# Australian composers



## Sid James

I live in Australia, and am only beginning to listen to composers from here.

Classical composition only really began to emerge in Australia in the C20th.

Probably the most famous Australian composer internationally is Peter Sculthorpe, now in his 80th year.

But there are many other excellent younger composers, including Carl Vine, Barry Conyngham, Brett Dean, Graham Koehne, Elena Kats-Chernin, Ross Edwards and Richard Mills.

What are people's thoughts on Australian composers?


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## Tapkaara

I am only familiar with Sculthorpe and Percy Grainger off-hand.

Sculthorpe is pretty good. I have the Naxos recording of several of his orchestral works. Though a contemporary composer, he is no "modernist," per se. His idiom is very accessible and rhythmically exciting. I also heard an interview with him about a year ago on KUSC in Los Angeles. It was fascinating to hear the back-stories about his music from the composer's mouth.

Grainger is am generally less impressed with. He was a certifiable eccentric, and he's well known for a (supposed) romance with his mother. He was also a white supremecist and married his wife at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

I'm afraid I find his life more interesting that his music. I have about two Grainger recordings and I find his idiom bland. Not my cup of tea.


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## BuddhaBandit

John Antill! He wrote a ballet called "Corroboree" based on traditional Aboriginal dance that I like quite a bit. It's almost an Australian "Rite of Spring".

Naxos has recently issued a good recording of it played by a New Zealand orchestra (kiwi-stra).


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## starry

Yeh I've heard some of those mentioned like Sculthorpe (Quartet 11) or Ross Edwards or maybe some others. 

In some cases it's useful I think to look through music nationally as it's a convenient way of looking through things, but that's it. Really I don't like to look at art too nationalistically in general, and certainly not with western classical music where the style is a largely universal one anyway.


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## Weston

starry said:


> In some cases it's useful I think to look through music nationally as it's a convenient way of looking through things, but that's it. Really I don't like to look at art too nationalistically in general, and certainly not with western classical music where the style is a largely universal one anyway.


I might agree, with the global community becoming smaller with our newer technologies the importance of nationalities have diminished.

Still, there are cultural tendencies going way back. On first hearing a baroque piece for instance, I could probably tell whether it was composed by an Italian, French, German, or English composer, though I might fail miserably on other nationalities. There are certain musical gestures that a culture may favor that gives it its own flavor in the same way we can tell Mexican cuisine from Italian cuisine. This is especially true with composers using folk music as a springboard.

After saying all that, I'd be at a loss to identify an Australian style of music unless maybe it's derived from Celtic traditions. Same way with American music. We have our (still not very old) traditions but they are not always easy for me to identify. Of course it might help if I actually heard these Australian composers, and I will endeavor to rectify that. The closest I have heard is Douglas Lilburn, but he was from New Zealand. His music reminds me of Bruckner.


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## Frasier

I think you could add Richard Meale to your list. His "Clouds now and then" is an incredibly symbolist work but then, many of these composers are symbolist. 

I still think Sculthorpe's Sun Music I-IV were luminary works on the Australasian scene. His agenda was to create an Australasian music and in many ways he seems to have achieved that.

Some interesting and satisfying music has emerged from Australia. I have many recordings, some taken from broadcasts.


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## Mirror Image

The only Australian composer I'm familiar with is Percy Grainger. I own many recordings of Grainger's music and enjoy some of his works. He was one hell of an orchestrator though. His personal life is also interesting, but it's a composer's music I evaluate.


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## Frasier

This thread prompted me to play a compilation CD of off-radio recordings, mainly because I felt like hearing Sculthorpe's very beautiful piece: Port Essington. 

Variation IV: "Nocturnal, Estrangement" breaks me out in goose bumps when it reaches (rehearsal) 13! 

But the disc also contains: 

Conyngham: Crisis, Thoughts in a City;
Sculthorpe: Mangrove
Meale: Viridian.


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## altiste

Interesting to hear a reference to "Australasian music" as Australia and New Zealand seem quite separate in terms of music, I can only think of a couple of composers who have strong links to both countries.
I've heard Douglas Lilburn's music likened more to Scandanavian music, that is probably the first time I've heard Bruckner cited.
I'm familiar with a little of Sculthorpe's music. I first heard the Kronos Quartet play his 8th quartet; it's great work, I've played it in the past and wouldn't mind doing so again.


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## Matthew

I am only familiar with the australian composer "Sarah Hopkins" she focuses on choral works inspired by the aboriginal bush men of the outback, its a new mix of classical and tribal.


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## Sid James

Looks like many people have heard some Sculthorpe which is pretty good. I agree with Frasier that his _Sun Music I-IV _is some of the best music to come out of Australia in the 1960's, as far as I can tell..

I'd like to draw people's attention to an excellent cd set put out by ABC classics a few years back. It features performances by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, including a 2 cd set devoted to Australian composers. There are also cd's in the set of Sculthorpe & Grainger, as well as of the general international repertoire:

http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=392866&SearchID=1330472&SearchRefineID=2780529

Some of the interesting composers I didn't mention above on this set are Robert Hughes (1912-2007) and Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984). An interesting work is Hughes' _Symphony in Three Movements _(1951) which is described on Wikipedia as



> "the finest symphony composed by an Australian to date. It demonstrates Hughes' mastery of the orchestra; it has strong themes, a fluent and convincing harmonic style, logical, concise form and a tremendous sense of continuity and power. To an uninitiated listener, the work sounds like a conflation of Elgar, Walton, Bax, with interesting melodies derived from unorthodox scalic forms".


Sutherland was also an interesting voice, the only major woman composer in Australia of her generation. Her music has many modernist influences, including from Arnold Bax, who was her teacher. Her most famous work, the tone poem _Haunted Hills_(1953), is on the cd set mentioned above.


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## starry

Weston said:


> I might agree, with the global community becoming smaller with our newer technologies the importance of nationalities have diminished.
> 
> Still, there are cultural tendencies going way back. On first hearing a baroque piece for instance, I could probably tell whether it was composed by an Italian, French, German, or English composer, though I might fail miserably on other nationalities. There are certain musical gestures that a culture may favor that gives it its own flavor in the same way we can tell Mexican cuisine from Italian cuisine. This is especially true with composers using folk music as a springboard.
> 
> After saying all that, I'd be at a loss to identify an Australian style of music unless maybe it's derived from Celtic traditions. Same way with American music. We have our (still not very old) traditions but they are not always easy for me to identify. Of course it might help if I actually heard these Australian composers, and I will endeavor to rectify that. The closest I have heard is Douglas Lilburn, but he was from New Zealand. His music reminds me of Bruckner.


The main reason I'm cautious about the use of nationalism with music (and maybe art in general) is because of my experience elsewhere on the internet where people use music as a flag waving opportunity to promote whatever society the music was produced in or to look at music ethnically. That's why I strongly prefer looking at music as the creation of individuals with all kinds of diverse influences (not merely national) but also regional, stylistic, the period it was written in etc.

Global influence of course has become much more pronounced over time, particularly with the internet. Overall I think that's a good thing as I like to look at music as music, to see the connections between music rather than put up borders. In the past perhaps boundaries have been artificially put up for political reasons. Yes there is folk music but really is folk music that different to each other with many places? There can be many similarities. Style can be important to understanding music in some cases but ultimately it is the clothing not the substance, and maybe the substance of music is universal.


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## Tapkaara

I, for one, love nationalism in music. When a composer can successfully absorb and recreate a "local" idiom for world stage, I think it's a beautiful thing. I think pride in one's country is an important thing, and the expression of this is music is very powerful and worthwhile.

Most of my top composers, now that I think of it, have some sort of "nationalist" attachments. This usually makes for colorful, exciting scores which transport you to various lands via the CD player. Great for the armchair traveler and music-lover alike!

On the sunbject of Australia, Sculthorpe's usage of aboriginal effects is fascinating. His Earh Cry with a didgeridoo (and instrument I have dabbled with myself) is strikingly beautiful and original, and certainly a musical "shout out" the the native music of the Land Down Under. I don't see this as jingoistic flag waving per se, but as an expression of one's national/regional identity, which has been important to the human race as long as we've been around.


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## starry

Tapkaara said:


> I think pride in one's country is an important thing, and the expression of this is music is very powerful and worthwhile.


I wouldn't have uncritical pride for anything, where you are born and who your parents are is just an accident of birth anyway. All artists ultimately need to express their individuality and everything which is part of that (nationality only being a small part).



Tapkaara said:


> Most of my top composers, now that I think of it, have some sort of "nationalist" attachments. This usually makes for colorful, exciting scores which transport you to various lands via the CD player. Great for the armchair traveler and music-lover alike!


But isn't this more making music some kind of avenue into exoticism rather than for real musical value?



Tapkaara said:


> On the sunbject of Australia, Sculthorpe's usage of aboriginal effects is fascinating. His Earh Cry with a didgeridoo (and instrument I have dabbled with myself) is strikingly beautiful and original, and certainly a musical "shout out" the the native music of the Land Down Under. I don't see this as jingoistic flag waving per se, but as an expression of one's national/regional identity, which has been important to the human race as long as we've been around.


Of course all kinds of things can act as inspiration, the creator is nevertheless the individual artist and not whatever society he may live in.


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## Tapkaara

*"But isn't this more making music some kind of avenue into exoticism rather than for real musical value?"*

Well, it may be exoticism to some extent, but because it is "exotic" should not mean there is no musical value therein.

