ORCHESTRAL

Two Visual Poems (2020)

for orchestra
duration: 8’

I. Isolation
II. Carwash

Music from the visual poems Isolation, directed by Sam Steinle, and Carwash directed by Petra Leslie. Click here to watch the films.

Empire in the Sand (2018)

for symphony orchestra
duration: 7’

Ozymandias, a poem by Percy Shelley, tells the story of a mighty empire of antiquity fallen to the ravages of time. All that remains is a crumbled statue of King Ozymandias (a Greek name for Rameses II) with the inscription “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” The poem explores the inevitable decline of empires and leaders and how they’re pretensions of greatness mean nothing in the course of history.

Empire in the Sand explores the story of Ozymandias. Under a shimmering expanse of strings, a nostalgic melody emerges. Repeated, twisted and built upon, the melody grows and the texture thickens and ever so slowly, the traces of a colossal empire appear in the sand. Growing and growing, the music follows the explosive rise of the empire until, at its climax; it disappears into the rolling dunes. Was it ever there, or was it just a trick of the heat?

Spanish Romance (2016)

for guitar and orchestra
duration: 5’

An arrangement of the classical guitar solo Spanish Romance for classical guitar and orchestra, commissioned by Matt Withers and toured nationally by Withers in Sydney, Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong.

“a lush and sumptuous work of musical romance”
- Colin Mockett, Entertainment Geelong

Spanish Romance was commissioned by Matt Withers.

ENSEMBLE

Alchemy (2020)

for string quartet
duration: 6’

Four Evocative Miniatures (2019)

for the orchestral families
duration: 7’

This suite of miniatures explores the textures and timbres of the four orchestral families. Each movement is intended to evoke the scene or emotion described in the title:

I: Moonrise (Percussion)
II: Wintering (Woodwinds)
III: Pastoral (Strings)
IV: Aurora (Brass)

Click here to watch the films of Moonrise and Aurora.

Moons We Live With (2018)

for piano trio, or piano trio and clarinet
duration: 5’

Moons We Live With takes inspiration from Sylvia Plath’s poem Balloons. In the poem, one of Plath’s more optimistic works, she captures the innocence of childhood by describing a party balloon. Simultaneously beautiful and fragile, the balloon represents all that she has but also, how easily it could be taken away from her.

Moons We Live With was awarded Second Place in the 2019 Athenaeum Club Composition Competition.

Two Pieces for Guitar Ensemble (2018)

for guitar ensemble
duration: 8’

I: Stories from Elsewhere
II: A Perfect Sky

The Blue Room in the Yellow House (2017)

for mixed sextet
duration: 6’

CHORAL

When I Was a Child (2017)

for choir SATB
duration: 4’

Nunc Dimittis (2015)

for choir SATB and optional piano
duration: 4’

Nunc Dimittis was commissioned by the Wesley Music Centre, Canberra

DUO

Sonata for Flute and Piano (2018)

for flute and piano
duration: 12’

This virtuosic flute sonata is designed to challenge both the soloist and the accompanist through its speed, complex rhythms and difficult motifs. It is set out in three movements, without breaks between them.

Sonata for Flute and Piano is written for and dedicated to my sister Alison.

Serial Murder: Five Bagatelles for Agatha Christie (2016)

for flute and trombone
duration: 5’

Serial Murder is inspired by the murder mystery novels of Agatha Christie and gains its name from the compositional technique used to create it – serialism. Each movement represents a different Hercule Poirot story spanning the length of Christie’s career from her first Poirot novel to her last, published after her death. The suite is designed to be playful and performer exaggeration and over-theatricality is encouraged.

I. A Mysterious Affair – A Mysterious Affair at Styles
II. The Cat and the Pigeon – Cat Among the Pigeons
III. Third Movement Tragedy – Three Act Tragedy
IV. With Milk and Sugar? – Black Coffee
V. Curtain Call – Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case

Sleep Cycles (2016)

for guitar and flute
duration: 12’

Sleep Cycles depicts the brain activity of a night’s sleep, but in reverse:

I: Awakening. The end of sleep.
II: Rapid Eye Movement – when the brain is at its most active and shows many physiological similarities to its waking state. It is in this phase of sleep that we dream.
III: Slow Wave Sleep – or deep sleep. The third stage and the most restful form of sleep.
IV: Sleep Spindles – bursts of brain activity that occur during the second stage of sleep.
V: Lullabye – the act of falling asleep. The first stage of sleep.

