Simulacra by definition
refers to a representation or likeness – an intriguing theme for the third concert in Tura's Scale Variable series where Intercurrent ensemble explored musical doubles, echoes and shadows.
Intercurrent formed in 2016 and their vitality, unique instrumentation and
enthusiastic commissioning of composers has already set them apart in
Australian chamber music practice. The group comprises Lachlan Skipworth
co-founder and artistic director, Louise Devenish percussion, Ashley Smith
clarinets and Emily Green-Armytage piano.
Green-Armytage and
Devenish opened the program with a breathtaking performance of American
composer Hannah Lash’s C. Two repetitive melodies duelled on piano and
vibraphone with patterns of notes grouped in threes, fours or fives hammered up
against each other in parallel motion. For a few brief bars in the centre of
the work the parts aligned before the phase shifted again in a strange dance of
tugging unity. It was an astounding display of fierce independence married with
precise synchronisation.
This was followed by an
equally impressive bass clarinet solo as Smith relished the
challenge laid down by WA composer Chris Tonkin. Entr’acte explored extremes of pitch, dynamics and speed and Smith
delivered the full spectrum of bass clarinet sounds and effects with intensity and
suppleness. Rapid soft passages were interrupted with explosive outbursts,
followed by quirky micro tunings, folksy pitch sliding, slap tonguing and more.
The work was anchored by its conclusion, a section of soft, hymn-like
multiphonics where the simulacra theme was clearly apparent; each note was shadowed
by notes in the harmonic series reverberating simultaneously in a musical and
technical masterstroke.
The ensemble members came
together for the first time for the world premiere of Alex Turley’s Blue Heat. In a nod to American
minimalism Turley’s work was built around repeated semiquaver patterns gently
rising and falling in layered waves of sound. The blend of marimba, piano and
clarinet created a woody warmth from which sprung soloistic sections for piano
and clarinet plus an interlude of piano and marimba droplets sounding just like
a music box. Blue Heat was a mix of
extreme softness, transparent textures and simmering energy, released finally
in a frantic race to the end.
The use of electronics in
Julian Day’s Father offered a fresh
soundworld. Ghosts of melodies were revealed within electronic pitches that
wavered and stretched over a long slow descent. The performers emerged from
dark corners of the stage to join the melancholic hymn, adding long smooth
phrases built around the repetition of tiny two-note rhythms. The delicate
execution by the performers meant the ear became aware of minute changes to rhythm
and volume in this work of shadows and fading memories.
Finally, Philip Glass’s Music in Similar Motion, the archetypal
work of simulacra (or at least similar patterning) and the only work on the
program written before 2011, making it quite old-fashioned! The ensemble
repeated Glass’s five quaver melody in various irregular lengths with
metronomic precision, creating relentless static ripples. The addition of an
electronic track gave extra haze to the layers as the work progressed. It is an
iconic work and coming in at just less than twenty minutes is a challenge to
the stamina of the audience and the performers. Frankly alongside the more
contemporary (and far more interesting) explorations of layering and echoes it
felt a little tame. Which is a good thing, because it means the contemporary music
scene is alive, evolving and thriving, thanks to groups like Intercurrent.
This review first published by Limelight magazine in August 2017.
Alex Turley has been a compulsive composer since high school and this year he is really hitting his stride. The WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate has had music performed by the Melbourne, WA and Perth Symphony Orchestras, Soundstream Collective, Greywing ensemble and this month Blue Heat is being premiered by Intercurrent Ensemble. Later in the year Alex heads to Hobart for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's composer's school but first he stopped by for a chat on Celebrity Soft Spot.
What music gets your heart racing?
I’ve recently become a bit obsessed with horror movie soundtracks. They’re all about using known semiotics and codes, but sometimes they’re just put together really intelligently. Michael Abels’ score for the recent movie Get Out was pretty masterful.
What calms you down?
Carrie and Lowell by Sufjan Stevens or anything by Takemitsu (his music is not necessarily ‘calm’ but it’s very reflective).
What do you sing along to?
Anything from Travelogue by Joni Mitchell or Fleetwood Mac.
Your work Blue Heat is being premiered this month by Intercurrant Ensemble, commissioned by co-co-director Lachlan Skipworth who has also been your composition teacher for the past five years. Intercurrent has a fairly unique instrumentation of percussion, piano and clarinet; how did you go about creating this piece?
Skipworth conducting Intercurrent
What I always look for in an ensemble – and is sometimes tricky to find – is some sense of homogeneity, that everything is working together as part of one machine. The instrumentation of Intercurrent is unique, yes, but at the same time feels very natural to write for. Marimba and clarinet blend well, especially in their lower ranges, and a piano can complement anything. Ashley, Louise and Emily are three of Perth’s most talented musicians, so when I was writing Blue Heat I was conscious of not letting them go to waste. So what I’ve written is really fast and difficult!
What do you hope the audience will experience when they hear it?