I'm curious as to why you think the inclusion of folk melodies, harmonies, rythyms, or any other folk/national aesthtic is without musical value.


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## starry

Tapkaara said:


> *"But isn't this more making music some kind of avenue into exoticism rather than for real musical value?"*
> 
> Well, it may be exoticism to some extent, but because it is "exotic" should not mean there is no musical value therein.
> 
> I'm curious as to why you think the inclusion of folk melodies, harmonies, rythyms, or any other folk/national aesthtic is without musical value.


I never said any inclusion of material which some listener may consider nationalistic may be of no musical value, only that the value of a piece should rest on the PURE musical value of a piece and not on some association with whatever society or politics it was created in.


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## Tapkaara

starry said:


> I never said any inclusion of material which some listener may consider nationalistic may be of no musical value, only that the value of a piece should rest on the PURE musical value of a piece and not on some association with whatever society or politics it was created in.


Hmmm, well, if that's indeed what you said, I apologize...though your quote about it seemed misleading. I agree. Any music should be good enough to stand on its own two feel as music regardless of its underlying intention.


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## Sid James

Australian composers like Peter Sculthorpe, Barry Conyngham & Ross Edwards have consciously looked to not only indiginous Australian traditions but also the East Asia/Oceanic region for inspiration. This doesn't make their music any better (or worse) than older generations of Australian composers like Grainger, Sutherland or Hughes, who looked more to Europe, and the UK in particular. I just think that Australian composers today want to say what they want with an ear to what's going on in this region. But that can also incorporate global concerns, such as for the environment, which informs much of the work of Sculthorpe, as Tapkaara alluded to above.


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## andruini

Well, as I told you, Andre, the only Aussie composers I'm familiar with are Grainger and Carl Vine.. 
Vine is really a great composer, everyone should check him out.. I listened to his 4th Symphony 'Percussion' the other day, and it's just, in my opinion, one of the best modern symphonies I've heard. Shame he doesn't get more recognition, though..


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## starry

Andre said:


> Australian composers like Peter Sculthorpe, Barry Conyngham & Ross Edwards have consciously looked to not only indiginous Australian traditions but also the East Asia/Oceanic region for inspiration. This doesn't make their music any better (or worse) than older generations of Australian composers like Grainger, Sutherland or Hughes, who looked more to Europe, and the UK in particular. I just think that Australian composers today want to say what they want with an ear to what's going on in this region. But that can also incorporate global concerns, such as for the environment, which informs much of the work of Sculthorpe, as Tapkaara alluded to above.


Yeh exactly, anything can be an inspiration to a composer.....older music of some kind from anywhere in the world, his pet cat, anything lol. I don't see the point of a musicologist or listener just restricting it to nationalism, it doesn't give credit to the individuality of a composer.


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## Conor71

I have been neglectful of Australian composers in my explorations .
Got a set of Carl Vines Symphonies yesterday and Im blown away! - this is great music and is not like anything else I own at the moment (mostly Romantic and early 20C Composers works) .

I think in light of recent postings I am curious about other Aussie composers now - may well investigate Sculthorpe and Antill next.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Interesting thread. I personally don't follow Australian composers' music by way of attending concerts and buying recordings. I'm listen to what's on the radio, which is not common; I'm afraid to say.

Larry Sitsky is an Australian composer. He wrote a few operas. Currently Emeritus Professor of Music at ANU. I remember hearing bits of his opera _The Golem_. I almost fell asleep. I don't think his music is all that popular, compared with say P. Sculthorpe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sitsky


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## GraemeG

Mirror Image said:


> The only Australian composer I'm familiar with is Percy Grainger... His personal life is also interesting....


Now _that's_ an understatement!
cheers,
Graeme


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## Guest

I just bought a CD by Brett Dean. Water Music. He's not a composer I'd ever heard before, and it was pretty OK stuff, though I still prefer Philip Samartzis, Ross Bolleter, Martin Ng, Oren Ambarchi, and the like. There's a lot of new and interesting music coming out of Australia.


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## Earthling

For something more on the avant-garde side, there is this:










*Austral Voices *is on the New Albion label and is quite good. I owned it at one point but sadly I lost it... There are samples on Amazon's page.

Most memorable was Ross Bolleter's piece at the end (who someguy mentioned above). He took some old beat up, half destroyed piano and performs something that sounds like some bizarre post-apocalyptic nightmare, as if the last human on earth was playing the swan song of the earth as he slowly dies of radiation poisoning (at least, that's what I always thought it sounded like LOL). An unforgettable piece of music and the highlight of the disc.

Warren Burt, also on the album, I believe is originally from the US but made Australia his home years ago. On this disc is a small sampling of his music for tuning forks. He's also done some interesting electronic music consisting of drones with various unusual tuning systems (it drives my cat bonkers LOL).


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## Guest

This is a sweet disc and no mistake!

Amazon has used ones available starting at USD 1.95!!


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## Sid James

I haven't heard much of those composers you both mention, except for *Brett Dean*. He's more of an "establishment" composer now, not that there's anything wrong with that. I've got his_ Beggars and Angels_ (1999) on cd, a half hour long symphonic work. Parts of it remind me of people like Berg. I also went to a concert last year with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, which included (tokenistically as usual?) a piece by Dean, his _Testament_. It was a work about Beethoven's struggle with deafness (the rest of the program was Beethoven). Interesting how some of the passages were almost silent, as a way to evoke how Beethoven would have perceived "hearing" an orchestra, with string instruments and winds playing at the lowest (basically unhearable) registers. The piece also quoted one of Beethoven's string quartets, but I wasn't familiar with that work, so the allusions passed me by somewhat. I also heard Dean's _Eclipse_ for string quartet, which was inspired (if that's the right word) by the Tampa crisis in the early 2000's, when a ship that had rescued asylum seekers in Australian waters was not allowed to land on the coast. The work was mainly slow and quiet, it's intenstiy reflecting what was perhaps going on in the minds of the refugees.

He's definitely an interesting composer, but I'm also interested in hearing (maybe collecting) something from those mentioned above. Any more suggestions, guys?


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Andre, you sure know a lot about aussie composers! Way more than I do. And we're from the same city!


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## altosax

Another minor Australian composer you might check out is Brenton Broadstock (born 1952). I have a two-CD set of his five symphonies on the etcetera label.


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## Sebastian

I personally love Percy Grainger. His wild piano takes on folk melodies are amazing, some of the most inventive and exciting use of the piano's capabilities I've ever heard.

I actually studied at Melbourne University for a while, where the Percy Grainger Museum is. The composer began the establishment himself and fille it with all sorts of curios from his life. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations during the entire time I was studying there!


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## Fsharpmajor

I have a CD by an Australian named Sean O'Boyle with two pieces: Riversymphony and Didgeridoo Concerto. Riversymphony is a short choral symphony, and Didgeridoo Concerto is, well, a didgeridoo concerto. I picked it up second-hand in an Oxfam shop. Is anyone else familiar with O'Boyle? I have no idea whether he's well-known in Australia or not.


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## Sid James

I have heard of Broadstock & remember a program listing on radio for the O'Boyle Didgeridoo Concerto, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to hear it. Although I live here, I don't have a huge knowledge of Aussie composers, they seem to get comparatively little time on air or on concert programmes. The ones I have heard the most are Sculthorpe, Munro, Vine, Westlake, Dean, Edwards, Butterley, Kats-Chernin...


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## Fsharpmajor

Riversymphony was on that list of ABC top 100 symphonies. That was the first time I had heard of Sean O'Boyle. I must confess that I had never heard of Sculthorpe until now--or the other composers you mentioned. I'm familiar with Percy Grainger, but he's too light for my taste. I do like the Naxos CD of John Antill. It sounds a bit like Stravinsky after licking a cane toad.


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## Sid James

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I created this thread around 2 years ago now, in terms of me hearing more music of our great Aussie composers. So I thought I'd revive it & give some semi regular reviews of Aussie music, esp. if I can find it on youtube.

To start, I've just been listening on youtube recently of the music of *Ross Edwards *(born 1943). After having gone throught the almost obligatory avant-garde phase in his younger years, Edwards retreated for a time in the 1970's to the Australian bush to hear & record it's sounds. He also began to take an interest in Australian Aboriginal music, folklore and culture. Out of these strands emerged his individual "organic" brand of minimalism.

Perhaps his most popular work is the violin concerto called _Maninyas_. This work was inspired by the patterns in nature, eg. the structure of ant nests & the way these insects move. I saw Edwards talk about this in a documentary about 15 or so years ago. Here it is played by one of our finest violinists, Dene Olding, with the late Stuart Challender at the helm of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Ross Edwards - Third movt. from Maninyas violin concerto (7:01)

Another work, which I saw live last year performed in the presence of the composer, is his three _Mountain Songs_. He is quite an accomplished writer for choir, esp. unaccompanied. Here is the group I saw last year, the Sydney Chamber Choir, conducted by another Australian composer, Paul Stanhope, performing one song from that trilogy.

Ross Edwards - Mountain Chant (4:23)


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## Amfibius

Chris Dench is a friend of mine  I don't understand his music, and I don't like the same type of music that he likes ... but I have yet to meet someone who is as down to earth, yet as knowledgeable as him. He is an immensely well-read and cultured man, and talking to him is simply a pleasure.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Amfibius said:


> Chris Dench is a friend of mine  I don't understand his music, and I don't like the same type of music that he likes ... but I have yet to meet someone who is as down to earth, yet as knowledgeable as him. He is an immensely well-read and cultured man, and talking to him is simply a pleasure.


