Looking to diversify the repertoire for your orchestra? Whether your musicians are just starting out, or ready for a big challenge, there's a work by an Australian composer with your name on it!
Choosing diverse music that's representative of our community AND introduces musicians to new voices is one of the most important responsibilities for any conductor. Wherever you are, chances are your orchestra might not have played music by an Australian composer recently. Let's change that!
The works below are tried and tested. I've programmed and conducted them with Youth, Community or School orchestras (and they would work great in the College context as well).
My definitions below are a rough guide to what levels of ensembles will be able to realise each work successfully, based on my hands-on experience with the piece. Further specific information is in the description of each work.
Easy - musicians in their first full orchestra experience (middle school/7th grade/~14 years and beyond)
Medium - musicians with 3+ years ensemble experience (high school, youth orchestra and beyond; also great for community orchestra)
Advanced - musicians with well-developed technical and ensemble skills (university/college/youth orchestra/community or very advanced high school)
Level: Easy
Duration: 3 minutes
Instrumentation: 2+picc.2.3.2 2.2.2.1 3perc piano strings
Available: Self-published, contact Danna
Vibe/Themes: Video Games 🎮, Adventure 🏔, 8-bit 👾
Danna writes music for film, games and the concert stage. This background inspired Minigames, a work recalling 1990s 8-bit games like early Mario. Throughout the work melodies continually 'level-up' entering new worlds, textures and landscapes. There are a few challenging individual solos that can be adapted as needed to suit your players. Otherwise this is completely achievable by a young orchestra. This work was commissioned by the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra with funding from the City of Melbourne.
Level: Easy
Duration: 3 minutes
Instrumentation: 2.2.2+bass.2 2.2.1.1 2perc strings
Available: Self-published, contact Juliana
Vibe/Themes: Animals 🐓, Children 👶🏽, Nonsense 🤪, Poetry 📖, Comedy 🤣
When I approached Juliana about commissioning a piece for orchestra we were in the depths of COVID lockdowns. Rather than the traditional route, she suggested a collaborative composition process. A remarkable series of workshops ensured, where our orchestra read and interpreted nonsense poetry, turned words into melodic fragments, then collaboratively orchestrated these melodies using SoundTrap.
This material formed the basis for the final work, Hen House, a wild adventure with sections including "waking up", "free range" and "fox in the henhouse" as well as whistling from the whole orchestra. Rehearsing this work is an absolute hoot, it comes together easily, and it has an ear-worm melody your audience is sure to whistle on the way out.Juliana is primarily a choral composer, so be sure to point your choral colleagues to her other works.
If you're feeling adventurous, why not get Juliana to work on a collaborative work with your ensemble?!
Level: Medium
Duration: 4 minutes
Instrumentation: 2+picc.2.2+bass.1 4.2.3.1 timp+3perc harp strings (+optional AATB Saxes)
Available: Rental from Australian Music Centre
Vibe/Themes: Life 🌱, Excitement 😲, Drama 🎭, Punchy 👊🏽 , Cinematic 🎥
This work is powerful, dramatic, rhythmic and exciting. It makes a great opener or closing encore for any youth/community orchestra concert. The ranges are all very reasonable (aside from a few high horn passages you could adjust) and there are few demanding technical passages for individual players/sections.
If your orchestra has a strong sense of pulse this work will come together easily. If not, this is a great work to build that skill - with a lot of riff-like, repeated motifs that you can use to improve rhythmic stability.
The optional saxophone section makes this piece a great option if you are combining a band & string orchestra to make your full orchestra for a special project or event.
Also check out: Fast Ride in a Suave Machine (arr. Steven Stanke), 7 mins, medium-advanced orchestra (also available in Wind Symphony version)
Level: Medium
Duration: 4.5 minutes
Instrumentation: 2(inc.picc).2.2.2 4.3.3.1 timp+1perc harp strings
Available: Self-published, contact Nat
Themes: Bittersweet 🥲, Meditative 🧘🏼, Longing 🥺, Poignant
Hope is an absolutely gorgeous work that is at times fragile, before expanding into moments of lush warmth. To capture the tenderness of this sound world requires musically mature players who are patient. The music is not technically complex, but requires control, co-ordination and great tone and intonation at quiet dynamics to be successful. Your audience will love the space for contemplation and reflection that this piece creates in the room - and so will you.
Level: Advanced
Duration: 3.5 minutes
Instrumentation: 2(inc.picc.).2.2(inc.bass).1+Cbsn 4.2.3.1 tmp+2perc strings
Available: TSO House, parts on Rental
Vibe/Themes: Rock 🥁, Funk 🕺🏼, Machinery ⚙️, Being Stuck, Riffs 🎸
Holly writes: "The title Jammed has two meanings. It refers to the main musical riff which is repeated and reimagined throughout: it is implied that the players are part of an improvised jam session, freely drawing from funk, rock, and metal styles. The work also embraces the idea of ‘jam’ as something which is ‘stuck’. This is heard in the piece through jarring brass chords and rapid changes between sections, which could be likened to a CD skipping or vinyl warping."
This work is great for technically advanced, open-minded younger players who are used to both hearing and reading rhythmically complex music. To come off successfully it requires strong internal pulse from everyone, especially the two percussionists who must be very stable. Everyone needs to be able to read and execute syncopated semiquaver (16th) rhythms accurately.
There are brief solos for clarinet, tuba, trombone and trumpet as well as some extended techniques for strings and there are technically challenging passages for all instruments.
If needed you can split the flute2/picc and clarinet 2/bass clarinet parts to accomodate more players or non-doublers. The contrabassoon can be played on bassoon, but the contra really adds a lot.
Also check out: Fizzin' Fury, 10 mins, advanced orchestra
Level: Advanced
Duration: 3.5 minutes
Instrumentation: 2(inc.picc.).2.2(inc.bass).1+Cbsn 4.2.3.1 tmp+2perc strings
Available: TSO House, parts on Rental
Vibe/Themes: Festival 🎉, Opener, Overture, Exciting 🤩, Bright ☀️, Joyous 😁, Fast 🏇🏾
This vibrant, rollicking overture was written by the grandmother of Australian music theory teaching, Dulcie Holland. When not writing her famous 'Master Your Theory' books, she was a busy composer. She penned many works for the North Sydney community orchestra conducted by her husband, of which Festival Flourish is one. As you can hear, the opening conjures the start of a horse race: "And they're off!".
The most technically challenging aspect of this work is the repeated 6/8 quaver (8th note) accompaniment figure in strings, but especially woodwinds - similar to the opening of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 'Italian'. You need players with fast tongues for this! From experience, this piece works best if you can achieve a tempo in 1. It's marked dotted minim (half note) = 88 but still retains it's character at slightly more sane tempi! A great fun piece that audiences will love if performed well.
More of a band person? Want your band colleagues to program more diverse works?
Check out my post on 6 works by diverse wind band composers.
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Keep your audience on their toes - or not. They'll be hard pressed to keep tapping in time to these off-balance marches!
Looking to diversify the repertoire for your orchestra? Whether your musicians are just starting out, or ready for a big challenge, there's a work by an Australian composer with your name on it!
Well, does it? If the answer's no, then we've got work to do. Here's how to get better.
