Born: 1993
Nationality: British
Period: 21st Century
Genre: Orchestral with voices
Key musical elements:
- Texture / timbre
About Cassie Kinoshi
- Cassie Kinoshi is a saxophonist, composer and arranger.
- She was nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2019 and in 2018 won an Ivors Academy Award in the Best Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble category.
- As a bandleader, Cassie writes for and performs with her ten-piece ensemble seed. which features many top London-based improvising musicians.
- She is a composition graduate of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she studied with Andrew Poppy and Stephen Montague.
- She has been commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Contemporary Orchestra, Manchester Camerata amongst others.
About the music:
- the colour of all things constant is a phrase taken from Belinda Zhawi’s poem Kindness, and is the subject for the music.
- Cassie Kinoshi wanted to evoke the colour and texture of the poem through her composition.
- This piece has been written especially for BBC Ten Pieces and was a co-commission by the BBC together with the ABRSM, Music for Youth and the Royal Albert Hall.
- the colour of all things constant is composed for full orchestra and choir - the premiere with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra involved over 70 professional musicians and a 40-strong choir of 16-18 year olds!
Listen out for:
- The complex, dovetailing patterns and phrases in the woodwind. This creates a seamless and ethereal effect.
- The richness of sound when the full orchestra is playing with the full choir. Cassie Kinoshi describes how she loves the big scale of the sound in these moments.
- Can you hear the sustained notes in the choir marked as ’ssh’, instructed by Cassie Kionshi to sound like ‘a harsh burst of sound as if hushing someone’?
Watch the films
Follow Cassie Kinoshi as she describes the inspiration that led her to becoming a composer and her process of writing and recording this piece that was written specially for BBC Ten Pieces.
Cassie:My name is Cassie Kinoshi. So, I am a composer and saxophonist and that means that I spend a lot of my time practising my instrument and a lot of my time writing for various ensembles.
When I was eleven, I had the chance to perform at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Hertfordshire Schools' Gala which was lots of different children's choirs combined into one, performing with orchestra.And for me being in the centre of the sound, in the middle of the music, with all of these other childrensinging in this massive orchestra, performing epic music, was life changing.That moment was one moment that I think really cemented wanting to be a composer and a performer, because it really allowed me to understand what it was like to be part of something big.
Belinda Zhawi is a poet who writes beautiful evocative words that I’m really drawn to, to be read or to be set to music. And for this particular piece I thought she’d be a wonderful fit because she already has a background of writing lyrics and writing words that fit with music.
The name of the piece is, ‘the colour of all things constant’, which is a phrase which came fromBelinda's poem originally. And while she has created really beautifully colourful lyrics for, for this composition, I'm also exploring the colour and texture through music.
The next step in the process once establishing the subject is to just sit down and write it, which is often quite a scheduled thing once the inspiration is there for what you want to write about.
So, that means either sitting at the piano and improvising until I’ve found a particular melody, or for this piece it was singing melodies and developing the piece from what I heard in my head.And most of this was written actually at the computer after I had sort of moved away from the piano, and moved away from singing it into my phone. I would just sit at the computer and write every day and develop the ideas that I came up with, in a more organic setting.
Just trying to figure out if the phrase that Belinda has written here which is, ‘All things good: trees, rain and ocean.’ actually works with how I’ve set it.
All things good.[Sings melody]
Because I think sometimes the way I'm setting it is a little clumsy here, so I'm just trying to work outif I need to change some of this.The word good going on, [sings] good.I don't know if that works. I might change that.
I think the thing I am most looking forward to in hearing this piece performed is the scale ofthe sound. I’ve really written moments that are hugely dynamic, and you’ve got a lot of things going on so I can’t wait to hear that, moving away from computer sound and fake instruments and hearing that in real life, with the real richness of a real life orchestra and real life voices.
So, it’s been five months since I last spoke about my new piece, and we are here in Salford to see them rehearse in preparation for a live broadcast this afternoon.
Ellie:Welcome back.I'm really, really delighted to welcome Cassie Kinoshi to the rehearsal today.
Really, really good, well done.So, when we get to kindness, kindness, kindness, there, those three big statements of the word.It's the K at the front that's going to get a little bit lost, okay.If the K is full of energy and articulated, then the sound that follows will be amazing anyway.
Cassie, anything from you for that section?
Cassie:How would you feel if it’s a touch faster?
Ellie:Oh yeah, okay.
Cassie:Is that…yeah?
Ellie:That’s fine.
Cassie:Yeah, that'd be great.
I'm really looking forward to sharing this piece with everyone. Like, I put a lot of work in. Belinda also put a lot of work in, and the musicians and choir have done such a great job in rehearsal that I'm really sure that the live performance on BBC Radio 3 is going to be brilliant.
Yeah, there was a huge difference between hearing it on a computer and hearing it live.I think one of the things I love the most about composing is the life that players and performers give the music, and how everyone brings their own voice to the sound of it.
Always look forward to hearing your music have life breathed into it, and the experience of getting it out of your head and the collaboration of working with other people in making music.
I think that's one of the most important parts of music is the collaboration and the community around bringing a piece to life.
Gwyliwch y Cerddorfa Ffilharmonig y BBC a’r côr o Ysgol Gerddoriaeth Chetham’s yn perfformio colour of all things constant gan Cassie Kinoshi, a’u harwain gan Ellie Slorach
Kindness
- that silent friend who listensbefore pulling you away.
A portal the colour of all things constant -grass, sky, sunshine.
All things good: trees, rain, ocean.That act of magic, holds us togetherwith nothing but fingertips.
Ask the cracked land how kindness soundsin these times of rains that have not come.
In this drought of empathy,kindness emerges, crystal clear.
In the solidarity of a protest march,the gentle touch in a strangers' eyes.
Kindness - a bridge across chasms,for the land that holds you each day.
Thread of light, winking through chaos.
Classroom resources
Lesson plan (KS2/2nd level/Progression Step 3)
Download the lesson plan for four weeks of learning and activities for the colour of all things constant (PDF)
Powerpoint slides (KS2/2nd Level/Progression Step 3)
Download the Powerpoint slides for four weeks of learning and activities for the colour of all things constant (PPT)
KS3 / Third and Fourth Level, S1-3 Independent Lesson Worksheet
Download this worksheet for secondary level cover lesson activity to be completed alongside the intro and performance films - the colour of all things constant (PDF)
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