Interesting. Post a few clips of his music. Give us a taste!


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Interesting and not too bizzare. _Sum Over Histories_ by C. Dench.


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## Amfibius

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh, that's him all right!!! 

(You broke my speakers!!)


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## Sid James

I've know the work of composer* Matthew Hindson * (b. 1968) for a few years now, he gets good exposure in chamber concerts here. He's also written music for productions by the Australian Ballet.

This week, I heard this recording on youtube of his piece for guitar quintet called_ Rush_, premiered in 1999. HERE it is. This work was inspired by the works for exactly the same combination of instruments by Luigi Boccherini, a composer whose music I'm really getting into now.

This work by Hindson is a lot of fun. It's high energy and emphasises rhythmic propulsion, and makes me think of country 'n western music a bit, that hillbilly feel. He's another composer who is responding to the music of Boccherini, another one was Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, one of the major composers for guitar in the 20th century...


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## Guest

Well, Sid James, I've only just read your original thread on this. What about Brett Deans? He's a superb Australian composer.


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## Sid James

^^ Yes, Queenslander *Brett Dean *is very good, he was a former violist in the Berlin Philharmonic but returned here in the 1990's to compose, play and teach. Like Hindson, a lot of Dean's music comes up here in chamber & other concerts. There's quite a few interviews with Dean on youtube, incl. a very good one with Andrew Ford on the ABC Radio National music show. There is some music on youtube by him as well, but it's not his best or most interesting, imo. I've been thinking of getting his _Viola Concerto_ on CD, with him as soloist, and Simone Young at the helm of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It looks like something worth exploring, judging from his other works that I have heard. One of his big influences was Alban Berg, his music has a bit of the feel of that guy & European Modernism in general...


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## Guest

Sid, yes, I do know about Brett's history. One of his pieces has become a 'staple' with the BPO/Rattle. Forgotten its name.


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## schigolch

Liza Lim premiered some years ago in Melbourne, _The Navigator_, that seems to be inspired in Tristan und Isolde, and the Mahabharata. It was then performed in Brisbane, Paris and Moscow.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Larry Sitsky AM, born 1931. I think he was professor of music at the Australian National University at some stage. He wrote some operas, that frankly from what parts that I heard, were quite crappy stuff. His operas have not been popular.

But I give him some credit for other works. This sonata for flute is not too bad (but not too remarkable either).


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## Sid James

Another review of sorts, copied from current listening thread, starting with the first two works on a recent album I got of this Aussie composer's orchestral music -

*Richard Mills *(born 1949)
_Bamaga Diptych _(1988)
_Tenebrae_ (1992)
Melbourne SO / The composer conducting
(ABC Classics, from 2 cd set)

Just got this set and gave these two works on it a few listens.

Very interesting music here from one of our major composers and conductors in Australia, *Richard Mills.*

_*Bamaga Diptych *_is a reflection on the coming of the wet season in the isolated Far North Queensland township of Bamaga. Mills captures the lushness of this area as well as the vast, epic qualities of Australia. Very vivid orchestral writing here, this guy has full command of the modern orchestra. A particularly vivid moment is towards the end, when in a barrage of percussion, Mills captured the rain which falls down like a sheet when the dry season breaks and the long awaited wet season begins. Mills was a Queenslander by birth, and grew up there.

In contrast, _*Tenebrae*_ is quite subdued and builds up layer by layer, getting more and more intense. It was written in memory of a friend and colleague, one of our great conductors Stuart Challender who died of AIDS in 1991. Mills gives fragments of the theme which is only revealed in this angry climax towards the end, hammered out on the drums with violins and brass blaring. It is the traditional plainchant from the Catholic church, _pange lingua_, used by many composers from ancient times, as part of the Good Friday service (hence the work's Latin title alluding to that). Mills doesn't hold back on his emotion, and probably anger at his God, asking "why?" The theme, now united after the catharsis and let out of crying, is played lyrically by a solo violin, then the work finishes and fades out into nothingness, the double basses and timpani going down to pianissimo. This is a tour de force as well, it bought me to tears on the third listen or so, I am familiar with the late Maestro Challender's work and remember vividly seeing him conduct live in concert. The man was an Australian legend, and Mills pays great tribute to his friend and fellow musician (Mills was the first person Challender told when he contracted AIDS). Apart from the climax, the percussions are used more sparingly here, and with more nuance, eg. at the start a celesta plays along with the orchestra, giving an othewordly feel.

A thing to note is that Mills started off as a percussionist, which kind of explains some of those qualities in his music. I am looking forward to hearing the other two works on this album soon too, the title work _Pages From A Secret Journal,_ and the _Symphony of Nocturnes..._


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Sid James said:


> Another review of sorts, copied from current listening thread, starting with the first two works on a recent album I got of this Aussie composer's orchestral music -
> 
> *Richard Mills *(born 1949)
> _Bamaga Diptych _(1988)
> _Tenebrae_ (1992)
> Melbourne SO / The composer conducting
> (ABC Classics, from 2 cd set)
> 
> Just got this set and gave these two works on it a few listens.
> 
> Very interesting music here from one of our major composers and conductors in Australia, *Richard Mills.*
> 
> _*Bamaga Diptych *_is a reflection on the coming of the wet season in the isolated Far North Queensland township of Bamaga. Mills captures the lushness of this area as well as the vast, epic qualities of Australia. Very vivid orchestral writing here, this guy has full command of the modern orchestra. A particularly vivid moment is towards the end, when in a barrage of percussion, Mills captured the rain which falls down like a sheet when the dry season breaks and the long awaited wet season begins. Mills was a Queenslander by birth, and grew up there.
> 
> In contrast, _*Tenebrae*_ is quite subdued and builds up layer by layer, getting more and more intense. It was written in memory of a friend and colleague, one of our great conductors Stuart Challender who died of AIDS in 1991. Mills gives fragments of the theme which is only revealed in this angry climax towards the end, hammered out on the drums with violins and brass blaring. It is the traditional plainchant from the Catholic church, _pange lingua_, used by many composers from ancient times, as part of the Good Friday service (hence the work's Latin title alluding to that). Mills doesn't hold back on his emotion, and probably anger at his God, asking "why?" The theme, now united after the catharsis and let out of crying, is played lyrically by a solo violin, then the work finishes and fades out into nothingness, the double basses and timpani going down to pianissimo. This is a tour de force as well, it bought me to tears on the third listen or so, I am familiar with the late Maestro Challender's work and remember vividly seeing him conduct live in concert. The man was an Australian legend, and Mills pays great tribute to his friend and fellow musician (Mills was the first person Challender told when he contracted AIDS). Apart from the climax, the percussions are used more sparingly here, and with more nuance, eg. at the start a celesta plays along with the orchestra, giving an othewordly feel.
> 
> A thing to note is that Mills started off as a percussionist, which kind of explains some of those qualities in his music. I am looking forward to hearing the other two works on this album soon too, the title work _Pages From A Secret Journal,_ and the _Symphony of Nocturnes..._


I read this interview by Mills himself a few weeks ago about this recording. You might find it interesting:-

*Richard Mills:*

"I've made many, many CDs so there's an element of routine about it. With this recording there was a tremendous amount of work to get through over four days in the busy working life of the Melbourne Symphony. My job was made much easier by the excellent sound engineer and producer, and the goodwill and engagement of the orchestra in the project. I've been involved with the MSO as a guest conductor since 1982. We go back an awful long way together and it's a very fine orchestra - our best, in my opinion. There's a sound and a cultivation that comes from the very strong musical traditions of Melbourne.

"Conducting and composing are two completely different habits of mind, and I find it very hard to work on both intensely at once - that's why after I've finished my organ concerto I'm not writing any more music until after the Ring Cycle in 2013. Certainly practical knowledge of the orchestra has helped me to orchestrate more elegantly.

"The title work of the album was a commission for Oleg Caetani's first season as music director of the MSO. The piece is in the form of a diary, but a diary without specific dates and times. The 'entries' are more on the level of pure music, incident and thematic process, and the finale combines all the elements of this journal in sound together.

"My favourite work on the album is Symphony of Nocturnes which was written for the theatre, but certainly Tenebrae is a very personal piece because it came from a difficult period of my life, watching a friend die very slowly. All these pieces have an element of the autobiographical in them - they're part of everything I've done, like an intimate diary and a record of my creative life that I'm now able to share thanks to the Melbourne Symphony's beautiful playing and ABC Classics' backing of the project".


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Another thing. Interesting that the ABC still finds it worth their funds to back current projects like this. They don't seem to play as much of it on the radio though.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

I think Anthony Pateras needs more recognition. He was after all the composer in residence for the Australian National Academy of Music.


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## Sid James

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Another thing. Interesting that the ABC still finds it worth their funds to back current projects like this. They don't seem to play as much of it on the radio though.


Yes, the ABC label has done some good Aussie music over the years. I read online, I think on the ABC online shop website (the entry for this set) that there was another recording done by Mills of his music a few years ago (another "twofer" I think) that sold quite well, despite it being contemporary classical. This double album which I just got it a "sequel" to the first one, and it's the first time I've gotten Mills' music on disc. I have heard his chamber music live before, but have little experience of his orchestral music.

Good that you posted that interview about the disc. Thanks for that, it's informative also for people reading this thread. A version of some of those remarks are in the cd notes of this set, but not exactly the same.

