Howard Blake: ‘The income from Walking in the Air means now I can write what I like’

Howard Blake 
Howard Blake's most successful work is the soundtrack he wrote for the 1982 film The Snowman

Howard Blake, OBE, 81, is an English composer, conductor and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years.

Some of his most successful compositions include the soundtrack for the animated film The Snowman, the choral work Benedictus and a piano concerto commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra for the 30th birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales.

He lives in west London and has three children.

How did your childhood influence your attitude to money?

My father, who was from a family of pious Plymouth Brethren, didn’t believe in extravagances. He rose to the job of traffic controller in a telephone exchange and must have had a reasonable income, but none of it came our way. This all encouraged my determination to make money.

Had you always wanted 
to be a composer?

To be a composer is not really a job. It’s a calling. It’s a very strange thing to have been born with a gift that you didn’t know you had, and gradually discover that you’ve got it. I was driven by this gift to make a living from it.

Was it hard to get started?

I was broke when I was a first-year student and so I started writing library music, which is used for films, TV and radio. I was about 20. When I got my first pay cheque I took my girlfriend out for a posh dinner and very proudly showed her the cheque. She said: “I am very sorry, Howard, but that is for seven shillings.” She paid for dinner.

What was your first paid job?

I had become very interested in cinema, and when my music grant at the Royal Academy of Music expired, when I was about 22, I got a part-time job as a projectionist.

My girlfriend’s father used to say I was working in a fleapit in Brighton, but it led to a job as a projectionist with the National Film Theatre, where I met many great film directors and heard their lectures. I learnt everything about film while working there. And on my days off I wrote all sorts of music.

What was your big break?

I had been working in clubs, writing music during the day and playing piano at night. My break came when I became an in-house pianist at Abbey Road Studios. I was working in the same studio as the Beatles.

Howard Blake by a piano 
Howard Blake’s big break came writing the score for The Avengers Credit:  Picasa 2.7

When did you realise it was all going to work out?

I helped the great film composer Bernard Herrmann with some arrangements and he recommended me to Laurie Johnson, the screen composer who wrote the music for The Avengers. In 1967 I took over scoring the music for the whole series.

I was also writing music for commercials and I started earning a lot of money. I was making about £1,000 a week, which was an awful lot then, and still is now. I moved from a flat in Hammersmith to a six-storey house in Knightsbridge.

What has been your best business decision?

I was earning a lot of money but I was overworking. My doctor said I would be dead in five years if I did not stop.

I fled London and went to Cornwall for three months. I sat on a beach, calmed down, took up yoga and started thinking about my life. I decided I would stop writing commercially and focus instead on my own music. It meant a huge drop in income, but it was the best decision I ever made.

I was walking along the beach and thought about writing a symphony starting with a tune of pure innocence. And at that moment I wrote Walking in the Air. About 10 years later it became a mammoth hit for the 1982 animated film The Snowman.

You wrote the entire score for The Snowman. What financial effect has that had?

A lot. No one could possibly have known what The Snowman would go on to do. It slowly took off in the Eighties but a really big step came in 1983 when Sony decided to release an album based on this children’s cartoon. It was almost unheard of. It was followed in 1985 by Aled Jones’s cover version, which really took off.

Last Christmas there were 178 orchestral performances of The Snowman around the world and in 2018 the theatre production completed its 21st year in the West End. I am just preparing for the 22nd year at this moment. It has given me a very good income, meaning I can really now write what I like.

Blake at home 
Blake also wrote a piano concerto for the 30th birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales Credit: © Clive Barda 2013

What has been your worst financial decision?

Signing with a publisher that genuinely did not believe in my work. The company looked as if it did, but they did not promote my work. The managing director moved and the new board of directors didn’t want me.

It’s all about people really, isn’t it? Eventually I had a court case in the Nineties to escape them. It caused a great deal of pain and money, but I did win.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt about money?

Don’t imagine it will always be there. There have been times that I have been broke. I know you should not get cocky about wealth – you just need to look after it.

What treats have you bought yourself following your success?

When I was younger I bought a water mill in West Sussex with six acres, lakes, gardens and a waterfall, which was a pretty nice thing to do. But if you try living in a wooded valley in the summer it is absolutely full of bugs and mosquitos. I have also bought several grand pianos, sculptures of great musicians and some original paintings.

What other property do you own?

I have actually done very well on property. I always wanted to live in an artist’s studio and I now live in two converted studios in west London. I bought them for very little and they are now worth a fortune.

They have been turned into a top-floor penthouse flat. It’s very quiet, and I can play the piano and compose here. You really could not improve on it.

Do you invest in the stock market?

I don’t do stocks and shares because I would never have the time, but I do have a good pension with one company and it has gained considerably, so that is another way of looking after money.

Does money bring happiness?

It brings a number of things. You tend to be a target for people who don’t have a lot of wealth, and you need to keep an eye out. I’ve been lucky to have a good accountant and a bookkeeper who both know the music business. It’s really about having the right people to help out. 

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