Philip Miller (composer)

Philip Miller (born 7 June 1964) is a South African, international composer and sound artist based in Cape Town. His work is multi-faceted, often developing from collaborative projects in theatre, film, video and sound installations.

Philip Miller
Philip Miller composing
Background information
Born (1964-06-07) 7 June 1964
GenresFilm score, electro-acoustic
Occupation(s)Composer
Websitephilipmiller.info

Miller is currently an honorary fellow at ARC (The Research Initiative in Archive and Public Culture) at the University of Cape Town.

Education

Philip Miller trained firstly as a lawyer at the University of Cape Town and practised as a copyright lawyer. He studied music composition in South Africa with composers Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph and Peter Klatzow at the University of Cape Town Music School. He completed his postgraduate studies in Electro-Acoustic music composition for film and television at Bournemouth University. While doing so he studied with UK composer Joseph Horovitz. He then returned to South Africa to begin working full-time in music.

Collaboration with William Kentridge
Performance of Triumphs & Laments

One of Miller's most significant collaborators is the internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge. His music to Kentridge's animated films and multimedia installations has been heard in some of the most prestigious museums, galleries and concert halls in the world, including MoMA, SFMOMA, The Guggenheim Museums (both New York and Berlin), Tate Modern, London, La Fenice Opera House, Carnegie Hall and in Australia at the Perth Festival.[1]

Philip Miller in rehearsal for Triumphs and Laments

This collaboration dates back to 1993 when he wrote the score for Kentridge's film Felix in Exile,[2] part of his celebrated Soho Eckstein series. This evolved into the live concert series 9 Drawings for Projection and Black Box/Chambre Noir touring Australia, the UK, (Germany), Italy, Belgium, France and the US.

The lecture-opera production Refuse the Hour, as well as the multimedia installation on which it is based, The Refusal of Time,[3] were presented at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

2016 has seen Triumphs & Laments in Rome[4] which featured Miller's music for two processional marching bands with solo singers, choirs, musicians and dramatic live shadow play, all performed against the backdrop of Kentridge's 500 m frieze along the banks of the Tiber River.

A number of their collaborations are on tour in Europe in 2016, including Paper Music, which makes its German premiere at the Berlin Festspiele in July 2016 and The Refusal of Time at Whitechapel Gallery in London in September.

Original works

Miller's compositional process could be best described as one of re-assembly. These extracted sound and musical shards become refigured into a new sound world using layering and "sound collage" techniques. It often incorporates samples of "found sound" and recorded word texts which serve as counterpoint to the musical context in which they are embedded, intertwining both acoustic and electronic sound elements into his work.

His works reflect on his pre-occupation with using sound as a means of exploring memory, states of trauma and the re-examination of historical archive in a sound world of his creation.

These techniques and approach have been incorporated in his compositions. They include:

Rewind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony

Conceived and composed, in 2007, this became an award-winning choral work, based on the testimonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. The cantata had its international debut in New York at the Celebrate Brooklyn! festival[5] and has been performed at the Royal Festival Hall, London, Williams College 62 Centre for Theatre and Dance, the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, and Baxter Theatre, Cape Town.[1]

Dreams of Immortality

An exhibition of sculptures by Deborah Bell which showed at the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2015, which featured music and sound by Philip Miller: the chord of a single-stringed instrument, the call of a ram's horn, the sound of a violin or the chanting of a Xhosa sangoma.[6]

Anatomy of a Mining Accident

Anatomy of a Mining Accident

A small-chamber opera in which Miller explores the subterranean sound world of miners in South Africa. The focus of this work dealt with the subterranean sound world of local miners – exploring the use of localised mining language or dialect "fanakalo", a pidgin language used in the mines – and how this reflects on the current mining crisis in South Africa and the tragic massacre of 38 miners at Marikana in 2013. Composed and created in 2014 in association with Cape Town Opera and the vocal ensemble it played both in Sweden and in Cape Town.[7]

It was also installed as a sound and video installation at Wits Art Museum (WAM) as a public art project.[7]

Extracts from the Underground

The Art Museum of the University of the Witwatersrand (WAM) commissioned Anatomy of a Mining Accident'' to be refigured as a sound and video installation on the walls outside the gallery with video projections by the film-maker Catherine Meyburgh.[7]

Looking for Kovno

Part of an installation at The Kaunas Biennial (2009) (Lithuania). It used recorded telephone conversations with Holocaust survivors, which were then incorporated into the recordings of a local Lithuanian choir learning to sing an old Yiddish folk song which was popular at the time of the mass executions of Jews.

