Biography


Forming

John Duggan was born in South London in 1963. He began learning the piano at the age of five. At age eight he won a place at Westminster Cathedral Choir School. In his interview, John was asked why he wanted to come to the school, to which he replied ‘to get away from my sisters’, which so impressed the headmaster that he awarded John a scholarship. His time at the school left a deep and lasting impression:

‘We sang in the Cathedral once, sometimes twice a day. This daily practice of singing together was devotional and deeply spiritual and the seed of an idea was sown – that performance is an act of service, and that making music is at once a singularly human act and something that lifts us beyond our daily humanity.’

John blossomed at Westminster, first as a soprano, then an alto. Early on, the then Master of Music, Colin Mawby, remarked in an end-of-term report:

‘John has considerable potential. He has a pleasant voice but must stop singing out of the side of his mouth…’

At the Cathedral the repertoire was predominantly Renaissance music – Victoria, Palestrina, Byrd and Tallis amongst others – but also twentieth century composers such as Howells, Elgar and Britten, and a nod to other centuries in the form of Purcell and Mozart. But it was the daily singing of plainsong that had the most profound effect. The simple modal lines, unmetered rhythms and melismatic melodies stretch back to the days of the early church, before notation was formalised. From early on, John harboured the desire to become a composer himself. An entry from his diary in June 1976 reveals:

‘Fairly enjoyable day. Tell Bevan, Pugh and a friend that I’m going to be a composer and I’m going to write my autobiography. Mr Pugh laughs at me.’

In 1976 John moved on to school in Wimbledon where he continued to sing and learned the clarinet, bassoon and drum kit. The bassoon particularly was the passport to a new world of orchestral music: with only a handful of notes under his belt, John was accepted into Merton Youth Orchestra.

‘I think the first piece we did was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. I couldn’t play half the notes and it was a challenge just to follow my part, but the experience of sitting in the middle of an orchestra was spellbinding and absolutely thrilling.’

In 1981 John secured a place at Keble College, Oxford, to read music. It was a largely undistinguished academic experience. He continued to play the bassoon, and to sing in the chapel choir and enjoyed playing drums and singing in pop and jazz bands, but the rigour of self-disciplined study went largely untried except in harmony and counterpoint, where his tutor, Eve Barsham, by turns encouraged him and scared him into working hard. In his final year, he took the option of studying electronic and acoustic music and wrote a dissertation on Peter Gabriel.

‘The first time I met Peter I hitched down the M4 one evening, slept in a wood by the A46 and arrived at his studio early the following morning. He made me breakfast and was very welcoming and generous with his time. He’s been a huge influence musically and in many other ways.’

Storming

On leaving university, John went touring with the folk-roots band Raindance, playing around the UK, France, Germany and Hungary. He started a PA company and, for a decade, worked in recording studios and as a live-sound engineer – for the likes of Ride, Supergrass, Radiohead and The Manic Street Preachers. ‘I told the Manics they were too loud and that we couldn’t hear the vocals properly, but they were unable to act on my advice.’ It was a testing time:

‘It’s easy to look back now with hindsight and make some sense of what I was doing – I gained a huge amount of experience in sound manipulation, acoustics and recording and met some brilliant people along the way, many of whom became good friends. But the work was really badly paid, with long unsociable hours in dark, hot and sweaty places with very, very loud music and lots of alcohol. It got a bit scary sometimes. In the end I began to feel really burned out, I started hating the music and decided to get off the scene. After that I listened to almost nothing for two years …’

Salvation came on two fronts: the first a collaboration with drummer and programmer, Romilly Dobbs, which blossomed into the electronic collective, Restless Blue and the second in the form of The East Oxford Community Choir directed by founder, Mel Houldershaw. John joined as a tenor and, encouraged by the enthusiasm and sense of adventure in the choir, soon began writing for them. The first piece he wrote for the choir was Three Faces of Mary, scored for soloists, two choirs, orchestra and electronic instruments, which was premiered in Oxford in May, 2003. You can read a review here.

Norming

Buoyed by the success of Three Faces, John began to write more for the choir, including ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ for men’s voices, cello and percussion in 2004; and ‘Veni Sancte Spiritus’ for Soprano solo and choir in 2006. Things were developing on the singing front too:

‘My New Year’s resolution for 2005 was to join two new choirs, which I did early on that year. The first was Commotio, with whom I have been singing ever since, learning a huge amount about new choral music in the process. What’s more, director Matthew Berry has been wonderfully supportive in terms of performing my pieces and commissioning new work.’

The second choir was Magdala – founded by Dr David Skinner at Magdalen College, Oxford – a perfect combination of singing and scholarship, with David bringing along new editions of early music every week. Although specialising in early music, David commissioned a setting of the Lord’s Prayer (Pater Noster, 2005), and Magdala also performed John’s 12-part Nunc Dimittis in 2006.


Indeed, it was a busy time, with John writing the music for Legacy (2005), a ten minute film that tells the story of the journey of a shotgun as it works its way through three generations of an English family. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival the same year. Around the same time, saw the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration with dancer, choreographer and teacher, Cecilia Macfarlane. This resulted in three shows in partnership with Restless Blue:

  • Turpentine with Oxford Youth Dance Company (2006);
  • Life, the Universe … and Dinner with Oxford Youth Dance (2006); and
  • Dragon’s Tale with the intergenerational dance group, Crossover, (tour, 2007/8).

This culminated in a commission to write the libretto and music for a new production of the medieval German folk tale The Pied Piper, which was performed at The Oxford Playhouse as part of Dancin’ Oxford 2009. The work featured 75 dancers from Oxford Youth Dance, plus members of DugOut Adult Community Dance. The show was: ‘driven by a backdrop of symphonic soundscapes, with electronic and acoustic music featuring solo instrumentalists, singers and a chorus of voices from East Oxford Community Choir and Sospiri.’

Performing

Joining Magdala in 2005, John met fellow tenor Chris Watson.

‘Chris is a wonderful singer and a lot of fun to be with. At the time he was just finishing up a seven-year stretch as a lay clerk at Westminster Cathedral, so we got chatting and found much in common …’

A year later, they formed the mixed-voice choir, Sospiri. Chris wanted to develop his directing skills, whilst John wanted to write and hear new work.

‘A couple of times I finished a piece in the afternoon, printed it out at teatime, took it to rehearsal in the evening and sung it through with the choir – an experience that was both terrifying and thrilling.’

Sospiri gave John an incentive to start writing in earnest and have recorded and performed about two thirds of his choral works over the last five years. Commotio, too, have provided encouragement and inspiration. Their 2007 CD Night selling all over the world, the calls have been coming in:

‘A chap from the States emailed me and asked if his choir Kantorei could perform my setting of the Wilfred Owen poem “Futility”, which they’d heard from the Commotio CD. They’ve been invited to sing at a big choral conference in Chicago - the ACDA conference 2011 - and they were really excited about the possibility of doing this piece of mine. I just had to say yes!’