It would be good to hear more Aussie classical music on radio, it's true, but I have not been listening to much classical radio for a couple of years, just about. I switched to the youth station which has other music, not the superficial boy and girl bands, but more alternative things, which I enjoy. There's a lot going on in the Aussie music scene in non-classical as well, but my first love is classical, of course.

I plan to buy less cd's this year than before, a bit of music overload, but I plan to buy one or two discs per month, focussing on Aussie composers. Another good label is Tall Poppies, it has a lot of good stuff done in this country, our great composers and musicians...


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## Sid James

A review of the other two works on the Richard Mills disc I got last week. Copied from current listening thread -

*Richard Mills* (b.1949)

_Pages from a Secret Journal_ (2002)
- Melbourne SO / The composer conducting
(Cd 1 from ABC CLassics, 2 cd set, Richard Mills orchestral works)

_Symphony of Nocturnes _(2008)
- Geoff Lierser, theremin - in second movement / Melbourne SO / The composer conducting
(Cd 2 from same set)

Another listen to this disc from this set which I've been listening to since I got last week. Great stuff all round.

I'm beginning to hear the common things between these three works, eg. recognise elements of *Richard Mills'* style.

It is quite eclectic and hard to put in a neat box, & I like that kind of thing if it's done well, as it is here.

...

The final work on the first disc, _*Pages from a Secret JOurnal,*_ has an autobiographical element. After listening to this a few times, I hear a theme appearing in this, in a long oboe solo against a shimmering orchestral backdrop. It's in seven sections, like seven pages from the composer's journal. Like Elgar's _Enigma Variations,_ the exact contents of this musical journal is as the title says, a secret known only by the composer.

...

A first listen to the final work on this set, the *Symphony of Nocturnes*. This was firstly in the form of a ballet and soon after transformed into this symphony.

This is an interesting work. Certain ideas seem to keep returning on pairs of instruments. One phrase was on two violins (I think?) and another on two piccolos. The four movements had titles from a number of things, based on things from pictures of nature to astral travel.

The most gripping part for me was the second movement, part of the title being _Night Creatures_. I think these may well have been bunyips, the mythical creatures of Aboriginal (native Australian) mythology and folklore. The theremin in this piece sounded like the voice of some wierd animal, it was kind of organic and not mechanical as I thought it would be. It sang it's wierd song, and the rhythms of the orchestra did remind me of tribal rhythms, the "drone" of the brass coming across as much like the Aboriginal wind instrument, the didgeridoo.

I did feel some connection to the voice or style of Debussy, a composer who Mills likes a lot, but it was not done in a literal way (eg. no quotes of Debussy, etc.). The vibe of this piece was quite filmic as well, epic in parts, but also quite contemporary sounding.

I like this 2 disc set, all the works on it are superb, I will return to it often, and it was worth it's weight in gold, basically. REcommended to all, both our international and Aussie members...


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## Guest

Well Sid, I certainly take my hat off to you (if I was wearing one) for your knowledge of Australian composers! I prefer Brett Deans above all others. But I have an amusing story about Peter Sculthorpe's SUN MUSIC - which you correctly state was written in the 1960s.

In the early 1970's I was working in the ABC Music Department in Kings Cross. I was assigned to work for the Asst. Director of Music, who was a very funny man (I won't mention his name). I used to 'take dictation', because I was a stenographer back then (it was before I went to university to study music). A letter came in from a person who had been to the Sydney Town Hall to hear the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (which was the venue before the Opera HOuse) and he complained about Sculthorpe's _Sun Music_ being on the program. Mr. X (Head of Department) read the letter to me and I had to take down the response in shorthand and write a letter back to the fellow who was complaining. In short, the complainant said he loved going to SSO concerts but "when this dreadful Sun-Music came on my wife and I got up out of our seats and left the venue. On the way out we both felt very dizzy and couldn't walk properly and we both believe that this was due to the dreadful _Sun Music_of Peter Sculthorpe". Mr. X and I laughed heartily about this letter, written by a man who was obviously of European origins and who had trouble expressing himself in English.


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## LordBlackudder

Mick Gordon is Australian.

Known for his unbridled enthusiasm and tiresome work ethic, Mick has been enjoying the wonderful world of video game sound for most of his adult life with his musical noises attracting companies such as Electronic Arts, THQ, Marvel Studios, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon and Sony Entertainment.

An incredibly diverse composer, Mick treats music and sound design the same - "music is just sound design with rules". It is this direction that gives him the ability to create distinctive textures and memorable themes that not only compliment and enhance the numerous projects that he's worked on but are also recognized and praised by the people who enjoy them.

His father, an avid Guitarist, Luther and music-lover, gave the young Mick Gordon the desire to pick up a Guitar at the age of 12. Soon after he was playing five gigs a weekend, teaching and writing music whilst still in high school.

Mick scored his first published game, Hotdog King, at the age of 17 and while the rest of the development got drunk at the release party Mick sipped orange juice. Shortly afterwards Mick became an in-house audio designer at Pandemic Studios and spent a great deal of time with Death Rays and **** Probes whilst working on Destroy All Humans! 2: Make War Not Love. Mick soon felt the world of freelancing calling and after leaving Pandemic the person who owned the vending machine in the studio had to sell his third house in the south of France.

Mick spent the next few years scoring various video game projects and in 2009 he was commissioned by Museum Victoria to be the Audio Director for a large traveling exhibition called A Day in Pompeii which featured over 250 rare artifacts arranged in an interactive space. This work was awarded "Best Audio - Other" at the 2009 G.A.N.G. awards. A day later Mick won the 2009 GDC Composer Challenge and received an awesome looking boxing-title belt as a trophy. Sweet.


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## Sid James

*Phillip Houghton* (born 1954) is one of Australia's finest composers for classical guitar.

Last night I finally listened to Houghton's piece on a recital of works for guitar and string quartet, played by guitarist Karin Schaupp with the Flinders String Quartet. The album's title is_ Fandango_, named after Boccherini's piece on it, and it also has works by the Argentinian Pujol and Haydn.

The Houghton work is called _*In Amber*_, named after those insects fossilised in amber from the times of the dinosaurs. It was composed in 1982 and revised in 2008. This piece, in three movements, strongly brings to mind the Australian landscape.

The first movement_ Dance _has these changing rhythms and keys. The guitar has a flamenco like feel and the players of the string quartet sometimes tap the wood of their instruments with their bows, to give this percussive effect. This movement has a flowing quality like a stream going over rocks.

The second movement is called _Dream_ and the composer wrote this tune down after hearing it in a dream. There are these drones coming from the string quartet players, I esp. like the deep drones from the cello. There is this rich layering and counterpoint here, eg. made by plucking on all the instruments. There are also these dynamic changes from soft to loud, these soaring melodies pouring out. It made me think of the solitude of the bush, where you focus on these small sounds, it's like meditation.

The final movement is titled _Initiation_ and it is an ostinato with these repetitive, quite intense and driving rhythms. It is like a corroboree of Australian Aboriginal tribesmen. At the end of the two and a half minutes, the music fades out in a startling drone that is exactly like that of the Aboriginal wind instrument, the didgeridoo. Being done entirely on acoustic stringed instruments (not a wind instrument in sight) is what makes me think this is pretty amazing. It's actually quite disturbing in that way, it's far from what I expected.

All up I found this piece to be very imaginative, and uniquely Australian...


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## moody

starry said:


> I never said any inclusion of material which some listener may consider nationalistic may be of no musical value, only that the value of a piece should rest on the PURE musical value of a piece and not on some association with whatever society or politics it was created in.


That's an impossibility, every artist is a product of whatever society he/she was brought up in. Furthermore the music,book, play, picture would be nothing without these influences.


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## Sid James

Last night, a first listen to the disc of *Percy Grainger's *piano music, played by Leslie Howard on ABC Classics.

I was quite surprised by the modernity of a number of these pieces, and how he did these piano arrangements of folk songs in a sensitive and imaginative way. These works were composed between the 1900's and 1930's. Grainger fits in well with the trends of the time, also done by guys like Vaughan Williams, Ives and Bartok, in terms of having a real interest in folk music, classical music of the past (esp. the Baroque, I'd guess, in his case), and also the latest modern techniques developing during his time.

Great composer, arranger and pianist that he was for this instrument, Grainger saw more limitations in the piano than possiblities. He famously said -

_I have always loathed the piano, because I consider it an affront to destroy a melodiously conceived idea by trying to fit it into the limitations of two hands and a box full of hammers and strings._

Some of my favourite pieces on this disc were -

_*Handel in the Strand*_ - Mixes Handel's _The Harmonious Blacksmith _with the atmosphere of tunes coming out of the music halls along the Strand area of London. Really catchy and basically a riot of sound. Some great counterpoint here.

_*Irish Tune from the County Derry (Danny Boy)*_ - Grainger's arrangement made the piano sound like a voice singing this very emotional song in an Irish accent. It kind of built up to a climax like a hymn. Just a beautiful piece.

*Spoon River *- This was an American folk tune. It's quite a vigorous piece and has some odd harmonies that may well be pentatonic. In any case, they're not exactly traditional harmonies of that time, and if someone had told me this was by Ives, I wouldn't have quesitoned that. This is quite a vigorous piece, a bit rough around the edges, big boned and hardy.

