Since I can remember, I’ve always had a liking for music. At around 7 I followed my sister into piano lessons, later finding that percussion was my thing. Playing percussion, I again followed my bass playing sister into QYO; first Wind Ensemble, then QYO2 and now QYS. I’ve learned so much playing in these orchestras. I’ve always been interested in storytelling. My sister and I would muck around with composition and torture our parents with presentations of our creations. A story told through music allows the listener to feel more engaged, rather than having to imagine it after reading a passage from, say, a book. My interest in composition has continued to grow above all else. I hope to study music at University. Achieving in the Artology Competition is an exciting opportunity to learn from Mentor composers and to share with other student composers. Having one of my compositions played by AYO and recorded is brilliant.
Composition Inspiration
Cloud Proclamation’ was written as a piece “having something to say” for Artology. The piece opens with low C trumpets to introduce and establish a broad sound which, due to the name of the piece, gives the listener a general sense of full clouds forming on a bright sunny day. The entry of the ‘Cirrus’ clouds is marked by a variety of instruments to provide depth and illustrate fullness. Following immediately, the demi-semi-quaver rhythm enters again on low brass, strings and woodwind and is then responded to by an overlapping whoosh of the higher range instruments (violins, clarinet and flute), as though in conversation. A semi-quaver pattern played here fills in this space, but more importantly, imitates the general unstable feeling of the clouds. With one last rumbling retaliation from the horns, the storm cloud is pushed out by the ‘Cirrus cloud’ and the piece ends.