Listen to Amy’s original composition submitted with her entry.
My name is Amy Skellern, I’m 17 years old and I was originally born in South Africa. I moved to Australia when I was 3 years old and was involved in many extracurricular activities such as dancing, horse-riding, and scouts. However, my main passion became music very quickly after I discovered the Cello, and Double Bass. Before I knew it, I was going to attend a prestigious music program, doing many styles of music such as Classical, Jazz, Contemporary and Modern. Getting to work, play and collaborate with other musicians is one of my favourite things about music, I’ve met some of my best friends through music, and the best memories of my life have come from it. I began composing not long after joining the music program, and ever since, it’s been my greatest love! Aka, if I’ve got free time, you can find me composing for hours in my room. I’m planning to keep studying composition after school, and continue my career into the movie industry, as I especially love programme music. I can’t wait to develop my skills as a composer with Artology’s program.
Composition Inspiration
Fanfare Villainous was inspired by a previous composition I had made on the spur of the moment, which consisted of just Marimba, Violin, Cello, and various unpitched percussion. Originally, the title was ‘Villain in a Gown’. I was aiming to make a fast, explosive, and percussive piece with a catchy but yet ‘villainous’ melody. It took a while to transform my piece into a full orchestral piece, but the original idea is still very clear and powerful. The idea behind the piece is to use percussive elements throughout the orchestra to create a sharp and explosive sound-world. To do this, I used forte pizzicato (including Bartok pizz.) in the strings, which results in an aggressive and ‘snappy’ body of sound to support the melody. The melody itself is chromatic, syncopated, and uses antiphony to pass around the melodic idea between the members of the woodwind family and the trumpets. The ‘villainous theme’ is carried throughout the strings, Horns, and Trombone, and is the main theme behind this piece. Overall, this piece is a tense, attention-grabbing piece of work and that differentiates itself from other fanfares with its iconic fast speed, percussive body of sound, and villainous theme.
Email: info@artology.org.au
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