The Third Degree (2015)

for guitar duet
duration: 3’

SOLO INSTRUMENT

isimili (2019)

for solo piano
duration: 8’

No piece can ever be performed exactly as the composer intended. If the composer writes a metronome mark, how can the performer ensure that they don’t stray from that tempo? How do we know that our volume of mezzo piano is the same as Beethoven’s? How short is a staccato?

isimili intentionally subverts the notion of exact or truthful performance. The piece is comprised of six individual ‘fragments’, each around a minute long. The fragments are not organised in any particular order, and it is up to the performer to decide what order to perform them in. The composer does not have a preferred order of performance, so there are 720 different ways that the piece can be played.

As a comment on originality, three of the fragments are directly inspired by existing pieces of music. Every piece of music is an amalgamation of existing music that a composer has heard in their life, because originality is just a melting pot of an individual’s unique tastes. What you hear in this piece may sound like something you know – maybe you’ve listened to the same pieces that I have, or maybe every piece of art that exists in a postmodern world is a pastiche of what has come before. 

The title comes from the word ‘verisimilitude’ which refers to the relative and apparent trueness of something. 

isimili was commissioned by and is dedicated to David Coates.

On the Peculiar Nature of Tears (2018)

for tenor saxophone and pre-recorded tape
duration: 5’25”

This piece is inspired by “Nimrod” from Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The opening theme of Nimrod is the source for most of the musical material in this piece. Although it attempts to fight through the layers every so often, the theme cannot be heard in full until right at the end, five minutes into the piece.

Launch (2016)

for solo piano
duration: 2’

It takes just over two minutes for a spacecraft to reach the technical definition of space – 100km above the surface of the earth. Astronaut Chris Hadfield described how this terrifyingly quick journey felt by saying:

‘Launch is immensely powerful, and you can truly feel yourself in the centre of it, like riding an enormous wave or being pushed and lifted by a huge hand, or shaken in the jaws of a gigantic dog. The vehicle shakes and vibrates, and you are pinned hard down into your seat by the acceleration. As one set of engines finishes and the next starts, you are thrown forward and then shoved back, until suddenly, the engine shuts off and you are instantly weightless. Magic.’

Launch is an attempt to depict this journey in almost real time – the initial explosion of take-off followed by the thrill of shooting through the atmosphere until finally, silence shrouds the shuttle and it is free of the Earth.

Between Tall Trees (2016)

for solo guitar
duration: 5’

Between Tall Trees takes its inspiration from Sue Needham’s painting, Forest. The piece attempts to explore the parts of the forest world that the painting does not show – the wildlife that swarm between the roots and branches that are often heard but seldom seen. In this way, the painting and the music work together in harmony to illustrate two aspects of forest life – the flora (Forest) and the fauna (Between Tall Trees).

To represent these forest creatures, I built upon a series of simple themes and motifs; most no longer than four notes. By extending and building upon these themes, I discovered a wealth of music to explore – much like uncovering the forest creatures in the woods. The music rarely lets up in pace, providing an exciting and energetic musical experience.

“excellent counterpoint, effective and very idiomatic guitar writing, clear conception, strong melody and harmonic direction. Engaging throughout.”

- Robert Davidson, CutCommon,

Between Tall Trees was awarded both First Prize and the Under 25 Emerging Composer Prize in the 2nd Matt Withers Composition Competition

Rush (2014)

for solo flute
duration: 2’

Nocturne (2014)

for solo piano
duration: 3

Nocturne is a tribute to Frédéric Chopin’s works of the same name. Over the period of 19 years, he wrote 21 of these short, beautiful solos for piano, based on improvisation and a virtuosic compositional process. Interestingly, Chopin never wrote a nocturne in C major, which is the key of this piece.