The Sound of the Place

Creatively barren for ten years, an English musician seeks inspiration in the places that have inspired other composers.

The Sound of the Place is an eye-opener, providing a 200-year sweep of British musical history, going back to Mendelssohn’s journey to Scotland in 1829 and plotting how this event changed the course of British composition.

Ottevanger’s observations bring alive the variety and inspirational power of British landscapes, clarifying the impact they had on composers in the past, and on him — and potentially on us as well. A tour de force.

BACKGROUND

For a decade, music teacher Luke Ottevanger found himself unable to summon up the compositional ideas he’d once taken for granted. 

Frustrated by his creative breakdown, he decided to undertake a series of journeys across the length and breadth of the UK, to visit places that had inspired some 30 British composers he admired — from Sterndale Bennett and Elgar through to Britten and Maxwell Davies. 

Timing his visits to coincide with the school holidays over five seasons, he was able to reflect on the historical links between British music-making and topography, and use that knowledge to try and restore his creative confidence.