BY CAROL SAFFER
A troupe of minstrels, a melody of harpists, and an orchestra of musicians are collective nouns used in the music world.
So, what could you call a collection of six composers whose works are being performed at the Australian Composers’ Concert on 8 April? Well, why not a clef of composers?
As musicians and composers, the six – Benjamin Bates, Carol Dixon, Julian Yu, Kitty Xiao, Natasha Lin and Robert Dora – share a lot of similarities: passion, expertise, dedication and tenacity. However, what is it that makes each of them unique?
CutCommon goes search of their drop of distinctiveness, their ooze of originality, asking each of the six composers a different question.
Principal double bassist and composer Benjamin Bates kicked off his musical career in 1988. Nomadic Ben finally settled in Melbourne in 2010, where he has played with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Corpus Medicorum, Heidelberg Symphony, Australasian Orchestra and Melbourne Opera, amongst others. Ben co-curates this Australian Composers’ Concert with Carol Dixon.
Ben’s response to how often do you discuss your composing with other composers and/or musician was “very rarely”.
“I haven’t really known other composers until about three years ago, and I’ve been writing well before that. With musicians, I generally discuss limitations, nuances, and dynamics of their instruments. My ideas are purely my own.”
Ben’s Symphony No. 1 took 22 years to write and, together with his Suite in A minor, will be performed at the concert.
Composer Carol Dixon graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) majoring in Composition with Julian Yu, after a long and varied career outside the musical world. Co-curating the concert with Ben epitomises Carol’s vision to involve emerging and established Australian composers with audiences.
CutCommon’s question, what is the usual gestation period of your compositions, was a tough one for Carol.
She explains “the most thrilling part of being a composer for me is being immersed in a kind of binding, committed love relationship with the music. This is where the music takes on a life of its own, where I am taken in by it and it shows me exactly what it wants. The opening three-minute movement took a few weeks to write this year, but only once I knew very clearly what material I wanted to use. By contrast, the third movement, about seven minutes long, took six months last year. ”
Award-winning and world-renowned composer Julian Yu was born in Beijing in 1957 and settled in Australia in 1985. Julian believes that quality and beauty in music comes from something deeper than the sound produced; that they spring from the pattern of thought, the inner laws or structure of the music, and that it is this inner pattern which gives integrity and individual character to a work.
Not surprisingly, his reply to what would you like to be if you weren’t composer, was “an architect”.
Julian elaborates: “The two professions are quite similar, as both are essentially creative and combine structure with aesthetics. You aim to create an environment in which people’s lives can flow freely, bringing both enjoyment and fulfilment to society at large. Architecture also deals with the relationship between the traditional and the contemporary, a topic that has always interested me.”
Kitty Xiao is an Australian composer, pianist, collaborative artist and founder of Nimbus Trio. A graduate award recipient, she commences this year a Master of Music (Composition) at the Eastman School of Music in New York. She has performed in Britain, Denmark, and the United States. Kitty is founder and artistic director of the Six Piano Collective.
When CutCommon asked Kitty, what is the first thing you do when composing, she replied: “Anything but compose, I call it sponging”.
“It involves sifting through my influences, looking for new inspiration in works created. This does not involve just music but other art, whether visual, literature, or film. Spending time with different people who give me different perspectives – often collaborators – is a big part of the process.”
Primarily known as a concert pianist, Natasha Lin is a passionate artist exploring the intersection between music and wellbeing. Her training as a Registered Music Therapist inspired her interest and practice as a pianist-composer. With a strong storytelling style to her works, Natasha will premiere two of her sketches of piano stories in a solo performance at the concert.
Natasha’s answer to who inspires you to compose is a who’s-who list of instrumental film score composers.
“I was first captivated by the sounds of Klaus Badelt from his The Time Machine score, which led me to explore works by other big names such as Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, John Powell, Steve Jablonsky, Thomas Newman and Yann Tiersen – just to name a few! [However] I think Chopin really planted the seed in my compositional style for his fluidly pianistic writing.”
Robert Dora is conductor of the Australian Composers’ Concert. He is chief conductor of the Australasian Orchestra, Melbourne Lawyers’ Orchestra, Monash Medical Orchestra, Monash University Choral Society, and Preston Symphony Orchestra. Also a composer, Robert is a powerful advocate for the performance of new and established Australian compositions.
Yet when asked what was the first music that inspired him to compose, Robert acknowledged the music of Dmitri Shostakovich as the biggest influence on his work. Shostakovich was “an amazing writer of symphonies, concertos [and] much chamber music,” Robert says. “He was also able to produce amazingly delightful melodies.”
At the upcoming concert, the individuality of each of the six composers and their works will harmonise into a chord of their talents. Surely a clef of composers is a suitable collective noun?
See their music in action at the Australian Composers’ Concert, 2pm April 8, St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Richmond.
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