The piece is all about exploring energy and motion. I called it Blue Heat for a few reasons, firstly to capture a sense of fire-like energy in the sound, but also because it’s about contradictions. Can something be moving fast but at the same time not really moving at all? Can something be almost inaudible but at the same time intense and exhilarating? It’s quite a visual piece, too – the players throw different melodies to each other, and interact in lots of different ways. At some points everyone comes together and it’s difficult to distinguish which sounds are coming from whom, and at some points the ensemble breaks apart into three separate fields of individual activity. I’m hoping that the audience’s focus will be constantly moving around the ensemble, as that sort of thing makes a piece of music really exhilarating to experience.
Have you established a standard method of composing or is each piece unique?
I certainly have a ‘groove’ that I get into when I’m composing, but I’m still very conscious of not making all of my pieces sound the same. One of the tricky things about learning how to be a composer is finding a balance between having a voice and language that you can claim as uniquely yours, but not churning out the same piece over and over, and I’ve watched many composers fall too far on either side of that spectrum. For me I try and focus each work on a different visual or extra-musical idea (an image, poem or place, for example) that can take the audience into a unique world, but across every work I still have a very ‘Turley’ way of doing things.
Pencil and manuscript or computer?
Honestly, both are equally frustrating. I wish I could just Bluetooth my brain into a computer and write scores telepathically.
With Greywing Ensemble. Photo Bohdan Warchomij.
You’ve been composing since high school. You made a brave choice in pursuing it for a career; Australia is not renowned for appreciating its own composers! Why did you choose composition?
I caught the bug, unfortunately. In my teenage years I was immersed in a very musical environment, and I became obsessed with deconstructing the language of music, learning as much as I could about how and why everything works the way it does. It’s so mystifying to me how something as mundane as a vibration in the air can produce such intense physical and emotional responses in us. I spent as much time as I could exploring this process, eventually making my own music just as a means of understanding. When I finished school it was a little tempting for me to go and do Law or something nice like that but by that point I had such a deep fascination with music that anything else would have made me quite unhappy. Yes, Australian composers have a very difficult time getting people interested in their music, but I am really determined to make everything work and I’m not going to give up without a fight. There are lots of things that can go alongside composing really nicely – arranging, engraving, conducting, teaching, researching, producing, administrating – so it’s not as if I’m lost for things to do.
You are having a remarkably successful year including wining the Penrith Symphony Orchestras Young Composer Award and being selected for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Composer School, plus upcoming performances of your works in Texas, Mexico City, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. Where to from here?
I’m still at that point in my life where everything is really new, and I’m just trying to pull things together into some semblance of a freelance career. 2017 for me has been the year that everything has really begun to pick up speed. I’ve got myself to a place where I’m really confident with my craft and my ability to produce good music for people. It’s still a huge rush for me when someone that I barely know from across the country (or in Texas!) is actually interested in what I’m doing and wants to work with me. From here I’m just trying to make as much good music as I can, and I’m trying to diversify as well into areas such as art installation and theatre. There’s lots of stuff in the pipeline!
Listen here to City of Ghosts performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2016.
Mark Applebaum says music should above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music?
It’s hard to argue with that statement. For me I think music just needs to produce a response – emotional, physical, memory, whatever – and the more intense the response the more powerful the music.
You have a soft spot for saxophone. You’ve composed a Sax Quartet, a Sax Concerto, a work for Sax and piano and another for Sax and cello. What is the appeal of this instrument?
I never set out to write so much for saxophone! It all happened because one of my close friends from uni (David Gioia) is a saxophonist, and he is incredible. I’m completely in awe of how he’s able to paint melody with an astonishing amount of precision and nuance. Together we found that his style of playing was really well suited to my style of writing, so we collaborated on all of those pieces that you just mentioned. We even recorded an album together which will be released in the near future. That kind of ongoing collaboration ended up being very significant in my development as a composer.
'Ink' with Alex Turley piano and David Gioia saxophone
Who are your music heroes?
My heroes are the people around me – young composers and young artists in general – that are taking risks, producing great work, making things happen and being lovely people in the process. Lachlan Skipworth, Dan Thorpe, Josten Myburgh, Lisa Cheney, Peggy Polias, Connor D’Netto, Bec Smith, Kezia Yap, Samuel Smith, Sally Greenaway, Tim Newhouse, Cassie To, Sam Wolf, to name just a few!
What is your favourite place in Perth?
The beach near my old house, lovely place to take my dogs at sunset!
Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music?
I love taking photos, I’m also a huge fan of visual art and theatre, I’ve recently become quite obsessed with architecture, I travel as much as I can afford to, I try and keep up to date with feminism, I’m obsessed with interior design… the list goes on! I also work in a fancy-ish restaurant and I actually really enjoy it (weird, I know).
Thank you Alex Turley for participating in the Celebrity Soft Spot series. You can read an interview with Alex here at CutCommon mag and listen to a Making Waves podcast here. For more details about Alex and his work go to alexturley.com. Future performances:
29th August: World premiere of Blue Heat by Intercurrent, State Theatre Centre. Program also includes works by Julian Day, Chris Tonkin, Hannah Lash and Philip Glass.2 Sep: Between the Ocean and the Sky performed by Jonathan Thompson, a PhD oboist from Texas who has commissioned composers from all over the world via the internet. 10 Sep: New Commission (piano duet) performed by Liam Viney and Anna Grinberg, Queensland Art Gallery. This is a part of a concert series called ARGO that seeks to take classical music out of the concert hall and into interactive spaces. They are playing the piece from either sides of an indoor lake.28 Oct: New Commission (orchestra) performed by the Penrith Symphony Orchestra in Sydney as part of the Young Composer Award.
