bleed-through (2013)

This piece is about trees. Elements of treelike structure and growth inform the work in myriad ways. Its melodies, for example, twist and turn like branches and knotted tree roots, beginning as solos and then developing through the quintet into passages of flourishing polyphony. 

The large-scale structure of Arborescence is formed from two branching sections, separated by a central, musical ‘trunk’. The first of these sections depicts the underground, with melodies composed of mostly bass-register pitch language evoking subterranean root systems. The second part of the work is composed almost entirely in the treble register, and evokes the top part of a tree reaching towards the heavens, trembling and shaking with ecstatic bird-like song. 

In the final moments of the piece, those birds fly away, and the trilling, chirruping music dissipates, leaving only a few, high-pitched melodies to linger – like a few lone leaves trembling on the top-most twigs of a tree. 


This is a studio recording of my quintet, performed by Syzygy Ensemble on December 4 2015, at Iwaki Auditorium in Melbourne. 

Laila Engle – flutes (C flute, bass and piccolo)
Robin Henry – clarinets (B flat and bass)
Jenny Khafagi – violin
Paul Zabrowarny – cello
Leigh Harrold – piano

Chris Lawson – engineer


Arborescence

Andrew Aronowicz (b1989) is a Melbourne-based composer, writer and teacher. 

He has written music for various instrumental forces, including solo, chamber, choral and orchestral works, with a sound world that draws inspiration from literature, philosophy, architecture and made-up worlds. 

His music has been performed by various prominent ensembles and individuals, including the Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and students from the Australian National Academy of Music, and has been broadcast around Australia on 3MBS Fine Music and ABC Classic FM.  

He has received commissions from a range of performers, ensembles and organisations, including violinist Sarah Curro, flautist Naomi Johnson, bass trombonist Benjamin Anderson, the Tudor Choristers of Melbourne, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Arts Centre Melbourne. 

Highlights from 2014 include the performance of his orchestral work 'Strange Alchemy' by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the Melbourne Recital Centre Metropolis New Music Festival, and participating in the 2014 Speak Percussion Emerging Artists program at RMIT's SIAL studios.

He studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music under Stuart Greenbaum, Elliott Gyger and Katy Abbott, and was awarded his Masters of Music with First Class Honours in 2014, with the support of an Australian Postgraduate Award.

He is a recipient of an Australia Council ArtStart grant in 2015, and is engaged to write music for Melbourne-based Forest Collective, Plexus Trio, and Syzygy Ensemble. 

Arborescence

Andrew Aronowicz

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