Ryan Francis: On Composing

This is part of our composer series on Ryan Francis. In this post, Ryan talks with Metropolis Ensemble's Artistic Director, Andrew Cyr, about his compositional background.

Conceptual inspiration abounds in the music of composer Ryan Francis. Although Maurice Ravel and Gyorgi Ligeti are not two names you normally hear uttered in the same breath together both share an intellectual playfulness and compositional intrepidity that Ryan identifies with.

An example of Ryan's playfulness and engagement with new materials and ideas is his orchestral White Deep Blue, which opens with an exact acoustical rearrangement of the '90s electronic hit Pearl's Girl by Underworld and continues into his own compositional flourish.

The visual arts also translate into Ryan's music on both abstract and more literal levels – one example being the reinterpretation of Joan Miro's canvas Woman Bird and Star into an eponymous musical piece.



Music credits: Maurice Ravel, Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé "Soupir", Dawn Upshaw, soprano; Nonesuch: B000005J0T. Gyorgy Ligeti, Violin Concerto, InterContemporain Ensemble, Saschko Gawriloff, violin, Pierre Boulez conductor; Deutsche Grammophon: B000001GLN. Underworld, "Pearl's Girl"; Tvt: B000003RJN. Ryan Francis "White Deep Blue", The Juilliard Orchestra. Ryan Francis "Woman Bird and Star", The Juilliard Orchestra. Special thanks to Ania Dabrowski.