Musical Compositions

Orchestral Music:

After a number of years as a brass player in bands, with elementary music theory, but with a love for the classical orchestra music, I privately undertook what was a four year course in orchestration in the Conservatorium. I completed the course in eight months.

I immediately composed an overture for orchestra “The Australian Settlement Opus 1”, a work of 11.5 minutes duration, which was very well received both in public performance and broadcast, There are three extracts of the orchestra composition in the first items following.

Rondo de Nuit (Dance of the Night) – contemporary dance theater
Duration 8min 30sec

I saw this as a dance for solo dancer who mainly through mime, lighting and minimal staging portrays a lonely tenement dweller arriving home each day to an empty unit. When night falls the character ventures out into the night and the garish neon lights to find company – but must return to the tenement building always alone.

Being a composer of dance music requires such a striving for emotion and animation in a composition.

This genre contains every element for stage productions: songs; acting; theatre lighting and staging; musical plays; a challenge to all composers to make it all hang together. But what excitement! A chance to really capture the audience emotionally from the highs to the lows – the Ancient Mariner, a classic tale, has all the elements with a great moral lesson at the heart of it. And Aesop’s In Town humorously uses all the theatrical devices to look at a series of adult foibles to engage its audience.

Rondo De Nuit (see “Dance Theater tab) is a Piano Trio viz. Violin, Cello and Piano 8.5 minutes duration). It is contemporary music with the sound suggesting high pitched, altercating voices of noisy tenement dwellers, created by using a metal object stroked quickly back and forth across the piano strings. The results are quite effective in contrast to the pleasant sounds of the traditional instruments.

The Octet Music Ensemble has been created following a dream I experienced which had only one character – Paganini the famous 19th century violinist. He played a theme I had never heard. I wrote down what he played as a solo and orchestrated the composition. I actually had to moderate some of the solo work to make it playable by most generally accomplished violinists.

I wanted to write something purely for a string ensemble and commenced a string quartet. The first movement (3 min 50sec) has been completed but never performed. Maybe time or a commission may help see it completed into a contemporary chamber music piece.

I have forever been told that ALL my music arrangements paint pictures and that I should be writing for film. However while my compositions appear to be music based on paintings the images are in my subconscious mind. Many times music comes to me and I do not know what was the inspiration other than the music I hear. If I retrace my steps I realize that it could be that it is the environment that I was in at the time which evoked a certain feeling. I do look at beautiful art works and if I allowed myself I am sure there would certainly be created some composition what may be described as music based on art. The titles of the extracts below will create images merely by the reading of the titles and those images will be further coloured by the music itself.

I was lightheartedly challenged to show that anyone who claimed to be a composer should be able to write in any genre. The librettist Helen Banks wrote the lyrics for Blue Jeans Man and the resultant Country and Western song was born.

The same challenge was leveled in respect of writing a ballad and with Helen’s lyrics “Photographs” came into being, sung here by David Comacho of Sacramento.

Friends of mine were getting married and Helen Banks again collaborated with me to write a “popular music” type song for them and “The Wedding Song” was composed. My friends called off the wedding and the song has been sitting on the shelf ever since. It has great lyrics and is very appropriate for the occasion.
‘Bout The Wonderful Tree” was written during the United Nations “Year of the Tree” and sung by a friend Bill Brown backed by a group of junior Girl Scouts. I wrote the lyrics as well – it’s a great kids’ song I feel. Has a couple of nice messages in it in a fun way.