Special Boy

Selected for the prestigious Spier Contemporary exhibition in South Africa, this used old tape recordings of his voice as a thirteen-year-old boy practising his speech for the customary coming of age ceremony, the [barmitzvah], juxtaposing these recordings with his adult voice as a gay man reflecting on questions of masculinity, sexuality and religion.[1]

Can You Hear That?

Reflections on the war in Iraq for tenor, soprano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, piano, and electric piano played by Ensemble PI premiered in New York City in 2009.[1]

Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music

Miller is a contributing composer for the 2016 Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music.[8]

Music for Film and TV

Miller has worked with some of the most innovative filmmakers and visual artists internationally and from South Africa. He has composed music for the soundtracks to many local and international film and television productions. Recent film scores include Steven Silver's The Bang Bang Club,[9] which was nominated for a Genie Award in Canada; Black Butterflies,[10] which was awarded best film score at the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA). He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the score of HBO's The Girl[9] directed by Julian Jarrold, Martha and Mary directed by Philip Noyce and BBC's The Borrowers.[10] Another award-winning score is for the multi-award-winning film: Miners Shot-Down, directed by Rehad Desai.

He also composed the music for the first episode of Roots, the series premiering on A+E Studios History channel mid-2016. This historical portrait of American slavery is directed by Phillip Noyce (Salt, Patriot Games, The Bone Collector). The cast includes Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Laurence Fishburne and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.[11]

He won Best Original Music Score Award at the Canadian Screen Awards in March 2016 for The Book of Negroes[12] – a 2015 miniseries adaptation of the 2007 award-winning novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill. The miniseries stars Louis Gossett Jr. and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Awards
NominationCeremonyNotable contributorsAchievementYear
Book of Negroes (six-part series; BET/CBC)[12]Canadian Screen AwardsClement Virgo (Dir)Winner: Best Original Music Score Award2016
Mary and Martha (HBO; soundtrack)* WawelaWinner: Best Soundtrack for Feature Film2014
The Girl (Wall to Wall Productions(HBO))[13]Emmy AwardsJulian Jarrold (Dir)Nominee: Best Soundtrack for Feature TV Film2013
Black Butterflies (feature film soundtrack)[10]* WawelaWinner: Best Soundtrack for Feature Film2013
Black Butterflies (feature film soundtrack)[10]* WawelaWinner: Best Soundtrack: South African Film and Television Awards2013
The Bang Bang Club[14]Genie AwardsSteven Silver (Dir)Nominee: Best Soundtrack for a Feature Film2011
Guguletu Seven[15]AvantiLindy Wilson (Dir); Commissioned by Nick Fraser (BBC)Avanti Award in South Africa2000

* Wawela These awards celebrate South African music creators' accomplishments on the international and local stage over a particular defined period.

Albums

Miller has released several albums of his music which include:[1]

Albums
The Refusal of Time
William Kentridge's 9 Drawings for Projection
Black Box/Chambre Noire
The Thula Project, arrangements of traditional South African lullabies
South African Soundscapes
Shona Malanga

These are available online in digital recordings or as CDs.

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References
  1. "After-performance talk with William Kentridge, Dada Masilo and Philip Miller". Onassis Cultural Centre. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  2. Martinez, Alanna. "William Kentridge and Philip Miller Come Full Circle With 'Paper Music'". Observer Culture. Observer Culture. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  3. "William Kentridge The Refusal of Time, dOCUMENTA (13), 2012". Lia Ruma. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  4. Gattinara, Federico Castelli; McGivern, Hannah (22 April 2016). "William Kentridge unveils 550-metre frieze along Rome's River Tiber". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  5. Smith, Steve. "Bringing Life, Death and Sight to Sound". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  6. Sassen, Robin. "Go no further: Deborah Bell's blithe skirting with gods". My View: The arts at large by Robyn Sassen. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  7. de Beer, Diane. "A musical journey down the mineshafts". Goethe Institute. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  8. "Darmstadt Summer Course 2016: Main Focuses of the Program". Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  9. "Philip Miller: Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  10. Durbach, Dave. "Philip Miller". Music Africa. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  11. "Roots (2016 TV Mini-Series)". IMDb. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  12. Hertz, Barry. "Book of Negroes big winner at Canadian Screen Awards". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  13. "Congratulations to South Africa's Emmy Nominated composer Philip Miller". Sheer Publishing Africa. PublishAfrica. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  14. "Philip Miller nominated for a Genie Award". Sheer Publishing Africa. PublishAfrica. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  15. "The Guguletu Seven". Lindy Wilson Productions. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
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