*In a Nutshell (suite for piano) *- This four movement work had bits that sounded very unresolved and just letting tonality float and not resolve. The first movement has these odd rhythmic changes & sudden dynamic shifts. It's quite bouncy and a bit unsettled (about a guy waiting on a railway platform for his sweetheart to arrive by train). The brief and upbeat second movement is followed by a _Pastorale_ which comes across as Impressionism with a fair twist of darkness & the slightly disturbing, and just going everywhere and nowhere. I'd guess it's up there with Debussy's most adventurous piano pieces in terms of dissonant and unresolved tonalities, chords, whatever. The final movement is called_ The Gumsucker's March_, a bit of a frolic in the bush, quite optimistic and typically of colonial Australia. The notes say that gumsuckers refer to Australians at the time sucking on gumtree leaves - yuck! - but maybe it's referring to our native animal, the koala, that feeds on gum leaves?...


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## Sid James

Another review of mine copied from current listening -

*Carl Vine* (b. 1954)
- _Mythologia
- Three settings of Sappho _& also the _Olympic Anthem_
Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir / Jonathon Welch, director / The composer giving accompaniment with electronically sampled/manipulated sounds on his computer
(Tall Poppies)

A relisten after many months to this disc of Carl Vine's _*Mythologia*_, which was originally a ballet performed during the Sydney Olympics arts festival in 2000.

It is sung in (Ancient?) Greek and English, with texts from guys like HOmer, Euripides, etc. & it tells a number of stories weaving around the character Heracles, the god who founded the Olympics.

Although this work has electronics involved, don't be scared! Vine here uses his computer to conjure what an orchestra from Ancient Greek times may have sounded like, there are many wind, percussion and plucked sounds, sampled from "real" instruments, then changed to sound different on the computer. The result is pretty amazing, one thing that struck me was a kind of horn that sounds at the same time like some animal's voice, it's kind of mysterious and atmospheric. Speaking of which, I can hear in this a very filmic feel, which is no wonder, Vine has composed music for a number of films.

The most striking part from me was the rape of Callisto by Zeus, who initially disguised himself as her lover, ARtemis. He only reveals his true identity at the moment of her climax, and then the music goes from love music to full on percussive and animalistic music describing the rape. This music sounds quite melodic but it's no walk in the park if you read between the lines.

The_ Bacchanalia _is also quite memorable, shades of many of my favourite 20th century choral works there, but pretty unique at the same time.

The accompanying _*Sappho songs *_& _*OLympic Anthem *_are like the thematic material which relates to the bigger work on the disc, so it's a good coupling, a good way to fill out the time (which at 72 minutes is pretty generous, I think).

I quite enjoyed this disc and I especially like how he uses electronics in a kind of unexpected way, like an orchestra, not like an electronic piece literally...


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## Sid James

I'm continuing this "conversation" from current listening thread, just to bring it together here -



HarpsichordConcerto said:


> That sounds like a very interesting recording above, Sid James. One might think the story could be associated with Baroque opera or something ancient, far from the 21st century. Might give it a go some stage. I need to warm up a lot this year with Vine's music in "anticipation" of his piano concerto #2 later this year. (I'm not actually concerned about electronic instruments per se, it's what composers do with them that matters, as with any instrument or "thing" used to produce music)...


That's how I see electronics, fitted to context of a work. In this work, it sounds very "real" in places, like maybe Ancient Greek instruments would, and other times like landscapes/nature pictures in sound.

I think that people like yourself with better knowledge of the ancient stories through the older repertoire would appreciate it on a deeper level, but the cd booklet does contain translated texts and synopsis of the story. Easy!...



> ...
> Edit: Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir. I never knew we had one.


This disc was made in 2000, but I just checked their website, this choir is still going strong today. They sound great on the disc, esp. in terms of singing in Greek, they had good training from a professor at Sydney Uni who is listed on the disc & contributed to the notes. This whole work was not only artistically done, but scholarly pretty good, a collaboration between Graeme Murphy's ballet company that commissioned it, the choir, the composer (of course), the performers being "sampled" for the electronic accompaniment (one of them was flautist Geoffrey Collins, one of our finest) & the professor of Ancient Greek...


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## Sid James

Just got through this great cd over the past few weeks. It's a collection of music by Australian composer *Nigel Westlake*. He has done a number of things, from films scores to concert hall works of many kinds. He started off as a clarinetist, and also worked doing arrangements for rock bands & the like.

Judging from these works, I'd say his style is quite eclectic, blending new and newer classical techniques with things taken from rock, jazz and world music to name a few.

The* Piano Trio *had two more lyrical movements followed by a finale that had this feel of jazz, I liked it's whimsical and less serious feel.

_*The Hinchibrook Riffs *_is a work for guitar with a very slight digital delay. This gives a subtle "echo" effect. He named this after the Hinchinbrook Island area in Far North Queensland, where his father took him as a child, and where now Westlake takes his son on holiday as well. It has the feel of ripples over water, calmness, and the repetitions of nature.

The _*String Quartet #2*_ is an interesting work. Took a while for me to pick up the "thread" going through this work. At the very end of the first movement, there is a semi-improvised viola solo that is very lyrical and flowing. The feel of this solo pops up later in the last two movements, there is a lot of busyness and action here, but that lyrical bit kind of pulls the work together for me.

The piece for two marimbas with four players called_* Kalabash* _was named after similar instruments in West Africa that are called the title of this work. Again, there is layering and repetition here, a flowing effect. It does have the natural feel and some of the spontanaeity of West African drumming, but is overall more gentle and quite low key.

The concluding _*Piano Sonata *_really knocked me out, time and time again. In the outer sections, there's these changing rhythms and probably keys as well, which are definitely taken from rock music. But they sound totally classical, this is not watered down rock or anything like that. The slow movement is mysterious and kind of a prelude to the final movement, which has this romantic "big statement" feel, but also this visceral "gut" impact on me. It's just a torrent of sound, amazing, and perfectly suited to the playing of the pianist here who commissioned it, Michael Kieran Harvey, who is a huge supporter of new music here.

All round a great album, showcasing the talents of Westlake and the team of musicians performing his works, total time is very generous at 75 minutes...

*Nigel Westlake* (b. 1958)
_Piano Trio _(2003) _a_
_The Hinchinbrook Riffs _(2003) _b_
_String Quartet No.2_ (2005) _c
__Kalabash_ (2004) _d_
_Piano Sonata _(1997)_ e_

a. Macquarie Trio Australia; 
b. Craig Ogden (guitar); 
c. Goldner String Quartet; 
d. Synergy Percussion;
e. Michael Kieran Harvey (piano)

(Tall Poppies label)

Review at musicweb HERE.


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## Sid James

Just got this 2 cd set of music by *Tristram Cary *(1925-2008) a composer of electroacoustic music (on the Tall Poppies label). He was from the UK and originally trained as an electronics engineer, working as a radar officer during World War II. After the war, he completed a music degree in London, majoring in composition. He worked as a composer for radio, films and the newly emerging media of television. He was also one of the pioneers of electroacoustic music in the UK, and set up the first music studio of that type there. In the 1970's, he came to lecture here in Australia, eventually settling here the following decade.

This two disc set covers works in his output between 1955 and 1996. The first disc is of analogue works up till 1978, the second disc is of computer-based works from after 1979.

I listened to the first disc and I enjoyed most of the works on it. Basically, these came across as soundscapes with different themes, taking me to different places. These were -

*Continuum for Stereo Tape *(1969)
- This was a purely concert hall work, designed for a large space. It gave me the feeling of a flowing stream, there was a watery feel there. There were a series of sileces/voids which interrupted the flow, and a number of crescendos which increased in intensity and length. This was generated totally electronically, some of the sounds sounded natural, others industrial.

*Suite - Leviathan '99 for Stereo Tape *(1972)
- This music was originally produced for a radio play accompanying a story by sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury. It had quite an orchestral feel, though apart from samplings of percussion, this was again totally electronic. There were hints of organ and plucking and sliding glissandos on strings and brass. This gave me a feel of travelling over some landscape of another planet, there were suggestions of a windstorm or electric storm, a part that was like the lift-off of the aircraft and another part as if I was being sucked in by a vortex. This took me to a dark space, but more surreal than depressing.

_*Suite - The Children of Lir for Mono Tape *_(1959/1996)
- This was another work having it's origins in music for radio. This was based on an Irish story which was similar to Shakespeare's _King Lear_, except the three daughters are transformed into swans. This was an environmental piece with a sense of drama. There were snippets of Irish tunes played on banjo and also a female voice singing an Irish song. There were sounds of a storm, horses hooves and the flapping of wings, symbolising the swans (which the composer says in the notes he made by flapping his arms while holding a newspaper!). At the end, church bells tolling, which speak to the end of the play when Catholicism comes to Ireland. This was my favourite work on this disc.

*Narcissus for Flute and Two Tape Recorders *(1968), featuring Douglas Whittaker on flute.
- This piece has the flautist playing to a score while one tape deck records him, the other plays it back not long after. This must have been cutting edge technology back in the 1960's. Some interesting echo & ghosting effects here. Sometimes, the playback sounded like an orchestra of flutes. There was also the feel of a contrast between the "warmth" of the real flautist and the mechanical quality of the recordings accompanying him.

*Steam Music for Quad Tape* _(Stereo reduction for CD)_(1978)
- This was a sonic picture of being at a railway yard, with steam trains running past you and moving away and towards you from a distance. This contrast between the trains being near and far was very interesting to hear. The more intense moments made me think of these machines as being like animals, eg. the whistles reminding me of distorted bird calls, or even ghosts...


