William Barton and I are having a new composition premiered by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House on 2-4 April, 2008.

The work is called Kalkadungu, which is the name of the tribe from which William originates. It’s scored for a soloist playing electric guitar, singing and didjeridu (obviously William is performing this part!) with orchestra.

It was very interesting being part of a co-commission, that is, the piece was written both by William and myself. This approach may be common in the popular and jazz music traditions, but I can’t think of many examples from classical music where this happened (the orchestral works of Paul McCartney perhaps). Writing an orchestral work is such an intricate task that it doesn’t normally lend itself to compositional collaboration, but in this case we used a common starting point: an Aboriginal chant William wrote when he was just 15 years old (listen to one of William’s pieces based on this chant here).

Programmatically, the piece is based around the events and ramifications of the troubled history between the Kalkadungu tribe and European Settlers. The Kalkadungu people were a fierce tribe of warriors who conducted a campaign of guerilla warfare for 15 years, before being decimated in battle by the combined troopers of Queensland in 1889 at Battle Mountain, near Mount Isa.

For more extensive programme notes, click here.

Kalkadungu was commissioned by Maggie Gray and Roger Allan. Australia is lucky to have philanthropists such as Maggie and Roger who support the needs of indigenous people in our community. They are both heavily involved in indigenous affairs and have recently started a company called “Indigenous Capital” that provides capital for indigenous projects and subsequently returns all profits to the indigenous community.

The programme for the 2008 Aurora Festival has been launched, and can be viewed at: http://www.aurorafestival.com.au

We have assembled a most diverse collection of concerts, forums and workshops for this festival, the majority of which will take place in venues across Western Sydney (with an ‘outreach’ concert in the centre of Sydney itself). The performers and music are absolutely top-notch. There are 19 world premieres and 5 Australian premieres, including the Steve Reich’s Daniel Variations (see an excerpt and interview on Youtube) and Chinary Ung’s Aura.

Our two featured composers are Chinary Ung, who is coming from the US and will be residence at the University of Western Sydney, and Michael Atherton, who is such a multi-talented musician and whose compositions span an enormous range of genres and styles.

If you are not living or will be around in Sydney, you can listen to most of the concerts on ABC Classic FM, who are co-presenting the 2008 Aurora Festival.

One is a scum-sucking bottom feeder, and the other is a catfish.

Photo by Rich Anderson, Creative commons license.

I have been recently commissioned to write a new work for amplified cello and orchestra for premiere by Li-Wei Qin and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. This new work entitled Ictalurus punctatus will be performed on 11 April 2008 in the opening concert of the Adelaide Cello Festival, an amazingly diverse collection of music focussing on the cello directed by Janis Laurs.

Television programmes such as A Current Affair and their staffers operate in a similar way to catfish such as Ictalurus punctatus (channel catfish), communing in dark, dank, fetid places and waiting hungrily for any detritus to fall their way. I recently read an article about farmed catfish that had been trained to eat human faeces. This seems the perfect metaphor for current affairs journalism.

Early in 2007 I experienced first-hand the nasty, lazy, predatory action of these journalists who act as if they are above the law: setting themselves up as judge, jury and executioner. They thrive on the lowest forms of intellectual nutrition and are curiously undiscriminating when it comes to ethics or standards. The whole encounter was tailored to elicit the most cheap, short-term substance-devoid reactions. The journalist in question was interested only in sensationalist cheap-shots as opposed to balance or even accuracy in the final presentation.

This new work is inspired by my own experience, the experience of my family as well as the characteristics listed above. I offer my apologies to the catfish of the world: these limnivores do actually fulfil a useful purpose in the world, unlike their human equivalents.

The first new piece is entitled The Metallic Violin, and uses as its inspiration the manic, wild and over-the-top electric guitar solos commonly found in varieties of heavy metal music. Also I am making reference to the title of John Corigliano’s work The Red Violin, though in a very contrasting way! The Metallic Violin is for solo violin and lasts for about 8 minutes or so.

The second new piece is quite different to what would be considered my ‘typical’ music. It is called Funeral Windows and is written for solo basset clarinet, a larger clarinet that extends the range of the standard clarinet to a lower pitch. Mozart wrote his clarinet pieces for basset clarinet, and an increasing number of contemporary composers are now writing for it too. In Funeral Windows I imagine the thoughts, experiences and emotions of a passenger in a funeral car on their way between the funeral and burial services. It was composed for David Rowden, the amazing Sydney-based clarinettist.

