BY JEANETTE LITTLE, AS TOLD TO STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Melbourne composer Jeanette Little studied her Masters of Music at the University of Melbourne. In 2013 she won the Cybec Young Australian Composers Award, and she has collaborated with Vivid Sydney, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Speak Percussion, and leading brands including Gucci and Stella McCartney. Jeanette talks us through her new music that will be premiered at Play On this October 19.
For Play On, I have curated a program of piano and percussion music inspired by mysticism, ritual, and great heights. The program compromises an 11-minute electronic work Madonna I have composed for presentation using a quadraphonic speaker set-up.
I’ve always been drawn to the resonances of church and temple bells. For me, there is something deeply entrancing about their sonorities, and I thought it would be interesting to create an electroacoustic work using these sounds. The idea seemed to fit the theme of the evening.
The work uses field recordings of church bells and artificial sounds of synthesisers. I intended it to be a calm meditation on the bell, but it has evolved into something quite different. As Morton Feldman once said: “The composer makes plans, music laughs.” Such is creative process!
I like creating dense textures that blur and obscure. The work involves sound manipulation and draws upon some of the music that I enjoy listening to – musique concrète, noise, EDM, and film music. What is it all about? I think I’ll go with Stanley Kubrick’s “I meant what it said”. You’ll have to come, and, hear for yourself.
Play On brings new music into alternative spaces (above).
Play On approached to me to curate a program of music and compose a new work – this is a dream! The series is especially appealing to me as it marries my two interests – classical and electronic music. It seemed like the perfect platform to bring these two worlds together, and experiment with something new.
Most of the music I have written to date as has been composed on scores for classical performers. Over the past few months, I have been doing a residency at Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio under the mentorship of audio-visual artist Robin Fox. It’s been a stimulating time learning about analogue synthesisers and music production. I have been enjoying the autonomy and immediacy of this type of music-making, and I wanted to use these new skills for this project.
The venue, Collingwood Carpark, is a great space with a big vibe, and I thought it would be cool to create an immersive soundworld. So instead of a live aspect, I’ve taken a Brian Eno approach and created a sound installation of sorts for the environment. The work has been mixed spatially for a quadraphonic speaker set up.
I’m thrilled to be working with two of my favourite musicians, Peter De Jager and Matthias Schack-Arnott. The program is quite varied and is challenging to perform, and these two players are made for it. The evening will also feature a new work by Matthias; and A Colourful Storm DJs, namely Moopie and Bayu, will play afterwards.
I couldn’t think of a better act to fit the bill.
See Play On this October 19, 26, and November 22 in the Collingwood Underground Carpark. Over the course of this Play On Series Five, you’ll hear works by Jeanette Little, William Barton, and get to watch the Affinity Collective. Find out more on the Play On website.
You can also listen to Play On’s Lydia Dobbin discuss the series in the latest episode of Scored – the new musicians’ podcast by Kiya Van Der Linden-Kian.
Make sure you grab a copy of our FREE print issue 1 while you’re there. Numbers strictly limited! Find out more about our national Roving Launch.
Images supplied.