I was delighted to be able to review the Women in the Creative Arts conference recital for The Australian newspaper. The concert featured the Muses Trio, an ensemble remarkable both for their charisma and for their focus on performing music by women. Their dedication to performing the eight works on the program included a month of workshops with the composer (sometimes via skype). Four of the composers were present for the performance and gave insightful introductions to their works. The concert was richly thought provoking and often very beautiful, a fitting centrepiece for a conference celebrating women in the arts.
Christa Powell, Therese Milanovic and Louise King. Photo William Hall
"I’ll let you in on Australia’s best kept secret: our nation has one of the highest proportions of women composers in the world. Last week more than a hundred people gathered at the Australian National University to celebrate the diverse work of women who make up 26% percent of Australian composers, sound artists and improvising artists.
The centrepiece of the Women in the Creative Arts conference was a Friday night concert by Queensland’s The Muses Trio who performed eight works for piano trio chosen from around 100 international score submissions. Pianist Therese Milanovic, violinist Christa Powell and cellist Louise King’s authoritative interpretations were inflected with humanity and detail, marred only by a rather boomy piano (half-stick the lid!) and occasional mis-pitches in the violin.
Queensland-based Nicole Murphy’s Spinning Top opened the concert. Breathless repeated figures, harmonic stasis and some off-kilter syncopation gave this piece a self-contained perpetual motion. Minimalist patterns also underpinned US composer Jean Ahn’s A Flash of Ravel where Ravelian snippets were fragmented and juxtaposed with sections of string pizzicato and harmonics."
Despite the chilly Canberra weather the atmosphere this past week at the Women in the Creative Arts conference has been incredibly warm. The academic papers, panels, performances and the rigorous discussions were all under-girded with encouragement and cheers of support.
WICA composers, performers, academics. Photo William Hall
I was able to witness the impact Women of Note has had in the landscape, something I hadn't realised from Perth. I was told countless stories about how my book had influenced people in their commissioning, their perfoming, and their careers.
Photo William Hall
I was overwhelmed by how much people felt supported and affirmed by my work. And it was so exciting to see the next generation of composers learning from the work of their forebears:
"....I confess to my shame I hadn't heard of Margaret Sutherland before now..."..
".... a couple of years ago I read your book and decided I wanted to meet Helen Gifford, to see her, to commission her..."
"...the bridge building you are doing for the music industry is so important..."
Liza Lim, Natalie Williams, Mathew Dewey (ABC), Naomi Johnson (ABC), Lisa Cheney
There are are significant changes afoot around the visibility and celebration of our women composers and I am so excited to be part of it. 47 papers, 4 recitals, 5 keynotes and 3 panels later I think some of the changes are going to stick this time around. In the immediate future:
* Cat Hope has offered to host the conference next year at Monash.
* Vanessa Tomlinson will be rollling out her research from Queensland University to include every tertiary institution documenting the works that are being performed in graduation recitals.
* Joanna Drimatis is collating a database of graded works for performance by schools and community groups.
Add that to the ongoing work from the Hildegard Commissioning Project, the findings from the APRA/AMCOS commissioned report on results from RMIT research, the Skipping a Beat report, the Australian Women Screen Composers report, and there is a sense of growing awareness and action toward increasing visibility for women composers.
I'll post my keynote paper soon to add to the discussion.
With the magnificent composer Judith Clingan
I have the satisfied feeling that my book has done what it was meant to do.I sold out of copies of Women of Note at the conference. Which means my print run with Fremantle Press is finished and it is time for an eBook.
So now it is time to head back home to my family, filled with a warm glow, and work out where to from here.
Huge thanks to Natalie Williams and ANU for hosting this incredible event.
The Australian String Quartet launched their Homeward national tour in Perth on Wednesday night. The quartet is eighteen months into their new configuration (their line-up seems to change as often as the prime minister!) and the players seem relaxed and settled at the Government House Ballroom. Dale Barltrop and Francesca Hiew (violins), Stephen King (viola) and Sharon Grigoryan (cello) are unashamedly young and hip, performing standing with their iPad scores, designer clothes and bundles of energy. The enormous sound they muster from their exquisite set of Guadagnini instruments is velveteen, crisp and well-integrated under the egalitarian leadership style of Barltrop.
Britten’s String Quartet No 1 was a fascinating exploration of sounds and textures by the then-young English composer brimming with ideas. The first movement’s cluster chords and shrouded melody were given an eerie chill while the second movement had thrilling gear changes between angular chunks, bright pizzicato and racing scale passages. The doleful solo violin melody in the third movement gave way to a chorale played with organ-like richness. The quartet’s assertive, clean finale revealed an unguarded joy that was a delight to watch.