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## Sid James

*Cezary Skubiszewski *(born 1949)
_Black and White - film score _(2002)
Victorian PO / Daryl McKenzie, cond. / with chamber group comprising flutes, bass clarinet, marimba, orchestral percussion, didgeridoo, double bass, guitars, harp, oboe, autoharp, electronic percussion, the composer on piano / taped elements (eg. Aboriginal chant)
(ABC CLassics)

*Cezary Skubiszewski *is an Australian composer specialising in film music.

_Black and White _is a film that tells the story of the wrongful conviction for murder of an Aboriginal man called Max Stuart which happened in 1959. The film deals with prejudice and discrimination in the Australian justice system during that time.

This is a score mixing various things, from the atmospheric setting of South Australia, to the courtroom scenes which are more psychological and dark. The orchestra and percussions are used as a backdrop, and the composer draws many great solos from the chamber group which he leads in this recording.

Favourite bits was the track representing the defence barrister (played by Scotsman Robbie Carlyle) which had this deep bass flute accompanied by the guitar and strings, the music for Max Stuart which had taped Aboriginal chant as a backdrop (a recording of Mr. Stuart's own voice, actually) and also the part representing a young Rubert Murdoch, whose Adelaide newspaper at the time sided with Stuart. This had some counterpoint, but quite light and upbeat, with the acoustic guitars.

The middle track was a piano piece by Mozart, _Variations on La belle francoise (Adieu donc, dame francoise), KV353 (300f), _which was an interesting contrast the the rest of Skubiszewski's original score, but I don't know why he put it there.

Overall I enjoyed this soundtrack, esp. for the visual & chamber aspects...


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## Sid James

Copied from current listening thread. A great disc -

*Raymond Hanson* (1913-1976)
Complete music for violin & piano -
_Sonata Op 5_ (1939)
_Three Fancies_ (1946)
_Seascape_ (1953)
_Idyll, Op 2_ (1938)
_An Etching _(1969)
_Legende _(1946)
_Portrait of Australia Op 46_

Susan Collins, violin / David Miller, piano
(Tall Poppies)

First listen to this disc I just got.

*Raymond Hanson* was an Australian composer who was part of the generation which matured during the 1930's and '40's. His music has a strong element of emotional expressiveness, a neo-romantic feel and some tonal ambiguity. He admired modern composers of his time like Shostakovich and Hindemith, and similar to them he valued tradition, combining it with some of the then newer technical innovations.

I quite enjoyed this disc, the music is very listenable and appealed to me right away.

I esp. enjoyed the _*Three Fancies*_, esp. the last one which is titled _Of a fugue that wishes it could waltz_. The title says it all, it's a combination of fugue and waltz, it passed me by a bit on the first listen, but the second time I heard the humour.

The* Idyll *also leapt out at me quite a bit. Like many of these works, it started off with a kind of melancholy, dark, yearning melody - with this wonderful flowing legato from the violin and ripples echoing it from the piano - and after a central kind of minimalistic ostinato bit, turned more and more towards the lighter and optimistic side.

_*An Etching*_, the latest work on this disc, bought to mind bird calls. This work has patterns that are similar to some calls of Australian birds, but the notes say it could be coincidental, we're not sure. Same goes with what Messiaen was doing in this area, we are not sure if Hanson knew of that.

The final work, originally written for a film and transcribed here, _*Portrait of Australia*_ funnily enough gave me quite a European feel in some way. Maybe a feel of nostalgia for "the old country," Great Britain, but the feel here could well have been Continental European as well.

The other works were interesting as well, eg. the_ Sonata,_ which has a similar narrative of darkness to light.

Violinist Susan Collins did her doctoral thesis on Hanson's music, she unearthed a number of these scores from archives here, they have not seen the light of day for decades (some not published). Her rapport on this recording with the pianist David Miller is great to hear, they both come across as having this muscular and robust style, but still with much naunce and delicacy.

This disc is a rare treat from a composer who did make an impact beyond writing music, Hanson taught a number of our luminaries from the younger generation then, eg. Peter Sculthorpe, Richard Meale and jazz musician Don Burrows...


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Raymond Hanson disc sounds interesting. Never heard of him before (at least not that I can currently recall). Reads as if something I might like "_emotional expressiveness, a neo-romantic feel and some tonal ambiguity_". And that's a very interesting CD cover too, by the way.


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## Guest

Two recent discs, recent to my collection, of Australian music.

_Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music,_ 1930-1970, Shame File Music, SHAM050, which includes mostly people I had never heard of: Jack Ellitt, Robert Rooney, Bruce Clarke, Val Stephen, and many more. And the ubiquitous Percy Grainger, of course. (_Free Music (Top and Bottom Ranks - Thick_))

A great survey disc, full of quirky music.

_Strange Love,_ for4ears 1448. Oren Ambarchi, Günter Müller, and Philip Samartzis.

I haven't had a chance to listen to this one, yet. But with those three guys, you can't go wrong.

Australia has been a hotbed of new music for quite some time now. Similar conditions as in the U.S., extremely conservative social milieu and extremely adventurous artistic activity. And probably even more government support of the arts, including extreme experimental arts, than in the U.S.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

some guy said:


> A great survey disc, full of quirky music.


How quirky?


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## Guest

Quite quirky.


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## Sid James

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Raymond Hanson disc sounds interesting. Never heard of him before (at least not that I can currently recall). Reads as if something I might like "_emotional expressiveness, a neo-romantic feel and some tonal ambiguity_". And that's a very interesting CD cover too, by the way.


I never knew Raymond Hanson either before getting this disc. He definitely had a unique voice.

A kind of gut feeling of mine is that if a listener likes some of the core neo-romantic works - eg. Barber's _Violin Concerto _immediately springs to mind here - then he will most likely enjoy this recording. Another comparison would be Messiaen, that kind of brightness and sense of light in his music comes through in this music a bit, esp. the one with bird calls, _An Etching_.

As violinist Susan Collins says in her excellent notes to this disc, Hanson hugely admired some of his contemporaries, esp. Hindemith and Shostakovich, yet his music is unique and is by no mean rehash or carbon copy of them. I would also call his music fairly rhapsodic, but he never loses sight of the importance of developing a strong theme, or a set of themes, rigorously throughout a work. By rhapsodic I don't mean entirely free, though my impression is that the is less strict in that way compared to esp. Hindemith.

& yes, the cover is eye catching, Tall Poppies is a great label but often their covers can be a bit average, but this one is different...


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## Sid James

some guy said:


> ...And the ubiquitous Percy Grainger, of course. (_Free Music (Top and Bottom Ranks - Thick_))
> 
> ...


I have enjoyed Grainger's music, I think he was one of the great innovators of his time. I have acquired Leslie Howard's recordings (two volumes) of Grainger's piano music. I reviewed Vol. 2 earlier on this thread HERE and will eventually get to Vol. 1. I also want to get his ballet music to _*The Warriors *_which apparently is amazing, it is on THIS disc with some of his songs...


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## Sid James

I have just gotten through this 2 cd set of *Tristram Cary's* electroacoustic works, which I on the whole enjoyed:










Earlier on this thread in THIS post, I talked about the first disc of this set, covering some of his analogue works. In this post I'm talking about the second disc, covering his computer based works (composed between 1979 and 1996).

The works I liked the most on this disc were:

_*Black, White & Rose for Marimba, Gongs, Woodblocks & Tape *_(1991) - with Ryszard Pusz, percussions

This work was like a concerto for percussion and electronics. It has these lush and luxurious textures, a kind of soundscape which the listener can imagine and lose himself.

The percussion part is virtuoso, but often it's hard to tell whether it's him "really" playing or the electronics shadowing and ghosting him.

Balinese gamelan inevitably comes to mind with the marimba, and the electronic accompaniment often manipulated the percussion instruments' sounds to sound like things like bells or trickling water.

The title refers to the black and white notes of the keyboard and 'Rose' "is the beautiful rosewood of the marimba," the composer says in his notes.

_*Three Clockpieces - Computer Music in Stereo *_(1983/96)

This computer generated music had twelve voices, but it didn't sound as crowded as I thought it would. My ears got a bit used to the microtonal sounds, they were not as harsh as in some of these kinds of works. The two outer movements were faster, while the inner movement was slower and more gentle.

_*The Impossible Piano (Homage to Conlon Nacarrow) for Sequencer & Sampled Piano *_(7 excerpts: _Counterpoints 4, 5, 6; Power Bounces 1, 4; Cross-Accents 1, 5_) (1994)

This was a bit like Bach meets Bartok on speed. An element of quirkyness and zanyness too. The melodic material here is derived from the letters of Conlon Nancarrow's name, he being the composer of similarly unplayable studies for keyboard on now ancient technology of piano rolls. The last piece, _Cross-Accents 5_, was a lot of fun, with this rushing music punctuated by notes of the sequence which had this hypnotic effect. In some of these pieces, the counterpoint kind of bunched up and crowded in on itself, thus forming tone clusters which is not what I'd expected from this thing that could have been like Bach's _WTC_ in a former life. Interesting stuff.
_*
Nonet - Computer Music for Four Tracks (Stereo Reduction for CD) *_(1979)

This was like a nonet, but not for acoustic instruments, it was purely electronic. This work had some amazing sounds, some microtonal, but not too uncomfortable. It was like a soundscape of sounds impossible to produce on real instruments, but some sounds did sound to me to be similar to brass and percussions. The composer said in the notes "the nine voices each have nine entries at nine different speeds, and all voices run for most of the time, which produces a continuously changing texture." This music builds up by accretion, layer by layer. The score of this work is on the cd cover above.
*
Sine City II - Computer Music in Stereo* (1979/96)

This is a subtle work, with sounds from medium to low (no high pitched sounds). It comes across as being like a cloud or fine fog, hazy and changing slowly, much like Ligeti's _Atmospheres._


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## Sid James

This review copied from current listening thread. Another first listen to music by an Australian composer I didn't know before -

*Neil Currie* (born 1955)
_Tumbling Strain_ (1990-91)
Warwick Tyrrell, trombone / Adelaide SO / Patrick Thomas, cond.
(ABC Classics - _Trombone Concertos _album)

A first few listens to this work on an album I got just now.

