Interview with Composer Charles Mauleverer
100 years ago, in September 1924, a Société Jersiaise excavation uncovered the mysteries of La Hougue Bie’s ancient passage grave. Dating back to 4000 – 3500 BC, the discovery of this Neolithic chamber earned La Hougue Bie its place as one of the 10 oldest historical sites in the world.
It’s believed that the crypt within La Hougue Bie’s iconic mound was a place of rituals, ceremonies and burial rites. It is theorised that the chamber was built so that the mouth of the passage aligns with the rising sun at the Spring and Autumn Equinox.
To mark the centenary of its historic excavation, the Société has teamed up with Jersey Heritage to commission a number of creative responses to this sacred, ancient site. One such commission is from Jersey composer Charles Mauleverer, who has created a site-specific composition that will be installed at La Hougue Bie later this month.
Charles’s piece ‘Lithophilia’ (which means ‘the love of stone’) incorporates recordings of rocks into a complex soundscape which will be installed within the ancient crypt itself.
I sat down with Charles to find out more about this new work and how it will allow the public to experience the site of La Hougue Bie a little differently…
To start with, I wanted to hear from Charles exactly what led him to the composition’s unusual name. In response, he explained that the fascinating geological elements of La Hougue Bie allowed him to explore his own personal fascination with rocks.
He said: “It took a while to find a title, but I’m really happy with ‘Lithophilia’, which literally means ‘the love of stone’. I’ve always been interested in rocks; I did a course in geology and am obsessed with stone skimming (I go to the world championships every year!) But until now, I hadn’t had such a good excuse to incorporate stones into my professional musical work. La Hougue Bie is a Stone Age site and I hope that the concept works as a natural fit.”
However, Charles didn’t stop at that when it came to how he would incorporate Jersey’s geology into the soundscape.
Assisted by Société Member Paul Chambers and Millie Butel at Jersey Heritage and Steph Forster at Geomarine, Charles was able to find out about, identify and collect every major rock type naturally occurring in the Island.
Describing his process, Charles explained: “I then took these samples to a dry studio at the Francis Cook gallery, where I recorded them with my assistant Dylan, creating as many different kinds of sounds as we could think of – scraping, bashing, tapping, balancing and wobbling, trickling, shaking – there was a huge range of sonic possibilities from combining only 12 major rock types.”
The composer continued: “Then came the harder work of shaping these into what I hope is a coherent compositional architecture, designed to be experienced through our six-speaker production inside the passage grave at La Hougue Bie, in collaboration with Delta Sound.”
For Charles, the history of La Hougue Bie itself was fertile ground for creative inspiration: “I always love the research stage of a new piece, and La Hougue Bie has an incredibly rich anthropological and geological history […] It was invaluable speaking with Peter Roberts and Nigel Bartlett at La Hougue Bie alongside some of the Longhouse volunteers, and other experts at Jersey Heritage and the Société Jersiaise.”
He added: “I had visited many times since childhood but have certainly experienced the site with fresh eyes and ears this year and really feel I have a better grasp of its significance.”
When asked if he felt music and sound in particular has the power to transform people’s perspectives, Charles said: “I feel that the intangible form of music in particular has the potential to evoke emotions and reach parts of us we didn’t know we had.”
Charles has been commissioned, alongside a number of local poets, to produce a creative work in response to La Hougue Bie as part of the centenary celebrations. These commissions were made possible by the support of local organisations including the Société Jersiaise, Jersey Heritage and the Creative Island Partnership.
Explaining what it means to him that local organisations support and commission new, creative work, Charles commented: “It’s just crucial that new art continues to be supported. It can help to reinvigorate, reframe and recontextualise existing ideas and places. I’m hugely grateful and indebted to Jersey Heritage and Société Jersiaise for supporting me and placing their trust and confidence in me to mark this significant moment at a site of global importance.”
Charles’s sound installation ‘Lithophilia’ will be unveiled at a special event at La Hougue Bie on 21st September and will be available for visitors of the site to experience until the end of Autumn.
