another thing: you don't always need to compose a
sense of place of where the culture is, particularly with animals. It's more
about the emotion of the scene.
Do you have a favourite animal or natural phenomenon to compose for?
I adore epic scenes: I love the feeling
of expansive aerials, and beautiful shots of oceans, mountains and woodlands that
have a kind of pace to them. Those are moments where the music can really come
into its own, set a scene and speak.
"Epic scenes are moments where the music can come into its own and speak"
I love all animals. I think hares
are beautiful and very mysterious animals, but I don't think I've actually ever
written for one! Birds are inspiring because they have a flight, and that’s
very uplifting —the music can just take off like the birds. Whales and dolphins
are also beautiful animals to write for.
You’ve worked with King Charles III on several occasions, and he chose you to write a piece for his coronation. How did that come about?
I heard about his Terra Carta project, which is about placing nature in the heart of the private sector and bringing people
and nature together; I thought it sounded really forward-looking and he was
doing great things with it that were making big changes. I also work for as
ambassador for the World Land Trust, and I raise awareness of their campaigns
and conservation through my music and by writing pieces for them.
"I wrote King Charles a letter; it was a bit of a shock when he wrote back!"
I wrote him a letter saying that I
had met him when I was 14 (when he opened our school), and that since that
time, I had become a composer. I explained about my work with World Land Trust,
how I felt the emotion in music could sell conservation, and that I would love
to help somehow with this project. It was a great delight and a bit of a shock
when he wrote back about six weeks later, saying that he too believed in the
power of music to convey the message of conservation, and that it would be wonderful
if I could write a theme tune for the project.
I wrote a piece that ended up
being called “Rhythm of the Earth (Terra Carta Theme)”, which he really loved,
and I managed to get some Arts Council funding for the whole album, with
another piece for the World Land Trust. I got to meet him at COP 26, where they
premiered the video of “Rhythm of the Earth”. And that's how I eventually got
to work on the coronation, which was amazing.
What inspired you while writing your coronation piece, "Sacred Fire"?
The lyrics were inspiring and
very beautiful; they’re about love, with a lot of imagery from the Bible. They
were written by Grahame Davies, who’s an amazing poet, writer and lyricist, and
he sent me them the day after I found out I was one of the composers for the
coronation. So, I got the idea almost immediately.
In addition to that, I was told
that Pretty Yende, the opera singer, was going to be asked to sing, and I was already
thinking that I could hear the song for a high operatic voice. But the amazing
thing was that I'd looked up Pretty in lockdown because I was thinking, "I
would love to work with this girl". Then, serendipity had it that we ended
up working together and she sang the piece, which was a very special moment.
This Christmas you released a new Christmas carol called “The Saviour in the Shawl (We Still Sing)”. Why did you feel like this was the right time in your career to release a Christmas song?
The lovely Grahame Davies sent me
a Christmas card in Christmas 2022 with the poem “Saviour in the Shawl” inside,
and I remember reading it and thinking it was so heart wrenching. It had this
beautiful poignancy to it, and I just thought it would make a beautiful
Christmas carol.
There was no premeditation of,
"right, I'm going to do a Christmas carol, because that's what you do for
Christmas", which I think was really nice, because it has to be a natural
unfolding and inspiration-wise, it felt right to release it this year. Grahame
and I have a really good synergistic working relationship. I find that he manages
to express these very subtle feelings, but at the same time, very big topics
and questions, and put them in a song so beautifully.
What projects are on the horizon for you in 2024?
Sarah Class is working on an album to be released in 2024 (credit: Stuart Bennett (Deacon Communications))
At the moment, I'm working on a
new album; the carol was the beginning of it, actually, and I have also
recorded a lot more with the BBC Concert Orchestra. That's hopefully coming out
in the spring of 2024. I'm working with different artists as well as myself on
that, singing and playing, so it'll be a mixture of classical crossover with
some choral as well. It'll be an interesting thing. There's a possible
documentary feature film coming up, and some other things bubbling!
Banner photo: Sarah Class talks about her love of nature and how she harnesses inspiration for her compositions (credit: Stuart Bennett (Deacon Communications))
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