Australian composer Paul Stanhope’s String Quartet No 2 was premiered by the Pavel Haas Quartet in 2009 and was well worth revisiting. It continued where the Britten left off with an intriguing mix of musical ideas. Motifs from East Europe and the Middle East coloured the work, making reference to the Czech composer Pavel Haas who died in Auschwitz. Melodies were inflected with trembling bowing, pitch sliding and trills, while energetic syncopations and percussive effects lent a folk feel. The weary melody in the third movement Dirge was hauntingly played by cello and violin while the lurching dance of the finale, with its chugging accompaniment and off-beat rhythms was given almost rock ‘n’ roll swagger.
Following on from the explosive creativity of the first half, the Dvorak’s String Quartet No 13 was quite simply uninteresting. Perhaps it was the lack of musical direction from the ensemble - the famed Adagio was numbing and the fiery finale lacked ebullience - or perhaps it was simply an anticlimax after the more adventurous repertoire? If the programmers were looking for a safe romantic contrast they should’ve looked further; the work lacks lyrical moments and is rhythmically quite square. Either way it was an uninspired performance and a disappointing end to what was otherwise an exciting concert.
This review first published in Limelight magazine August 2017.
Let's start this month's gig guide with Tura New Music, who are having a busy winter! In August Tura will support the workshop of Cat Hope's experimental opera Speechless in Adelaide plus tour to Warmun for a 3 week regional residency where Jon Rose will, in collaboration with the local community, turn a car wreck into a musical instrument. Tura is also producing the next Scale Variable concert featuring Intercurrent on August 29th. The 4-piece Intercurrent have an impressive program planned including a recent work by Hannah Lash and THREE premieres by Chris Tonkin, Julian Day and Alex Turley. Finally the organisation have been involved with a sound art, video and sculpture installation called Scarasson which will be presenting nightly performances at the State Buildings from August 1-6th.
Keep an eye out for string quartets this month: the Australian String Quartet kick off their national tour in Perth on August 2nd with a program including Dvorak Britten and Australian composer Paul Stanhope. I haven't yet heard the new lineup of players, so if you have let me know what you think. The popular Takacs Quartet is also in town on the 10th performing Haydn. Mozart and the world premiere of Carl Vine's 6th String Quartet Child's Play. This will be the launch of their national Musica Viva tour.
The West Australian Symphony Orchestra will celebrate a 20 year association with conductor Simone Young on the 4/5th with a wide-ranging program from Haydn to Brahms and the world premiere of a work by Australian Andrew Schultz. Asher Fisch is in town on the 17-19th to conduct Schubert's great Symphony No 9 with Jayson Gillham joining him for Schumann's Piano Concerto. The following week Fisch will conduct Mahler's 6th Symphony and Karen Gomlo will perform Mozart's Violin Concerto No 3.
On the 11th St George's Cathedral Consort will perform Bach, Bernstein and Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. The Perth Symphony Orchestra are performing their annual Baroque by Candlelight concert on the 23rd at St George's Cathedral. Jessica Gethin will conduct and Paul Wright is concert master: book now as this immersive concert always sells out!
Rochelle Durkin's fiery colloratura soprano will be on display in Baroque Beauties at the Government House Ballroom on the 20th, accompanied by the UWA string orchestra and vocal consort.
On the 12th the WA Academy of Performing Arts will host Geoffrey Lancaster and Stewart Smith playing keyboard works by Bach. Also at WAAPA Karin Schaupp and Claire Edwardes will give a concert on the 18th of all-Australian music for the mellow and sensuous medium of guitar and marimba. On the 24th winner of the 2016 Sydney international Piano Competition Audrey Gugnin will present a recital and on the 26th August WAAPA 3rd year music theatre students will begin their season of Chicago under the direction of Crispin taylor.
Finally the Darlington Piano Quartet will perform Dohnanyi, Brahms and James Ledger's Three Escher Portraits on the 27th at the Darlington Hall. Enjoy!
My Opinion piece for The Guardian was published today.
I
am really pleased to be able to document nationally the exciting energy in the
industry at the moment around women composers. The article is already
generating a storm of comments. Got to love a controversial topic!
Australia's
female composers are having a moment. We need to harness that energy.
“Everything
I’ve ever wanted to do would’ve been easier had I been a boy. But never mind, I
never paid much attention to it, I just marched in and there I was.”
These
fighting words come from Peggy
Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990), arguably the most famous female composer
in her time and one of the first Australian women to march into the
male-dominated world of composition.
Back
then, the costs were high: Glanville-Hicks’s colleague Margaret Sutherland was
married to a psychiatrist who thought a woman wanting to compose music was a
sign of mental illness, while many women had to lie about their gender in order
to be published. The positions on the boards and in the institutions were held
by men who also received the majority of the commissions.
Today
women make up 26% of Australian composers, sound artists and improvising
performers. It’s not close to gender parity but the figures do stack up well
internationally – the only country to fare better is Estonia with 30%. Women
make up about 20% of American and Polish composers but, for most countries, the
average is a woeful 15%.
