It was wonderful to meet the 2019 selected eight composers at the first workshop session on Saturday 27 July at Sydney Grammar. Their compositions will be workshopped and recorded by the Australian Youth Orchestra and broadcast in 2020 at the Art Gallery of NSW, Adelaide Festival Centre, Arts Centre Melbourne, Perth Concert Hall & Queensland Performing Arts Centre. Read about their composition inspiration [complete details online]…
My work Coronation Fanfare is my second orchestral music piece. My first orchestral piece was written for Wind Symphony Orchestra and I started to learn how to write music for multiple musical instruments. My inspiration to Coronation Fanfare comes from a movie I saw early this year. One theme of this movie was talking about a coronation ceremony and this has inspired me to write something which attracts audience attention. My composition teacher reminded me the importance of Brass and Percussion instruments. Based on my background as a percussionist in Melbourne Youth Orchestra for a few years, I have found my experience extremely useful because writing a Fanfare is very different from what I used to compose in piano solo or duet pieces….
The inspiration for The Beginnings of a Journeycame through the philosophy of melody and my own journey into composition. I felt it represented who I was based on the parameters of the brief. I normally compose larger, thematic pieces, but the Artology competition tested my abilities to write a requirements-based work that challenged my comprehension and creativity within set guidelines and expectations. Listening to the examples on the website proved particularly useful in giving a direction to style and theme, and a quick analysis of previous winners assisted with understanding the breadth of submissions. I caught the sun rise over Brisbane one morning and the inspiration blossomed…
I chose to write this piece in an accessible style, which I thought would best suit the context of the broadcast venues. I was inspired by Ottorino Respighi, John Adams and Gustav Holst, and crafted my fanfare around layering, ostinato, counterpoint and busy orchestration. Emotionally, I was inspired by an experience I have every now and again when composing. The compositional process can be really up and down for me, and often with times of significant self doubt that I need to push through. At some stage however I’ll have a breakthrough, where an idea may come to me or I’ll solve a problem, and I’ll feel euphoric! These ‘epiphanies’ (hence the title) are one of the most rewarding things about composing for me and this powerful emotional experience is what I expressed in my piece…
I really enjoyed writing this piece as a fanfare for orchestra. I would normally write a piece such as this for a primarily brass and percussion ensemble following the instrumentation of a more traditional fanfare. As it was to be written for an orchestra, of course I couldn’t do that although I did still try to stick with the traditional fanfare form: an attention-grabbing start that pulls back and then crescendos to a dramatic finish. My inspiration comes from both the fanfares I’ve listened to, such as the Orfeo Fanfare by Monteverdi, but also the fanfareThrough the Looking Glass I recently played as a tubist in the ACSMF concert band. This gave me an idea of how to write a fanfare for a more unusual ensemble…
My composition The Colour of Potential was inspired by the bells at the Sydney Opera House, which are used to call the audience into the performances. I use the bells in my piece and build my composition around them, providing the audience with a sense of familiarity before other instruments join in and surprise them. The bells, played in my piece by the glockenspiel, stay generally constant in pitch and rhythm, whilst the orchestra join in a flourish of textures, tonalities and colours representing possibility, all building to a sudden finish with a high open note, causing the audience to wish for more. The unfinished nature of my piece allows for the audience to wonder what will come next, whilst creating the potential for something amazing to come in the performance they are about to see…
When I first started to compose my fanfare, I didn’t consciously have any inspiration. Now I realize that it has a very energetic rhythm. Over 21 bars at the tempo of Vivace ♩ = 160, I have changed the time signature 4 times; the structure of the piece starts with an introduction starting in 4/4, then 7/8, then 6/8 for just 1 bar. After the introduction, the time signature returns to 4/4; the ending contains an upward-moving melody to a high A♭ ending in 2 bars of 7/8. This changes the durational aspect, and a bit of the structural one; I think that the piece is lit up by these time signature changes. My fanfare is not a stately one that could be used, for example, for the opening of the Olympic Games (it is also too short). Rather the mood is more medium-scale such as the beginning of a musical or a fanfare for a school assembly or sports meeting…
Whenever I write a new composition, I always have a story in mind. Being able to visualise the story helps to guide the process. Fanfare Horizondescribes a new dawn and the beginning of a long journey. The heroes fearlessly gaze across the plain, the sun rises behind the mountains where evil beings remain. My aim for this fanfare was to compose something energetic and harmonious. I had always intended to have a big brass presence as feature of my fanfare…
The first step I took in composing my piece was to think of the overall concept. The words ‘Excuse Me!’, were the first thoughts I had and I developed from this. I wanted the piece to have a sense of drama, an over-exaggerated emotional burst, something we as humans can experience. I wanted to personify my music and bring it to life through these human qualities. Sometimes just one little thing can spark an emotional episode and I wanted to capture that very specific moment…
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