Musicians have long found inspiration in the written word – from arrangements for psalms to Kate Bush’s dramatic Wuthering Heights.
Edinburgh-based composer Gareth Williams, though, takes his cue from an unexpected source – the closing paragraphs of Scottish novels, to create a set of songs where classical arrangements meet pop melodies.
These range from contemporary Young Adult novels to much-loved texts, among them Treasure Island and Peter Pan. Gareth’s aim, he explains, is simply to share his love of this nation’s creativity.
“I didn’t feel it could be a celebration of Scottish literature without that diversity, without there being some classics, some living writers,” he says. “I wanted to see Scotland through different lenses and ways of looking at the world.
“Mostly there’s a theme of elegy and ending. I’m trying to create parallel endings that take that little bit longer for us to sit on that final page and wallow in their loveliness.
“It’s a nice thing to turn up and if you’ve read any of those books, you’ll have a connection. If not, it’s my ambition to send you scurrying off to the bookshop.”
Gareth ‘none the wiser’ about Scottish people despite long reading list
This Friday, the Northern Ireland-raised tunesmith brings Songs From The Last Page to Dundee, after releasing an album in August with shows at Edinburgh Fringe. Gareth sings and accompanies himself on piano, joined by cello and violin.
Having moved to Glasgow from Belfast 20 years ago, the Edinburgh College of Art fellow is now based in Portobello.
He reveals that he looked at fiction as a means to understand his adopted home, beginning with Alasdair Gray’s 1981 novel Lanark.
“I thought I could get to the bottom of Scottish people, though I’m still none the wiser,” Gareth admits, “But all this comes from being an avid reader and loving these books.
“People ask me if there’s a propensity for melancholy, and certainly in the books that came to me and the ones I read myself, I think I’m drawn to that notion.”
‘It made more sense to use my voice’
Last Page is a departure for a composer better known for working with Scottish Opera and creating the moving music theatre piece The 306 trilogy, that brought to life soldiers executed for supposed cowardice during the First World War.
This project, though, began during lockdown, when there were no shows or scripts, Gareth remembers.
“I didn’t have any words to respond to, so I just took them off my shelves,” he says. “I found a daily practice from that, so there was a therapeutic angle to it.”
When the opportunity came to take these pieces on the road last year, as part of VisitScotland’s Year of Stories initiative, the composer chose to stick with his own voice.
“I could have gone with other singers, but there was something in the storytelling, where it made more sense to use my voice,” he adds.
“I found it quite hard; I’ve spent years working with bloody amazing singers, sitting at the piano and making songs that go off to opera people or West End performers, but I wanted to talk about the day I bought that book, where I finished it and who I gave it to next.”
Gareth Williams and Dundee Rep
Following this event, Gareth returns to the studio to develop another Rep project: a musical theatre version with writer Oliver Emanuel of his 306 collaborator’s Radio 4 romance A History of Paper that starred real-life couple Mark Bonnar and Lucy Gaskell.
For tomorrow, though, the composer promises something else connected to the Dundee venue: on tour, many people offered suggestions for books Gareth should include, so now he has 30 to 40 songs to choose from, including his take on Lewis Grassic Gibbons’ Mearns-set rural classic Sunset Song.
“I saw Dundee Rep were doing the stage show next year, so I’ll have to sneak it in just to comedically offer a spoiler,” he laughs. “I have to be careful, though. I can’t choose books like crime fiction where I could ruin the ending. You can give too much away. Often the final line is poetical or whimsical and just sustains the last page.”
Songs From The Last Page will be at Dundee Rep on September 22 2023.