Women
have also made a significant contribution to Australia’s music history, often
punching above their male contemporaries. Sutherland almost single-handedly
pioneered modernism in Australia music and, in 1938, Glanville-Hicks was the
first person to represent Australia at the International Society of
Contemporary Music. Anne Boyd smashed through the glass ceiling to become the
first woman and first Australian to be appointed professor of music at the
University of Sydney in 1991. Today Liza Lim, Mary Finsterer and Elena
Kats-Chernin are likely to rank higher internationally than their male
contemporaries.
Sadly,
however, the majority of women still struggle with visibility. According to
musicologist Sally Macarthur, women’s music represented only 11% of the works
performed at new music concerts in 2013. In the concert halls where the more
conservative orchestras reside, it is far rarer to hear a work by a female
composer – dead or alive.
But
a new surge of energy is bringing female composers into the spotlight. In
August, hundreds of women, including myself, will gather at the Women in the
Creative Arts conference in Canberra as part of a wave of industry activism –
hopefully, they say, for the last time.
You are about to hear a whole lot more from women in the creative arts. When I was writing my book Women of Note I was surprised to discover that 25% of Australian composers are women. This is more than almost any other country - our best kept secret! However despite the statistics it became clear from my interviews and research that many women still struggle with visibility issues. The majority of commissions by far go to male composers, who also hold most of the positions in institutions and on boards.
Logo for the Women in the Creative Arts Conference
That is beginning to change. In August the Australian National University is holding a Women in the Creative Arts Conference. The key note speakers are Liza Lim and Cat Hope and the conference has already attracted over 100 delegates across a range of art forms. Conference director Natalie Williams hopes the conference will "provide an opportunity for research professionals to gather, present their methodologies, discuss the unique issues surrounding the creative arena, and propose strategies to enhance and enrich their working lives as strong members of an international cultural and artistic voice. The gathering will feature a rich exchange of research ideas, including round-table discussions and panels that develop and enhance practices for women in the creative fields." The WICA conference is riding the crest of activist revival addressing the visibility issue for women composers. Other developments include Musica Viva's Hildegard Project established last year, the first national program designed to encourage and commission women composers. The appointments of Cat Hope as Head of Music at Monash University and Liza Lim at the University of Sydney are also significant. Lim will be involved with the National Women Composers' Development Program, another recent development tackling the issue of mentoring emerging women composers. Hope has been part of a research team collecting data on the working life of arts practitioners. Some of these ideas are quite innovative and it is significant they are all happening at once - four years ago when I wrote Women of Note there was nothing like this occurring. I am particularly excited about the ANU conference; I have been invited to present a paper on Women of Note and I am looking forward to catching up with east coast networks. I don't know of any other Australian conference like this for composers. The last women composers' conference was in the nineties when there were gatherings around Australia that were significant for galvanizing support for women in composition and contributing to an increase in the numbers of women composers. I have high expectations for this one. Especially given the current proactive climate around women in the arts. Could women composers be leading Australia's fourth wave feminist revival??
Voyces is a group of 30-or-so young things directed by Dr Robert Braham and dedicated to high quality choral music. Five years in and Voyces has the hallmarks of a well-established group with a loyal following – their Saturday night concert at Government House Ballroom sold out! What really sets them apart is their emphasis on music by Australian composers and their concert was a window into the fabulous music currently being written for choral groups.
Vocyes. photo Nik Babic
The concert opened with a lively version of Waltzing Matilda by Ruth McCall, of Song Company fame. A chant in Aboriginal dialect set up a rhythmic dance feel which contrasted with spooky harmonies for “And his ghost can be heard...”. The choir sang with energy and proved themselves adept at harmonic overtone singing, a vocal technique requiring the singer to manipulate their vocal cavity to produce multiple sounds from the harmonic series. It gave an otherworldly feel and was part of the melting pot of ideas McCall drew on in this quirky piece.
The concert covered a wide variety of poetry including Henry Lawson’s On the Night Train, set by Joseph Twist who also wrote an haunting Lament using Latin text from Giacomo Carissimi’s oratorio Jephte and underpinned by a rhapsodic cello solo performed by Anna Sarcich.
Poetry by Perth’s Kevin Gillam was the inspiration for Iain Grandage’s Wheatbelt, a depiction of the troubled beauty of a rural landscape. The use of percussion and onomatopoeia to depict insects, wind and birds created an evocative sound world offset by the denseness of close harmonies. Printing Gillam’s lyrics in the program notes would’ve deepened the experience even further. Hush had similarly clever use of vocal percussion with Grandage’s characteristic fast rhythmic text settings bursting into soaring lyrical melodies.
As the program continued it became clear that the choir have a penchant for strong, enveloping soundscapes. Dan Walker’s Vast Sea. Sleeping Mother had a rocking string quartet accompaniment amplified by percussion, piano and long unsion vocal lines to create the vast rolling of the sea. Walker’s Hooves of Fate was the group’s first commission in 2015 and Walker’s bold nine-part choral writing and the pounding of hooves conveyed by the percussion packed a hefty dramatic punch. Until now the choir had been singing with a clean, contained quality but after interval the repertoire demanded more and Braham drew a broader, more symphonic choral sound from the group.
