Listen to Finn’s original fanfare.
Australian Youth Orchestra recording of Epiphany.
Finn Clarke is an emerging Tasmanian composer of concert and media music. His works fuse emotional expression and modernist techniques, and are influenced by Western art music, folk, jazz, pop and EDM. Finn has studied the violin throughout his school years, performing in various bands, ensembles and orchestras. He began composing at the piano when he was fourteen, and later pursued it more seriously in his upper high school years, writing for various ensembles and scoring short films. Finn is currently studying composition at the UTAS Conservatorium of Music, and is the recipient of the 2019 Conservatorium of Music Scholarship, the 2018 Don Kay Tasmania University Scholarship in Music and the 2017 Susan Williams Prize for TCE Music. Finn’s works have been played by the Hobart Wind Symphony, the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra and members of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and his music has featured on a number of film and documentaries both locally and internationally.
Composition Inspiration
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.