Philip Miller (composer)

Philip Miller trained firstly as a lawyer at the University of Cape Town and practised as a copyright lawyer. He studied music composition in South Africa with composers Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph and Peter Klatzow at the University of Cape Town Music School. He completed his postgraduate studies in Electro-Acoustic music composition for film and television at Bournemouth University. While doing so he studied with UK composer Joseph Horovitz. He then returned to South Africa to begin working full-time in music.

Performance of Triumphs & Laments

One of Miller's most significant collaborators is the internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge. His music to Kentridge's animated films and multimedia installations has been heard in some of the most prestigious museums, galleries and concert halls in the world, including MoMA, SFMOMA, The Guggenheim Museums (both New York and Berlin), Tate Modern, London, La Fenice Opera House, Carnegie Hall and in Australia at the Perth Festival.[1]

Philip Miller in rehearsal for Triumphs and Laments

This collaboration dates back to 1993 when he wrote the score for Kentridge's film Felix in Exile,[2] part of his celebrated Soho Eckstein series. This evolved into the live concert series 9 Drawings for Projection and Black Box/Chambre Noir touring Australia, the UK, (Germany), Italy, Belgium, France and the US.

The lecture-opera production Refuse the Hour, as well as the multimedia installation on which it is based, The Refusal of Time,[3] were presented at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

2016 has seen Triumphs & Laments in Rome[4] which featured Miller's music for two processional marching bands with solo singers, choirs, musicians and dramatic live shadow play, all performed against the backdrop of Kentridge's 500 m frieze along the banks of the Tiber River.

A number of their collaborations are on tour in Europe in 2016, including Paper Music, which makes its German premiere at the Berlin Festspiele in July 2016 and The Refusal of Time at Whitechapel Gallery in London in September.

Miller's compositional process could be best described as one of re-assembly. These extracted sound and musical shards become refigured into a new sound world using layering and "sound collage" techniques. It often incorporates samples of "found sound" and recorded word texts which serve as counterpoint to the musical context in which they are embedded, intertwining both acoustic and electronic sound elements into his work.

His works reflect on his pre-occupation with using sound as a means of exploring memory, states of trauma and the re-examination of historical archive in a sound world of his creation.

These techniques and approach have been incorporated in his compositions. They include:

• Rewind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony''
• Dreams of Immortality''
• Anatomy of a Mining Accident''
• Extracts from the Underground''
• Looking for Kovno''
• Special Boy''
• Can You Hear That?''

Dreams of Immortality

An exhibition of sculptures by Deborah Bell which showed at the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2015, which featured music and sound by Philip Miller: the chord of a single-stringed instrument, the call of a ram's horn, the sound of a violin or the chanting of a Xhosa sangoma.[6]

Anatomy of a Mining Accident

Miller has worked with some of the most innovative filmmakers and visual artists internationally and from South Africa. He has composed music for the soundtracks to many local and international film and television productions. Recent film scores include Steven Silver's The Bang Bang Club,[9] which was nominated for a Genie Award in Canada; Black Butterflies,[10] which was awarded best film score at the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA). He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the score of HBO's The Girl[9] directed by Julian Jarrold, Martha and Mary directed by Philip Noyce and BBC's The Borrowers.[10] Another award-winning score is for the multi-award-winning film: Miners Shot-Down, directed by Rehad Desai.

He also composed the music for the first episode of Roots, the series premiering on A+E Studios History channel mid-2016. This historical portrait of American slavery is directed by Phillip Noyce (Salt, Patriot Games, The Bone Collector). The cast includes Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Laurence Fishburne and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.[11]

He won Best Original Music Score Award at the Canadian Screen Awards in March 2016 for The Book of Negroes[12] – a 2015 miniseries adaptation of the 2007 award-winning novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill. The miniseries stars Louis Gossett Jr. and Cuba Gooding Jr.

* Wawela These awards celebrate South African music creators' accomplishments on the international and local stage over a particular defined period.

Miller has released several albums of his music which include:[1]

These are available online in digital recordings or as CDs.