*Neil Currie *is a Canadian-born composer working in Australia. He studied with Peter Sculthorpe. This work was written for the trombonist on this recording, Warwick Tyrrell, while Currie was composer in residence for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The title refers to how in Australian Aboriginal chant, the voices go "tumbling" from high to low.

The defacto concerto is in ten episodes that go without a break. The trombone soloist is surrounded by a mini band of other wind players - oboe, bassoon, alto sax, trumpet and another trombone. Throughout the work, the soloist's instrument blends with these instruments, sometimes they are hard to distinguish from one another.

The work started off sounding kind of European, with counterpoint between the trombonist and strings. Then the other parts of the orchestra joined in. This modern counterpoint, esp. the flute writing, reminded me of bits of Bartok's_ Concerto for Orchestra. _Towards the middle of the work, the rhythms of Aboriginal music came to the fore, with clapsticks used to keep time. In the seventh episode, _Meno mosso_, the trombonist played a sad Aboriginal lament. The following episode, _A tempo,_ was the cadenza, here the soloist imitated the drone of the didgeridoo, with growls and vocalisations. This lead to a fast and vigorous conclusion, which bought Aboriginal tribal dancing and ritual, a corroboree, to mind.

I enjoyed this work and look forward to hearing the other works on this disc, bit by bit...


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## Sid James

An in depth review here of an album I recently got, of chamber music of *Arthur Benjamin *(1893-1960). This Australian born composer spent most of his professional life in the UK, from his student years onwards. Arthur Benjamin was taught by Charles Villiers Stanford and Benjamin was in turn one of Benjamin Britten's teachers. Benjamin's style fits in with the trends of his day, he was a big admirer of Ravel and also Brahms, R. Strauss and early Stravinsky. He was a composer who obviously valued tradition, communicating directly with the audience and a high level of craftsmanship a great deal. His music overall is very listenable and can be quite fun to listen to, especially those Caribbean dance rhythms he so loved.










_*Jamaican Rumba*_ (arr. William Primrose)
_*Violin Sonatina *_(1924)
_*Three Pieces for violin & piano: 
Humoresque
Arabesque (The Muted Pavane)
Carnavalesque (Valse)*_ (1924)
John Harding, violin / Ian Munro, piano

The polish of these works immediately reminded me of Ravel, a composer who Benjamin admired a great deal.

His famous _*Jamaican Rumba *_was written after he visited the islands of the Caribbean and heard the music there. This is quite a happy and joyful piece, I'd guess that the kinds of polyrhythms used by other composers of the early 20th century - eg. Milhaud - are there, it gave me the same feeling.

The other work I immediately liked in this selection was the _*Carnavalesque*_, which fused a ghostly waltz with a more rough dance and in the middle of all that, a tango, that could have been written by Piazzolla (who was born around the time this was composed).

I also liked the middle movement of the* Violin Sonatina*, marked_ Scherzo - di stile antico_, which reminded me of the kind of angularity and vigorous rhythms of some of Prokofiev or Stravinsky.

_*Cello Sonatina* _(1939)
David Pereira, cello / Ian Munro, piano

First few listens to this quite charming work, originally written for a 13 year old Canadian cellist called Lorne Munroe, who would later become principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The first movement, marked _preamble_, reminded me of English composers like Elgar, with a fair hint of melancholy and soaring emotional melodies. The second movement, a minuet, was more lighthearted and had a bit of French polish, a la Ravel. The final movement is a lively march that came across as being hopeful and optimistic, with these strong rhythms from the pianist. This 12 minute work captured many moods and had a nostalgic feel overall.

_*Viola Sonata *_(1947)*
_*Tombeau de Ravel *_(1958)**
Ian Munro, piano with *Esther van Stralen, viola & **Peter Jenkin, clarinet

The _*Viola Sonata *_was written for William Primrose. It mines all the colours of this varied instrument, starting off with a dark and kind of brooding _Elegy_ and then after a cadenza segueing into the final movement, marked _Waltz-Toccata_. The waltz starts off dark or ambigious at least, and reaches a more optimistic climax, then the toccata, which has some very vigorious rhythms, going back to the composer's interest in Carribean music. I like how this piece told the classic darkness to light story, but not in a cliched way, plenty of surprises and twists here.

The _*Tombeau de Ravel *_is a tribute to one of Benjamin's favourite composers. In between an introduction and conclusion, there are six waltzes of varying mood and rhythm. It is more easy listening and less intense than the_ Viola Sonata_, and I enjoyed it. This was originally written for clarinettist Gervase de Peyer.

All works above on album: _*Jamaican Rumba - music by Arthur Benjamin, Vol. 2*_ on Tall Poppies label.


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## Sid James

Thought I'd copy this review I just put on 'current listening' thread:

*Music by Australian composer Sandra France (born 1968) on the Tall Poppies label. *A collection spanning a decade of mainly chamber works. Her music is inspired by many composers, from Haydn to Brahms, Varese, Stravinsky and the serialists. Its quite eclectic. My favourite pieces where the _Heritage Overture _which has the trademark 'lion's roar' of Varese, the _Three Miniatures for Piano Trio _which takes a fragment of _The Rite of Spring _and transforms it by the end beyond recognition and the title track,_ Fluctuating States of Calm _which showcases the deep resonant sounds of the cello. This disc featured various Australian performers.

More info at Tall Poppies website:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~tallpoppies/t2.cgi?tp=cd&val=177


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## Sid James

Just adding to this thread, which I created. I am increasingly listening, or re-listening, to Australian music. So here is one of my latest forays, part of the post below I already put on current listening, but I added to it for this thread:

*Richard Meale *(1932-2009)
_Incredible Floridas (Homage to Rimbaud)_ (1971)
- Australia Ensemble: Geoffrey Collins, piccolo/alto flute; Nigel Westlake, clarinet/bass clarinet; Dimity Hall, violin/viola; Julian Smiles, cello; David Bollard, piano; Ian Cleworth, percussion; Dene Olding, conductor (coupled with _String Quartet # 2_ on Tall Poppies CD, image below)

*Meale's Incredible Floridas* was one of the most significant chamber pieces to come out of Australia during the 1970's. Inspired by Rimbaud's poem _The Drunken Boat_, with its imagery that ranges from bizarre to fantastical to repellant, the sextet is a mood painting of the intense world it conveys.

Musically speaking, Meale's influences range from Debussy to Boulez and Messiaen, and also from his studies of Japanese gagaku and gemelan from Java and Bali.

Its quite a varied work, more poetic and dreamlike rather than intense, even though it does have some dramatic moments. There is contrast here, but its more subtle than overt. The pivotal _Interlude_, which reminds me of Satie's _Gymnopedies_, is my favourite part.

_Incredible Floridas _was premiered by Peter Maxwell-Davies' group, The Fires of London. Meale was at the forefront of the avant-garde in Australia during the period, although by the end of the 1970's he moved into other quite different directions.








_String Quartet # 2_ (1980)
- Goldner String Quartet: Dene Olding, Dimity Hall, violins; Irina Morozova, viola; Julian Smiles, cello

In 1980, Meale caused quite a shock amongst the music establishment of Australia, with a big stylistic about face. His *String Quartet # 2* saw him return to the roots of 20th century Modernism, namely Debussy. I can also detect influence of Bartók and Schoenberg here.

Earlier, the composer had been at the forefront of performance of new music in the country, a figurehead of the avant-garde much like Boulez was to France. As a lecturer, broadcaster, pianist and composer, he had done much for new music in Australia, including premieres of important works by Boulez, Messiaen and Schoenberg.

However, by the late 1970's, Meale felt he had exhausted the possibilities of avant-garde experimentation. This is similar to what Part and Penderecki did at the same time. So its understandable how the two works on this disc, the sextet _Incredible Floridas (Homage to Rimbaud)_ which is from 1971 and the _String Quartet # 2_ sound so different to eachother, its hard to belive they came from the same composer.

With the quartet, Meale returned to a more diatonic way of composing, taking in approaches from early in the century and since. He was at the forefront of Neo-Romanticism, there are elements of Minimalism here, and later with his _String Quartet #3_ he went back further to the Classical Era for inspiration (particularly Schubert).

All of this was frowned upon in some quarters, but Meale had always just done his own thing anyway. He had chosen to teach in Adelaide rather than Sydney or Melbourne, avoiding the rumour mills there. An introverted man, Meale always followed the beat of his own drum. In an interview he stated "there is no progress in music, there's only change."

Despite his split with the avant-garde, Meale retained his constant interest in French music. The *String Quartet # 2* does display the delicacy of string writing found in Debussy's only quartet, and it similarly aims to write in a pared down manner whilst retaining some deal of warmth.

