Howard Goodall

Summary

‘My attitude is that I write things because I’m asked to and that I want to make them better than they’re expected to be.’

There's a sense in which Howard Goodall can be thought of as a very modern composer: he has a high media profile and a number of musical constituencies. Most readers will have heard some of his theme music for television programmes, which include Blackadder, Mr Bean, Q.I., Red Dwarf and The Vicar of Dibley. Many will have watched some of his television documentaries about musical history and theory, and many are likely to have heard some of his choral music, much of it written after he was appointed Classic FM's Composer in Residence in 2009. Fewer, perhaps, will be familiar with his work for the stage and musical theatre, even though he has been active in that field for more than thirty years.

What became obvious as soon as the following encounter began is his down-to-earth approach to the act of composing: he believes in honing his craftsmanship rather than consciously pursuing art. It's from the former, he suggests, that the latter is most likely to emerge. Before I interviewed him I was unsure whether I should refer to him as a ‘commercial composer’, but he soon used the term of himself and I imagine that he wouldn't object to the title ‘jobbing musician’. To some extent, in fact, he sees this as the historical norm for composers, even the ‘greats’ of the pre-modern era.

Seeing composition in this historical context allows him to make an unlikely connection between Monteverdi and Britain's Got Talent: ‘Monteverdi composed his choral masterpiece, the Vespers of 1610, to win a competition to become Director of Music at St Mark's Basilica in Venice, the biggest job in music at the time’, he has explained elsewhere, adding that ‘all of the famous French composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries … started their careers by entering and hoping to win the Prix de Rome composing competition’.

In keeping with the collaborative and corporate nature of his career, his regular working day is spent not at home but in an anonymous studio/office in a business centre in south-west London, surrounded by similar units occupied by accountants, architects and property management companies. When I interviewed him there in September 2014 he was relaxed, confident and talkative.