I grew up about a 15-minute walk from the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and its great dome filled with incandescent projections of the skein of the cosmos instilled in me from a young age a love of all things astronomical. All of that goes towards saying I think the shoe may very well fit with this one. All right, the Holst. It begins with MARS, The Bringer of War, which is a straight rip-off of the music playing during that scene in Star Wars where Darth Vadar first steps onto the flight deck of the Death Star. John Williams should seriously consider suing this guy. “Luke…. I am your composer”. Okay, we’ve moved on to VENUS, The Bringer of Peace and I think Francis may be messing with me. Is this not actually the soundtrack from Star Wars? I’m pretty sure this is from the really gross part where Luke and Leia kiss (SPOILER ALERT) before they know they’re brother and sister. It is fairly beautiful, though. MERCURY, The Winged Messenger next. This is marginally less Star Warsy than the first two. Although, let’s be honest: close your eyes while listening to it and it’s not hard to imagine R2-D2…

The orchestra played very well yesterday at the first rehearsal led by Fiona Ziegler, one of the best violinists in Sydney. Today we concentrate on the arias and it is our last chance to focus in on just orchestral matters, as tonight is a full run – all choruses, recits and arias in order. All the soloists are now in Sydney with Sara Macliver joining us from Perth. We had a brief rehearsal last night between calls with the orchestra and chorus but we have now worked with each other for so long that we could probably walk on stage on Saturday night without consultation and just do it. She is a marvelous singer. Tonight is the first full run at the Sydney Opera House. This is about everyone getting used to the pace of the work and adjusting to the acoustic of the hall. I have some last minute changes to some parts to write, a few tweaks to the stage plan and a pair of shoes to buy… so here ends the blog for today.

For various reasons, I’ve neglected this blog for the past two weeks. Firstly, I, like most local uni students, have been frantically trying to combat the usual bombardment of mid-semester assessments. Secondly, the days seem to be getting considerably shorter. Thirdly, and probably most importantly, I’ve been trying to compose. Outside of these activities (and the odd work commitment), I’ve tried to sleep. Right now, though, in a fortunate turn of events, I’m unable to get to sleep. So, it seems a good opportunity to share some recent musical discoveries. To provide some background: the goal I’ve set myself this semester is to explore texture through my major compositional work. In the past, I’ve tended to focus on issues of pitch, rhythm, even articulation and dynamics – but I’ve never made texture a primary tool of musical interest. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that concepts of texture are harder to wrap one’s head around. You can sing a melody, tap a rhythm, etc. But when it comes to understanding and explaining mass sound events, things can get confusing. One composer I’ve been listening to in an attempt to get the creative (and analytical) juices flowing is György Ligeti. Ligeti…

Coffee – start the day Email – quick check to see of there is anything urgent Viola parts – must get them finished Hayfever – damn… Rehearsing recitative – essentially spoken text inflected on pitch and accompanied by a few instruments – is a very exhausting process requiring a great deal of concentration as decisions have to be made as to where you place the chords, how long they should be, who should play them and at what level of intensity. Sometimes the instruments are functional, telling the singer what pitch to speak the text on. At other times, they take on an interpretive function to highlight the injustice of an action, the frustration of a character or a metaphorical rendering of an idea. Bach essentially left a blueprint for the recitative and all of these aspects are worked out over the course of the recitative calls. The process is as follows: the conductor sends out a marked up score with his suggestions; in the first rehearsal they are refined, discarded, added to and then, over the course of the next three days, they are repeated so that they sound free and spontaneous. This is what happened yesterday in the…

It’s a balancing act – I do not feel it is my role to impose. Rather, my role is to provide the means by which each chorister is prepared for the performance so that the meaning of this gospel becomes a personal journey. Also, one’s search for meaning commences many months before the first call with the choir. Once in rehearsal, it is not so much verbalising one’s ideas as to finding the technical means to achieve it. Every time one asks for an accent here or a softer section here, it is because of the deeper philosophical response to the work, even if this is not articulated as such at the time. Only this way can you deal with the broad range of both religious and non-religious views. You can only remain open to possibility and do the E.M. Forster. Sunday was a full-day workshop on choral singing with the emphasis on Bach’s chorales as a blueprint for the next 150 years of tonal harmony. It finished with a panel discussion with Penny Gay, Emeritus Professor of English at Sydney University and Paul McMahon, tenor extraordinaire who will sing the role of the Evangelist in our performance on Saturday….

Considering how regularly you have to hear the theme music of your chosen news source, you want it to be good. I tend to get my news from the ABC, who, historically, have done good work in this area. The venerable old warhorse Majestic Fanfare is still used on ABC radio nearly 80 years after its composition by Charles Williams – impressive longevity indeed, and a bit of tweaking by Richard Mills hasn’t done it any harm at all. Here’s one version of it: Here’s another ABC news theme that many will remember fondly – the Tony Ansell/Peter Wall music for the ABC’s evening news bulletin, that was used from 1985 to 2005. Here it is, sans Richard Morecroft: Now, the above two themes use fairly traditional musical tropes, and use them well. The prominence of brass instruments – the arpeggiated, almost military theme of the Fanfare, the solo trumpet in the later piece – unmistakeably heralds the bulletin. The music gets your attention immediately with its arresting gestures: the pomp and circumstance of Fanfare‘s splendid full orchestra, Ansell/Wall’s rhythmic call-and-response, and, later on, its equally rhythmic stabbing chords. Both main melodies are eminently singable. The harmonic patterns and textural…