The work begins with an introductory movement where the low strings and a darker kind of questioning mood predominates. What follows is a fast-slow-fast-slow layout. The focal points are the third and fifth movements, _*Cantilena Triste *_and _*Cantilena Pacifica*_. The first is darker in mood, the second one has the violin singing a solo line underpinned by a rocking motion from the other players. The grief of the the first cantilena here is transformed into something more hopeful, or just one of contemplation and reflection.

Meale was present at this recording of the piece in 1992. In light of that, its poignant that _Cantilena Pacifica _was played at the composer's funeral by the Goldner Quartet in 2009.








After 1980, Meale concentrated on opera, and into his two final major works - _Voss_ and_ Mer de Glace _- Meale poured the same flowing lyricism and unbridled emotion found in the quartet.

_Cantilena Pacifica_, in its version for string orchestra, remains the composer's most often played piece. The Australian Chamber Orchestra have played it many times. However apart from that, in many ways Meale is an unknown quantity to many listeners, in terms of his earlier experimental works and also his other works coming after his big switch. I think that's a bit sad, but perhaps like other composers, his time will come at some point?

Meale is the same generation to Peter Sculthorpe, so in wrapping up I'll compare them. There are similarities as well as differences between them. Both where interested in Asian music, Meale studied it formally in America whilst Sculthorpe went to Bali and Japan to study it in the field. Meale had an early fascination with serialism, whilst Sculthorpe was never much interested in it. In the late 1970's, both moved into different directions after earlier experimentations, although I think Sculthorpe's change wasn't as radical and unexpected as Meale's was. Sculthorpe sought to cultivate a distinctively Australian aesthetic, whilst Meale didn't see that as his aim. In terms of character and personality, they where poles apart, Meale being as noted an introvert, Sculthorpe more social and gregarious.

However, in terms of music I think they are both hugely significant for Australia and also for developments in mid to late 20th century music in general.

More info at ABC Classic FM website: 
http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2012/08/16/3569397.htm

Peter Weir's short documentary on Meale and _Incredible Floridas_ at youtube:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Sid James said:


> Elena Kats-Chernin


Uzbek? Soviet? Or does her family come from here (Australia)?


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## mikey

I played the Benjamin Viola Sonata a few years ago; good piece, definitely not without it's challenges!


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## Sid James

*Bruce Cale*

_Cello Concerto, Op. 65_ (1989)
- David Pereira, cello; Helen Donaldson, soprano; Queensland SO under Max McBride

_Valleys and Mountains Suite, Op. 64_ (1988)
- Tasmanian SO under Dobbs Franks

_Violin Concerto, Op. 43_ (1984-5) (First movement at youtube here)
- Leonard Dommett, violin; Queensland SO under Patrick Thomas

(Album: _Bruce Cale orchestral works _on Tall Poppies label)​

*Bruce Cale's* music has atmosphere, poetry and above all a sense of landscape and open spaces. The Australian composer came to classical music via jazz, he was for decades a double bassist working with local and international musicians.

Cale started moving into classical composition in the 1970's, which led to formal studies in America under George Russell in the 1980's. Cale utilizes techniques outlined in Russel's book _The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization_. Cale has especially been prolific in the concerto genre, and the works on this album come from the 1980's.

Cale's _*Cello Concerto*_ is unusual for the inclusion of soprano, singing lines of a poem by Pat Cale about the music found in nature. The work as a whole has strong visual qualities, as well as the cellist taking up the speech patterns of the singer, and overall it is lyrical but some more vigorous parts are reminiscent of a jazz jam session. One part of the lyrics, "Indian Yellow shimmering in the heat" as well as the warm Summery feel of the whole poem, brings to mind Brett Whiteley's painting _Summer at Carcoar _(1977) below. 









The *Violin Concerto* has similar emphasis on lyrical aspects, the violin being allowed to soar to great heights in the second of two movements (the first titled _Mood - andante_, the second _Felicity - moderato_). The orchestral writing is subtle and delicately layered. There is a chamber-like quality here, as well as a spontaneous feel, and a neat inclusion of piano as 'pivot' around the mid-point of the piece. The work ends tranquilly, floating to nothingness.

*Valleys and Mountains Suite* is a set of six pieces for orchestra inspired by places in the Blue Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage area west of Sydney (image below of the Blue Mountains area by Eugene von Guerard, 1862). It was written for the 1988 Bicentennial Celebrations, commemorating the European settlement of the continent. This piece again contrasts lyrical and animated aspects, the scoring is rich and in some ways cinematic, however clarity of texture is never lost. 









This is an enjoyable album, especially for those who like both classical and jazz, or mixes of the two. Cale's music conveys aspects of jazz, such as the flowing improvisational quality, and underpins it all with the discipline of classical (eg. orchestration, counterpoint, contrasts in mood and thematic unity). In the words of Russell, his former teacher, Cale "is unafraid of beauty" and "his use of the harmonic palette is uniquely his own."

These recordings where originally done by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for radio broadcast and would have been destroyed had the composer not requested them to be reissued on the boutique Tall Poppies label. That is great, however it is sad that much of our recent music history has simply disappeared due to lack of funding or facilities in the past to properly archive it. This is shortsighted to say the least, however I am glad that Cale had the initiative to get funding for this project, otherwise we would not have the chance to hear this excellent music.


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## Orfeo

Edgar Bainton, John Gough, Eugene Goossens, and Hubert Clifford are also worth mentioning. And yes, Antill's "Corroboree" is a masterpiece. Chandos, Naxos, ABC, and Dutton have been doing their music an immeasurable service in releasing recordings of these very fine works.


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## musicrom

Doesn't look like Alfred Hill has been mentioned yet. He wrote over 500 compositions, including 12 symphonies, 17 string quartets, and multiple concertos. I enjoy his String Quartet No. 3 "Carnival" and his Viola Concerto, whose third movement often gets stuck in my head.


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## Sid James

dholling said:


> Edgar Bainton, John Gough, Eugene Goossens, and Hubert Clifford are also worth mentioning. And yes, Antill's "Corroboree" is a masterpiece. Chandos, Naxos, ABC, and Dutton have been doing their music an immeasurable service in releasing recordings of these very fine works.





musicrom said:


> Doesn't look like Alfred Hill has been mentioned yet. He wrote over 500 compositions, including 12 symphonies, 17 string quartets, and multiple concertos. I enjoy his String Quartet No. 3 "Carnival" and his Viola Concerto, whose third movement often gets stuck in my head.


Thanks for your responses. I am familiar with a number of those composers, basically from hearing their music on radio.

I did own a vinyl of Hill's_ Symphony #2 'Joy of Life' _(the same recording is on youtube here). I have read your thread on him, musicrom. Hill was an important composer active during the early to mid 20th century, his work as an academic and teacher paved the way for younger Australian composers. That symphony is said to have been premiered in 1941 (the comments on youtube say this) but its sound world is that of the early to mid 19th century (Beethoven's Symphony #9 is obviously a model, and I hear Schumann in it too). He's similar in some ways to Stanford in the UK, that type of academic style which I think adds another layer to what went on in music history and also provides for some great listening. What I'm particularly interested in hearing later is his chamber music on Naxos.

I aim to contribute more reviews here, as I have done already. Once I become familiar with something, I do a post here. Of course anyone is welcome to contribute to this thread, the aim is to discuss and disseminate Australian music. Australia has had many very fine composers over the last century, similar to the USA things really got going in the 20th century.


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## ArtMusic

Breet Dean, Peter Sculthorpe (spelling?) are two respectable ones that come to mind.


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## ptr

musicrom said:


> Doesn't look like Alfred Hill has been mentioned yet. He wrote over 500 compositions, including 12 symphonies, 17 string quartets, and multiple concertos. I enjoy his String Quartet No. 3 "Carnival" and his Viola Concerto, whose third movement often gets stuck in my head.


I gave Alfred Hill a try a few years ago, a friend of mine had bought the complete(?) string quartets and symphonies on Marco Polo dirt cheap at a clearance sale, what made me interested was that he used "Maori" themes for his first quartet. Remember that I found most of the works J listened to dreadfully conservative, sort of like an uninspired Brahms (and I don't care much for Brahms...)

/ptr


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

At the moment, my school orchestra is rehearsing Richard Mills's Double Concerto for performance in the Melbourne Recital Centre later this year. Mills is an excellent conductor as well as a composer whose music I have regrettably not taken as much notice of as I really should have....today I managed to get some invaluable feedback from him on a composition I've been working on, and that was really cool.


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## CyrilWashbrook

I thought I might make mention of Stuart Greenbaum, a composer based here in Melbourne. My youth orchestra is playing one of his works, 90 Minutes Circling the Earth, at a concert later this month.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

CyrilWashbrook said:


> I thought I might make mention of Stuart Greenbaum, a composer based here in Melbourne. My youth orchestra is playing one of his works, 90 Minutes Circling the Earth, at a concert later this month.


What part of Melbourne are you? I'm northern suburbs, but not very far north!

Pateras is my favourite Melbourne based composer, I aslo believe Andrew Aronowicz is getting his name out in Melbourne. Well worth checking out as a local composer!


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## hpowders

Just curious. Do Australian turntables revolve counter-clockwise?


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## CyrilWashbrook

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> What part of Melbourne are you? I'm northern suburbs, but not very far north!
> 
> Pateras is my favourite Melbourne based composer, I aslo believe Andrew Aronowicz is getting his name out in Melbourne. Well worth checking out as a local composer!


Will take a look. I see that the latter - not unsurprisingly - is a former student of Greenbaum (who teaches composition at the MCM).

I live in the inner eastern suburbs, although the orchestra mentioned in my last post is based in North Carlton.


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