On 9th November 2018 I ordered waffles for breakfast from the Harvest Café in Mylor. I was setting out on the final day of a week-long solo hike through the Adelaide Hills, and waffles had never tasted so good. As I continued along the trail to Bridgewater, I found a succession of waltzes spinning merrily through my head. I have no idea if they had anything to do with the waffles, but they certainly sounded sweet enough.

This piece was commissioned by The Firm: Adelaide New Music. It was performed by Alison Rayner, Thomas Marlin and Michael Ierace, and recorded by Ray Thomas.

© David John Lang

Waffles For Breakfast

This piece was commissioned and performed by Sarah Curro in 2009. It is called "Letter to Balhannah" because it originated as a letter on manuscript paper to my friend Hannah (who also plays violin) from Balhannah, a town in the Adelaide Hills.

Letter to Balhannah

Text from Song of Songs 3:1-4
Commissioned and performed by the Adelaide Chamber Singers, directed by Carl Crossin, 2011

in lectulo meo per noctes (On my bed by night)
quaesivi quem diligit anima mea (I sought him whom my soul loves)
quaesivi illum et non inveni (I sought him, but found him not)

surgam et circuibo civitatem (I will rise now and go about the city)
per vicos et plateas (in the streets and in the squares)
quaeram quem diligit anima mea (I will seek him whom my soul loves)
quaesivi illum et non inveni (I sought him, but found him not)

invenerunt me vigiles (The watchmen found me)
qui custodiunt civitatem (as they went about in the city)
num quem dilexit anima mea vidistis (“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”)

paululum cum pertransissem eos (Scarcely had I passed them)
inveni quem diligit anima mea (when I found him whom my soul loves)
tenui eum nec dimittam (I held him, and would not let him go)
donec introducam illum in domum matris meae (until I had brought him into my mother's house)
et in cubiculum genetricis meae (and into the chamber of her who conceived me)

in lectulo meo per noctes

This is from 2010 - commissioned and performed by Eclectica Trio (Amanda Lovelock, Anna Coleman and Charise Altmann).
The clarinets take on the role of storyteller for this piece – they growl like a wolf, squeal like a pig, and huff-and-puff with increasing vigour to blow the house down. Unfortunately, they do it all in the wrong language (“this contemporary music just sounds like random notes to me!”). Will you still be able to follow the story? Don’t stress, it all ends happily ever after.

The Three Little Pigs

These Three Preludes were first performed (in full) by the Adelaide Wind Orchestra on 4 July 2014, conducted by the composer.
They are all based on earlier pieces of music that I wrote for certain people. No.1 (2007) was for Anna Butterss (originally for sax, trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar, bass). No.2 (2008) was for Jane Ruckert (originally for hurdy-gurdy trio). No.3 (2011) was for Tim Cross (originally for piano).

Three Preludes for Wind Orchestra: 1. Are we there yet?

This little piece was commissioned as a surprise birthday present
from Beth to her husband Jim. It was first performed live in the restaurant where Jim's birthday was being celebrated.

Composed by David John Lang
Performed by Kai Gerbi (violin) and Caleb Lavery-Brook (guitar)

Serenade

This is the first "musical portrait" I finished composing, back in 2014. I recorded it on Christabel's delightful old upright piano, when I was house-sitting for her over the summer.  A more polished recording is coming out very soon, on my album "Portraits: Volume I". But I still love this original version as well, even with the squeaky pedal!

That's Eleanor in the photo, back when she was taking photos for the first iteration of my website...

Eleanor

Eleanor (demo)

It was Imogen who first suggested to me the idea of composing musical portraits, so it's only fair that she would get one herself. This is the first recording of it, from a live performance in 2016 by Nic Bennett in Elder Hall. He played it from memory with so much expression and intent – it remains one of my favourite performances.

Imogen (demo)

Psalm 62:5-8

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.

Commissioned by Christ Church North Adelaide Inc, 2014.
Singers on this recording:  Christian Evans, Megan Fishers, Amelia Holds, Macintyre Howie-Reeves, Thalia Huston, Charlie Kelso, Olivia (Spark) Sanders-Robinson, Kit Tonkin,

My soul, wait

Composed & performed by Elsabeth Lang in 2024 as a gift to her niece, Lyla-Rose.
Copyright © Elsabeth Lang 2024

Lyla-Rose (demo)

Mark 4:1 – 4:34
This is a demo recording for "Mark Illuminated", a project by David John Lang to compose music for whole Gospel of Mark.

Mark 05 "this is the Kingdom of God" (demo)

Mark 1:1 – 1:13
This is a demo recording for "Mark Illuminated", a project by David John Lang to compose music for whole Gospel of Mark.

Mark 01 "in the wilderness" (demo)

Mark 1:14 – 2:12
This is a demo recording for "Mark Illuminated", a project by David John Lang to compose music for whole Gospel of Mark.

Mark 02 "word gets out" (demo)

Adelaide Wind Orchestra, conducted by David John Lang, 2022.
Artwork © Stephen Lang.