Coffee no.1 at exactly 8.00am on Friday morning. A little tired after a very long day but a really exciting rehearsal with the singers last night. We did not get through the entire work but already I can feel that this will be a very special performance of the this piece, especially given the beautiful way the choir are singing the chorales which are rehearsed a cappella, with no accompaniment, to ensure perfect intonation and ensemble. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs are one of the hardest-working choirs in the country and as such may find themselves working on several different programmes at the same time. Having only just finished John Adams’ Harmonium a few weeks ago and with some of the members also singing in a production of The Fellowship of the Rings with Sydney Symphony, while others augment the Festival Chorus in Orff’s Carmina Burana, it is really these last few rehearsals, which tend to be closer together, where the real music-making starts to occur. Individual lines have been mastered, the language has been deconstructed and put back together and the overall shape of the music is being discovered. Last night we also went back to rehearsing “in the round”,…

A core group of twelve cellists – comprising a mixture of professionals and students from the Australian National Academy of Music – performed works by Bunting, Vivaldi (with exquisite solos from Gabriel Schwabe) and Handel. The first half concluded with a work by the festival’s featured composer Anatolijus Senderovas written for master cellist David Geringas, David’s Song. The Baudin String Quartet performed alongside Geringas in this exciting piece, something of a departure from music by Senderovas heard the night before with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. This time he called upon the performers to go beyond their instruments, occasionally shouting, interrupting each other with shrieks and squeals and eventually whispering before Geringas brought the piece to a dramatic close. The concert’s second half began with a solo performance by Geringas of Pablo Casal’s Song of the Birds, marking the debut of the brand new cello that had been built for the festival in a mere 10 days. I might point out that the usual time for construction varies but is usually at a minimum around two-and-a-half months, not including the varnishing process. I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Grant, a Melbourne violin maker who was part of the team…

We are a week away from our final dress rehearsal and many aspects of the production will come together for the first time in the next seven days. Soloists will fly in from around the country, orchestral members will play the work for the first time and the choristers who have been rehearsing weekly on this repertoire will be brought together and drilled in the finer aspects of articulation, enunciation and meaning. Today is D-day for orchestral parts. Let me explain… The orchestra has a very short period of time to rehearse the work and therefore the more detail in terms of bowing, dynamics, articulation and overall shape that is already in the parts (the actual music they play from which contains only an individual line rather than the overall picture), the less talking and the more playing in rehearsals. This band is what we refer to as a “scratch” orchestra in the sense that they are not an established group but they have all been handpicked, not just because they are good players but because they have an affinity with Baroque playing techniques. The first person chosen months in advance is the leader, in this case, Fiona Ziegler, who…

On Wednesday evening, The Tenor In My Life made his Metropolitan Opera début, singing the Drum Major in Berg’s Wozzeck. It was a very proud moment. The Met, of course, is one of those houses — if not the house — which almost every singer hopes to cross off the list, and where the roster for even a single season, let alone the last hundred years, is basically a Who’s Who of opera. It’s not the be all and end all, whatever some New Yorkers might tell you, but it’s massively significant just the same — there aren’t many operatic thrills that can beat a triumphant Met début, and that’s exactly what TTIML pulled off on Wednesday. I know I’m biased, but trust me on this: he aced it. It was also a very proud and exciting moment for me, sitting there in Row P of the stalls and clapping as hard as I could. Believe it or not, years and years ago, when opera first took over my life, I remember setting it as one of my life’s goals to one day be the guest of somebody making their Met début. I’d since forgotten all about it; only recently did…

After an inspiring morning watching David Geringas’ masterclass, I couldn’t help but barricade myself in a practice room for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, applying some of the advice that he had imparted to students and audience. That evening I was thrilled to be attending the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Master Series at the town hall featuring Geringas as soloist. Seated in the dress circle of the Adelaide Town Hall, I found the acoustic well balanced and was close enough to the stage to feel intimately involved in the performance. The concert opened with two movements from Three Miró Pieces by Australian composer Richard Meale. One was left wondering why the third piece wasn’t performed to complete the work! The ASO and Arvo Volmer’s interpretation was full of imagination – an exciting opening to the concert. I particularly enjoyed the wind solos, played with great character and energy. Next was Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Variations on a Rococo Theme. What struck me most was the power and force in Geringas’ sound. Although occasionally overbearing, it felt truly Russian in style and I enjoyed the depth and range of colours he drew from his instrument. It was fitting to reflect on his earlier…

David Geringas, the “celebrity” cellist headlining this year’s festival, presented a masterclass with three students on Saturday morning at the Elder Hall. It was so inspiring I had to write about it! Among the pearls of wisdom he imparted was an overall theme stressing the importance of “finding yourself in the music” while expressing the imagination of the composer.   The class opened with the third-movement cadenza from Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto. Geringas emphasised the importance of creating an atmosphere beyond the notes on the page. What struck me with such passionate work was the way in which Geringas demonstrated “inflections of the spoken word” through music: how the same sequence of notes could be played in an infinite number of ways. The performers had to transport themselves from a sunny morning in Australia to the very dark emotional space Shostakovich inhabits. Expressions of desperation and the occasional glimmers of hope came across with depth and expertise in these student performances. In addition, Geringas stated the importance of understanding who the composer wrote for and the kind of sound he had in mind – in this instance, that of the great Rostropovich, Geringas’ teacher and mentor.   Next we heard…