Matthew Hindson

for two violins. Also available in a version for violin and viola.

duration: 10 minutes

The entire piece may be accessed as an mp3 file from http://www.mp3.com.au/track.asp?id=3810

Excerpt:

Excerpt from the violin and piano version:

Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy was initially conceived as a piece for solo violin, using a somewhat ‘rockabilly’ style of music. However, it then developed into virtuosic work for two violins, using elements of both techno and death-metal styles of popular music.

The piece was premiered in November 1994 by Glenn Murray and Christine Myers, both of whom perform on this recording. This piece was selected as the Australian Young Composers entry to the 1995 Bangkok Music Festival and Asian-Composers League Conference.

It has since become an extremely popular piece with violinists, being performed many times by a large range of performers in Australia and around the world.

Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy is one of the most popular works written by Matthew Hindson. It was featured in the Sydney Dance Company’s production of Ellipse. notes by Matthew Hindson.

Ordering Information

The full score and parts may be ordered from the Australian Music Centre. Please be sure to specify whether the two violins or violin + viola version is required.

The score is also available from Promethean Editions Direct

Yes, on a disc entitled Greenbaum Hindson Peterson, available from the Australian Music Centre. Performers are Glenn Murray and Christine Myers.
The violin and piano version of Little Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy is recorded by Duo Sol for their disc Infinite Heatbeat on ABC Classics.

There are a number of shorter versions of the piece that have been written especially for performers who have a time limit set on them. Little Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy has a duration of 5 minutes.

Reviews

“Young Australian composer Matthew Hindson’s curiously titled Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy (inspired by death metal and rockabilly music) was another delight, a worthy piece to be added to the wretchedly tiny repertoire of music for two violins. Here, Zac Rowntree and Cary Koh maintained a blistering pace, with spot-on synchronisation, as they nimbly and energetically negotiated the more extrovert measures of Hindson’s musical minefield; they were no less persuasive in the work’s more introspective, soulful moments.” - Neville Cohn, The West Australian, 16 November 1999.

“…Australia’s Matthew Hindson likes to present himself as a bad-boy, too, aligning his work with death-metal, punk and techno music. But on the purely musical evidence of his Yandarra (1998) and Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy (1993) one could be forgiven for thinking his real loves were actually Andrew Lloyd Webber and Celtic folk-fiddling. Hindson’s pieces could have used some amplification to make their pastiche of styles, twisted scales and bow-shredding effects sound genuinely iconoclastic and contemporary, instead of resembling a Mother’s Day easy-listening selection with wrong notes added.” - Martin Buzacott, The Courier-Mail, 22 June 2000.