I am also in the middle of composing a new work entitled Kulkadungu with William Barton. This will be premiered next year by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Photo J.Wilson(c)/EG Images

It was a finalist in the Orchestral Work of the Year category. Thanks to Evelyn and The Queensland Orchestra for a wonderful experience and the opportunity for me to write this work.

The music festival of which I am the artistic director, the Aurora Festival, last night won the award for Most Outstanding Contribution by an Organisation in the 2007 Classical Music Awards. These annual awards are presented by APRA and the Australian Music Centre at a ceremony at the Wharf Theatre in Sydney.

It was very gratifying to receive this recognition for the important work that the Aurora Festival achieved in 2006. We presented 13 concerts as well as lectures, workshops, a conference and even the publication of a book. The festival is based largely in Western Sydney, an area of 2 million people that is blessed by fabulous modern venues and supportive people. Our co-presenter, ABC Classic FM, broadcast many of the concerts to an estimated audience of over 200,000 people.

Most pleasing is that through the 2006 Aurora Festival we were able to contribute to the cultural life of Western Sydney and Australia as a whole.

This Saturday, 7 July, my work Heartland will be performed by the Sydney Philharmonia Choir at the Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The conductor is Brett Weymark.

Written for massed choir and two pianos, Heartland explores various ideas of “home”. At the rehearsal on Wednesday it was sounding really good, with the choir suitably energetic and the pianists right on track. Interestingly, the Sydney Philharmonia are doing the original, “full” version of the piece before it was revised, and it was great to hear some musical material that was excised before the other previous performances of the work.

It is a fun piece (in my opinion), and leads me to wonder why some people believe notions of high art and fun are mutually exclusive.

http://www.therestisnoise.com/

As an example of the type of writing contained on the blog, here is an article responding to the perceived “death of classical music”, detailing many similar predictions dating back to the 1920s!

Here is an article from The Australian by Matthew Westwood profiling the author of the blog, Alex Ross.

What made this event particularly special (for me at least!) was the fact that this festival featured the music of four Australian composers: Sarah Hopkins, Ross Edwards, Michael Atherton and myself.

The above photograph is from a forum held in the Kendall School of Arts Hall, a wonderful venue dating back many years. The forum was moderated by Damian Beaumont of ABC Classic FM. Following this forum, over the course of two days, were concerts dedicated to each of our music. On the one hand, the music of the four composers is very different: however in perhaps the most important ways they were similar. For example, Ross Edwards’ and Sarah Hopkins’ music contain aspects of spirituality, but from extremely different perspectives. The musical inspirations behind Michael Atherton and Sarah Hopkins seems to encompass more of an improvisatory approach as opposed to the strict notation of Ross Edwards’ and my own music. Damian Beaumont remarked that the difference between my music and Sarah Hopkins’ music is stark, and to some extent that is true, at least on the surface. But despite such diversity, each of the four composers was motivated by the strongest desire to have their music evoke positive ‘energy’ - the material or method of transmission was not as important as the background impulse. When it came down to the nitty-gritty, what we had in common was much more important than any diversity.

The works performed in my composer focus concert were:

Little Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy (James Cuddeford - vln, Stephen Emerson - pno)

Song of Life (James Cuddeford - vln)

Night Pieces (Paul Dean - clarinet, Stephen Emerson - piano)

Lament (Trish O’Brien - cello, Stephen Emerson - piano)

Piano Trio (James Cuddeford - vln, Trish O’Brien - cello, Stephen Emerson - pno)

Always on Time (James Cuddeford - vln, Trish O’Brien - cello)

Song of Life and Piano Trio were world premieres.

I hope that the superb work by the Artistic Director, Trish O’Brien, and the rest of the organizing committee of the Camden Haven Festival is given the recognition that it deserves from the highest quarters. It should be seen as a model for presentation of Australian music throughout the country in both metropolitan and regional centres.

The dance work will be presented to two of my pieces: firstly, a new version of technologic 1 for string orchestra, followed by The Rave and the Nightingale for string quartet and string orchestra.

The ensemble will be the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra conducted by Martin West.