Ben Van Tienen’s accessible harmonic language in Across the Dark matched the direct whimsy of Leunig’s poetry. A tongue in cheek tango about the dangerous animal known as Australian politics (excellent piano accompaniment by Ann Clarke) had the audience chuckling while the thick homophonic sound of Lonely Mother Earth made a powerful lament. Van Tienen’s I Carry Your Heart With Me and Matthew Orlovich’s effervescent Butterflies Dance (which suffered occasional pitch issues) were gentle interludes. The concert concluded with the choir at full throttle for Orlovich’s dense setting of Judith Wright’s poem Night. A didgeridoo solo by Steve Richter established a weighty pulse and the piece unfolded with the ponderous density of Wright’s ‘great tree’ as four percussionists added their layers to the choir, creating a stunning orchestral density.
Voyces debut album Hush
It’s clear Voyces like their concerts to be a vivid aural experience and the good news is now you can take it home with you; the concert marked the launch of their debut album Hush, featuring the all-Australian repertoire we heard at the concert in a crisp, warm recording.
The Hush album is available from www.voyces.com.au, iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. Voyces next concert is Tundra on September 16th.
June is a rich month of music for all the ages; dive in and enjoy!
It is particularly action-packed for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra who will present four mainstage orchestral concerts plus the explosive energy of Education Week with its multiple concerts for children and their families.
This year for Education Week (19-25th) WASO has invited award winning British composer and music educationist Paul
Rissmann us for a week-long musical adventure exploring gorgeous
children's books across a variety of interactive programs. The concerts include school shows Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants, The Beat of Your Feet and The Lion Who Loved plus a Conductor Masterclass with Ben Northey. The Rusty Orchestra is also back with a concert on the 24th June featuring community musicians playing alongside WASO players in a concert with the biggest amount of heart you're likely to hear.
If you have children come with us on Sunday
25th - we will be checking out the family concert The Beat of Your Feet, about a music-loving dog and cat and their musical
adventure to find the Greatest Orchestra in the World. The concert is a mix of music, illustrated projections and audience participation, based
on the book Stan and Mabel by Jason Chapman with vocals by Libby Hammer.
Meanwhile the rest of the music community has some lovely offerings this month, including two particularly stunning vocal concerts: the Giovanni Consort singing French Chansons on the 4th, and Voyces on the 10th celebrating their fifth anniversary with a concert of all-Australian music and the launch of their debut album Hush.
On the 11th there is a a triple whammy with the Darlington Trio offering Brahms, Musica Viva launching their national tour of the Pacifica Trio (including a world premiere by Nigel Westlake) and the experimental trio The Necks presented by Tura New Music.
Perth Chamber Orchestra (the little sister of Perth Symphony) is performing an intriguing concert in Midland on the 14th called Steampunk Mozart, which promises industrial-inspired music, food, wine, a sound installation and the magic of Mozart conducted by Jessica Gethin. Then in larger form the Perth Symphony Orchestra will also perform on the 27th with the WA Academy of Performing Arts Gospel Choir in a concert dedicated to the music of George Michael.
Also on at WAAPA this month is the second and third year students performance of 42nd Street opening on the 17th.
St George’s Cathedral was strung with microphones for the first of four concerts throughout the year which will be broadcast on ABC Classic FM. It’s a testimony to director Joseph Nolan and the Cathedral Consort’s national reputation as a world class choir grounded in the crisp purity of the English choral tradition. The 21-piece Consort performed a program of choral classics spanning the 16th to 21st centuries with Faure’s Requiem as the centrepiece. The pews were reversed so the ensemble could perform from the Narthex on Friday night in close proximity to Stewart Smith in the organ loft.
Two 16th century works opened the program: Victoria’s Alma Redemptoris Mater with its intervals of open fourths and fifths so perfectly tuned the harmonics prickled my skin, and the dense polyphonic energy of Gibbons’ O Clap Your Hands. Nolan conducted with pulsing energy although the section entries were not as precisely in unison as usual.
Smith’s striking organ chords gave a Gothic darkness to the opening of Faure’s Requiem and the work was rich with dramatic poise, notably the velveteen smoothness of the Amen concluding the Offertorium and the swell of sound to illuminate ‘et lux perpetua luceat eis’ in the Agnus Dei.
But the work wasn’t the musical centrepiece I was expecting. I missed the warmth of the orchestral accompaniment; the organ registrations were brittle, phrases clipped short and the rippling accompaniment to Sanctus (famously scored for harp and violin) felt too fast and mechanical. The soloists were tentative: baritone Andrew Foote warmed into the baritone role in his second solo and Edward Micro’s treble was pure and rounded but on the edge of cracking.
Instead William Walton’s The Twelve emerged as the highlight of the program. The biting harmonies and dramatic word painting of Walton’s anthem and mini cantata were sung with vigour and unity. Foote delivered a splendidly declamatory solo and Smith exploded into brillante organ arpeggios. The Consort sung with immaculate diction and rhythmic precision and the ensemble soloists were excellent, particularly the beautifully delivered soprano duo.
