Get to know the composer behind the music.
Long read
“When you compose, there’s all sorts of bodily sensations that go on. I feel music, I feel an orchestra, I feel chords”
This month we are putting Marc Yeats in the spotlight. Marc is a composer, a painter and an artistic practice researcher.
Listen
We visited Marc in his Dorset studio to uncover what it’s like to have coexistent careers as a composer and as an abstract landscape painter.
You are invited to enter his unique creative world encompassing music and art.
Keep reading for a deep dive into Marc’s work with a series of interviews filmed at his studio in Dorset.
Paintings by Marc Yeats
Interview background music is In Memoriam: Gordon Crosse by Marc Yeats
Discover how the chalk downland landscapes in the south of England inspire Marc’s creative practice. Experience how he translates what he hears into visual art, and what he sees into sound.
“I’m passionately involved with both painting and music. They are central to my life.”
Music, art and landscape
Being in the landscape generates and amplifies Marc’s creativeness, with each interaction translated into a piece of music or an artwork.
“It’s as if stuff comes in and it goes out into both music and painting immediately. There is no distinction”
In this video Marc talks about the visual imagery that listening to music evokes and how from a sensory perspective, there is no separation between creating art and creating music.Watch music and art interact…
In this video Marc demonstrates a creative mark-making technique – Drawing to Scoring – to show how he moves between drawing, painting and composition by embodying what he hears, and responding to the sound.
…then try it yourself!
Watch as Marc guides Sonia Stevenson, Head of Music Patron through the technique (drawing along to Carl Neilson’s Symphony No. 2), then have a go yourself!
All you need is paper, a pen and some music. This could be a piece of music you like, or better still something completely new to you.
Shapeshifter (2015)
Watch a performance of Marc’s piece Shapeshifter, concerto for E-flat clarinet and chamber ensemble. Recorded live from 2015 soundSCAPE Festival, Maccagno, Italy.Why landscape?
“All I know is that from a child I was drawn to [the landscape], like iron is drawn to a magnet”
Marc – now also known as Dr Yeats, having been awarded his PhD in music composition (practice-led) from the University of Leeds in 2021 – is ⅓ of SATSYMTH, a collective bringing the landscape alive with interactive, spatialised soundscapes.
He is currently researching and writing a book: ‘Music, Painting, Landscape and Me’.
‘Music, Painting, Landscape and Me’
Written from his unique dual position as composer and painter, and through inviting fellow artists to give their own perspective, Marc’s book aims to “demystify, disentangle and clarify” what inspires his – and others’ – creative thought.
“Many of the questions I’m asking myself are universal to all artists…I may not be able to fully answer the questions I have posed for myself but hope that this inquiry, journey and the eventual book will provide some useful insight for all of us on a similarly questioning path.”
In Memoriam: Gordon Crosse (2022)
Take a moment to immerse yourself in this slow-moving multimedia piece, created by Marc in memory of his dear friend, colleague and composer, Gordon Crosse.
“The video comprises footage of the sea filmed at Covehithe on the Suffolk coast, a favourite haunt of mine and a special place Gordon would visit, often with his family, in former years.”
The music – created from various acoustic samples and sound-producing synthetic devices – exists only in its video format so the visual images and sounds go together to make a complete artwork.
“This area of coastline and east Suffolk holds a special place in my affections with several string quartets and numerous paintings being produced either on location or subsequent to visits there.”
Listen. Watch. Read. Connect.
For more interviews, video and music content visit Marc’s Music Patron page.
Explore the British Music Collection
You can access the series of videos accompanying Marc’s research for his book ‘Music, Painting, Landscape and Me’ via the British Music Collection websiteContinue your Music Patron journey
We hope you’ve enjoyed exploring Marc’s multi-faceted world. This kind of connection is Music Patron – a meaningful opportunity to discover more about a composer’s world, and feel the impact of supporting new music creation.