The spotlight on individual Consort singers was also the highlight of Charpentier’s Te Deum, providing a rare chance to hear the different timbres within this well-blended ensemble. The organ sat more organically in this arrangement. In fact the entire second half of the program was pristine, concluding with a setting of Ubi Caritas by Perry Joyce (a tenor from the Consort) which was a warmly mellow contrast to Handel’s Zadok the Priest where the choir sang with enormous volume underpinned by Smith’s virtuosic organ semiquavers.
Tune in to ABC Classic FM to hear the broadcast of this concert on Friday 12th May at midday.
This review first published in Limelight Magazine May 2017.
First we had the American all-stars Eighth Blackbird, now we have the Russians and the Brits! It is an exciting time over the next few weeks as Perth welcomes some of the legends of the international new music scene.
British experimental musician and filmmaker Mike Cooper arrives in Perth this week for a 10 day residency with Tura New Music.
Mike Cooper. Photo Leila Buongiorno
A week of workshops, masterclasses and solo performances will culminate in the presentation of Cooper's genre defining live original soundtrack to the 1928 black and white classic, White Shadows In The South Seas. Audiences will be able to hear Cooper create vast sonic landscapes using his trademark Hawaiian Lap Steel guitar and electronics. He calls his music ambient electronic exotica style which is appropriate for a Brit living in Rome who collects Hawaiian shirts!
Cooper began his career as a folk-blues guitarist and singer songwriter and his output has expanded to include improvised and electronic music, live music for silent films, radio art and sound installations. He is also a music journalist, a visual artist, film and video maker and appears on more than 60 records.
Residency details:
22 and 23 April - Group Improvisation workshops at Subiaco Arts Centre
23 April 5pm - Workshop Showing, Subiaco Arts Centre
24 April 8pm - Solo set at iMprov Bar 459, Rosemount Hotel
26 April 8pm- White Shadows In The South Sea – Film and live performance PS Art Space, Fremantle.
The Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble will be arriving shortly after Cooper for a concert on May 2nd as part of the ensemble's first Australian tour. The group will perform as part of Tura's Scale Variable New Chamber Music series, providing a rare opportunity to hear Russian new music performed by their fellow countrymen. The program includes works by Russian composers Edison Denisov, Alexei Sioumak, Dmitri Kourliandski and Sergei Newski. plus the premiere of a new work by Australian composer Michael Smetanin.New Music
The group formed in 1990 and have since premiered over 800 works. The Perth line up will feature Ivan Bushuev (flute), Oleg Tantsov (clarinet), Mikhail Dubov (piano) and Vladisal Pesin (violin).
I managed to snap a selfie with composer Kate Neal last night at the world premiere of her work Never Tilt a Chair. The work sat most satisfyingly alongside Mauricio Kagel's iconic Dressur which was receiving it's long-overdue Australian premiere.
with composer Kate Neal
Hooray for Tura New Music and PICA for bringing it about. I am impressed again by Louise Devenish - yet another awesome contribution to the Perth new music scene, with the support of her fellow leading theatre-music percussionists Leah Scholes and Vanessa Tomlinson. I love concerts like these: so much to see, so much to hear.
The set for Never Tilt Your Chair
Leah Schole, Vanessa Tomlinson and Louise Devenish
Kate Miller-Heidke’s national orchestral tour is a polished package. The tour (which includes Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart and Canberra) features Miller-Heidke’s guitarist husband Keir Nuttall, classy orchestral arrangements, a slick sound and lighting team and visuals by video artist Amy Gebhardt.
The WA Symphony Orchestra was the first to sign up for a show with the classically trained opera turned indie pop singer after her Helpmann Award-winning orchestral debut with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra last year. WASO has sizable experience in the crossover genre from collaborations with the likes of The Whitlams, Katie Noonan, Tim Minchin, Chick Corea and many others over the decades. Under conductor Benjamin Northey the components came together seamlessly with the versatile Miller-Heidke at the epicentre, part pop princess and part operatic diva.
The concert attracted a sold-out audience of fans to the Perth Concert hall and Miller-Heidke walked on stage to rapturous applause. The opening number Bliss was unsettled - a rushed beginning and balance issues between orchestra and an overly amplified soloist – but as the orchestra melted from pizzicato to lush chords and Gebhardt’s cloud images floated by Miller-Heidke’s voice softened into ethereal shades.
Benjamin Northey ran a tight ship steering a sympathetic orchestra. The songlist spanned the breadth of Miller-Heidke’s output and her theatrical writing style was enhanced further by the orchestral accompaniment. In O Vertigo the bird-like coloratura vocal line was echoed joyfully by the flute while the strings and percussion rocked along with Nuttall on guitar. Mama, arranged by Northey, had echoes of Queen with vocal screams, heavy rock drumming and dense string backing. In contrast the acoustic version of Caught in the Crowd had a folk narrative style that brought to mind The Waifs. The lilting arrangement of In The Dark was particularly effective with a brass chorale creating a moody lullaby.
Two songs from The Rabbits, an opera written in collaboration with Iain Grandage, revealed the immaculate vocal technique underpinning Miller-Heidke’s spinto soprano with feather-light scale passages, an earthy low range, steely top notes and a wide vibrato. The arrangement of Where was particularly stunning with pastoral woodwind, strings and moments of cinematic vastness.
Gebhardt’s videography included slow motion images of nude bodies and Andalusian horses, evocations of beauty, power, gentleness and freedom that worked particularly well with more spacious numbers like Bliss and Last Day on Earth.
Miller-Heidke’s irreverent sense of humour, expressed musically in songs like You Underestimated Me, Dude and Are you F*cking Kidding Me manifested onstage in banter with the orchestra - who apparently party harder than rock n roll artists - and droll stories about touring and family life (their son Ernie was described as their latest release arriving ten months ago). Miller-Heidke’s wit will be put to the test later in the year with the debut of her first musical Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical.
Nuttall delivered several generous guitar solos, including an extended improvisation in Johannes Luebber’s jazz-inflected arrangement of Words revealing impressive guitar chops. Jazz licks morphed into heavy rock grooves and even flamenco theatrics, laden with effects from the mixing desk. In fact the sound engineers were busy all night adding often overt effects to both the vocal and guitar parts.
It was a night richly laden with artistry and entertainment. Miller-Heidke can add another feather to the proverbial
cap, although she would probably prefer a flamboyant headdress.
This article first published in Limelight magazine 2017.
The WA Academy of Performing Arts is in full swing this month. Concerts include Clocked Out Duo percussion stars Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold performing on the 4th and renowned English conductor Nicholas Cleobury leading vocal students in a performance featuring Tippett's Negro Spirituals on the 6th.
The school of music at UWA is also hitting full steam with a Mainstage Concert on the 9th featuring Shaun Lee-Chen and the student orchestra performing a world premiere by jazz composer Joe Chindamo. On the 28th the Schoenberg Project will feature student arrangements of Schoenberg's Six Little Piano Pieces plus an arrangement by Brett Dean from when he was a student - it could be very revealing!
Thank you Louise Devenish for this update: On April 10-11th an unusual gig at PICA called Never Tilt Your Chair Back on Two Legs brings together three of Australia's leading female percussionists for Maurice Kagel's music theatre piece Dressur. Set at a formal dinner table, the theme of dinner time etiquette will also be explored in a new work by Kate Neal.
The Australian String Quartet take over Margaret River from the 21-23rd for a Chamber Music weekend - what's not to love?!
The WA Symphony Orchestra go retro with The Best of British on the 7th before a Sibelius fest on 20/21/22 with Asher Fisch conducting the second symphony and concert master Laurence Jackson in Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. On the 28/29th the Zuckerman Trio join the orchestra for Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman also featuring in Berg's Violin Concerto.
Let me know if I've missed anything. See you at a concert soon!
International Women's Day is tomorrow: 8th March, Here are some ways to listen to music by Australian women composers as part of your day.
Andrew Ford from the Music Show has done a fascinating interview with composer Liza Lim, recently returned to Australia to take up a post at the University of Sydney. She is profiled alongside pianist Jeanell Carrigan who has written a book and recorded an album of early 20th century women composers and their piano music. To listen to the interview go here.
The new music podcast Making Waves have released their March playlist titled Social Activism Waves: music that interrogates or reflects on different aspects of society including gender politics.
Tune in to ABC Classic FM to enjoy listening to their all-women program. While I'm driving to Joondalup Library to present my Musical Soiree I'll be listening to Mairi Nicolson broadcast music by women composers (Betty Beath, Ann Carr-Boyd, Cathie Travers, Ros Bandt) who are featured in my book Women of Note. A perfect way to set the scene!
For those whose voice isn't being heard, I can think of nothing more appropriate and healing than Betty Beath playing her Lament.
I’m always interested to follow the progress of composers from Women of Note. Elena Kats-Chernin’s output continues at an incredible speed. Her many fans will be pleased to know her latest album is another collaboration with pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska, this time with Eric Satie as the muse. Unsent love letters contains 26 miniatures by Kats-Chernin inspired by Satie’s extraordinary life and music.
“Satie’s life was a fascinating, fervoursome affair,” says pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska, who recorded the album, “from the first strike of love and then lifelong estrangement with artist and muse Suzanne Valadon, to the unexpected celebrity and conflict of his last ten years. After he died friends, gaining access to his apartment for the first time in almost three decades, found conditions both perplexing and romantically fastidious in their own way: two grand pianos one atop the other, one chair, one table, seven velvet suits and the love letters – many, many unsent love letters.”
The album reflects on idiosyncrasies and anecdotes from Satie’s life, with music that ranges from seductive orientalism to hypnotic melodies reminiscent of the ground-breaking, transcendent beauty of Satie’s own piano pieces. Kats-Chernin's miniature ‘imaginary building’ reflects on Satie's sketches of imaginary buildings (which he even advertised in the newspaper for rent and purchase); ‘very shiny’is a reflection on one of his characteristically opaque performance directions and ‘postcard to a critic’ is named after Satie’s explosive response to a negative review (leading to a spell in gaol).
Kats-Chernin and Cislowska
The buoyant rhythms and rhapsodic harmonic style that have brought Kats-Chernin a reputation as one of the best-loved composers of her generation provide the perfect lens to reflect on a musical great of the previous century. Together Kats-Chernin and Cislowska The album is released today by Universal Music and available from ABC Shops and iTunes.