This music comes from sketches I made while hiking the Overland Track (in Tasmania) with my brother in 2016. It has been growing in my mind for many years...

This is just the first movement of a projected multi-movement work I would love to finish one day.

Tanglefoot

This is a landscape in music. Gomersal lies on the edge of South Australia’s Barossa Valley, just west of Tanunda. Its gently rounded hills and valleys, shaped by Gomersal Creek, are overlooked by the higher hills of the Barossa Range to the southeast, which curve away further south to the distant Adelaide Hills. The sky feels unusually large and close here, particularly when bobs of fluffy cloud are floating overhead.

The piece is in 6 connected movements:

1. Sky and Land
2. Ngadjuri Country
3. German & Prussian Settlers
4. Pastorale
5. Bitumen
6. The Sky and the Land Endure

'Gomersal' was commissioned by Nat Schmaal in memory of her husband Ian, a direct descendant of the first German settlers of Gomersal in the 1850s.

This demo recording was made by Jakub Jankowski (cello) and David John Lang (piano).

Gomersal: An Appreciation

Mark 2:13 – 3:6
This is a demo recording for "Mark Illuminated", a project by David John Lang to compose music for whole Gospel of Mark.

Mark 03 "and they're watching him" (demo)

Mark 3:7 – 3:35
This is a demo recording for "Mark Illuminated", a project by David John Lang to compose music for whole Gospel of Mark.

Mark 04 "my brother and my sister and my mother" (demo)

This is a song about the Sturt River in Adelaide. Its Kaurna name is Warripari, meaning "Windy River".

Performed by the Combined Youth Chorus of Westminster School, Immanuel College, Wilderness School and St Peter's Woodlands Grammar School, conducted by Tori Longdon.

Windy River was commissioned by Westminster School (South Australia) for the 2025 Australian Combined Schools Music Festival.

Music & words by David John Lang © 2025

Windy River

Mark 4:35 – 5:43
This is a demo recording for "Mark Illuminated", a project by David John Lang to compose music for whole Gospel of Mark.

Mark 06 "and they're afraid" (demo)

This piece is about Emma. Sometimes Emma and I write songs together, but on this occasion she was unable to come around, so I sat at the piano by myself and wrote her this tune.

I am playing the piano in this recording. It comes from a live performance in Elder Hall, University of Adelaide, in August 2016.

Emma

This musical cocoon is woven out of a single 18-note thread. As it winds around and around, tiny imperfections creep in; and, as these are multiplied out, the simple spiral tightens into a tangled, many-layered web.

A cocoon is a retreat. You go into a cocoon when you’ve had enough. Another silkworm has stolen your leaf; you’ve fallen off the mulberry bush again; the rain won’t stop. So, wearily and patiently and diligently, you spin a cocoon. You’re giving up. Nobody and nothing can touch you any more. Let the wind blow the tree down if it wants to. You’ll be dead to the world.
 
A cocoon is a coffin. It contains a chemical mush of what used to be a silkworm. Or the mush of broken dreams, hopes, promises, hearts. If anyone wants to know who you really are, it’s safe and hidden, out of sight, forgotten. Locked up in a tiny case, hanging from a trembling leaf.
 
A cocoon is a surrender to God. Saint Teresa of Avila uses the metaphor of a silkworm to describe the state of a soul before God. Not proud and formal; not noisy and ecstatic; but resigned and broken, wanting to hide away, having given up. Dying to Self.

It is, of course, rather unfashionable these days to talk about surrendering yourself like this, even to God (if he’s there). We are told to be strong and self-sufficient. Well, sometimes that doesn’t work.

This piece of music curls up in a cocoon and stays there. Waiting.

***

I composed this in 2014.

This recording was made in Elder Hall, Adelaide, in August 2016. The musicians are Melanie Walters (flute), Anna Coleman (clarinet), Lester Wong (violin), Jonathan Hall (cello), Nic Bennett (piano) and Jack de la Lande (vibraphone).

I would like to thank Matt Gray and Gabriella Smart for their input into the composition of this piece. I also owe thanks to Jillian Visser, Tom Helps, Amanda Home, Melanie Walters, Andrew Chan and Sebastian Phlox for first trying this piece out in 2015.

Cocoon

"Yukon Sunrise"

a free gift
a dawn I did not ask to see
flooding through the window at a quarter to four

held in amber light
filled and thrilled anew 
with life
I rise
I swim downstairs through honey-coloured air
and softly tread the wooden floor
slide back the crossbar from the door
and step outside

mosquitoes sing the morning chorus
and I wander through the grass
and turn toward the north
where heavy folds of hills and clouds
are stained with gold
and everything glows darkly in the morning light
forest
river
sky
water gliding swiftly past the bank
and dancing in the nearby creek
and softly softly tapping the treetops

the sunrise drowns itself in daylight
the overcasting sky turns ashy white
all beauty pales before the miracle of life

for what does it cost to burn the clouds?
to melt the river?
to raise the spruce?
to feed the birds and pollinate the flowers?
to wake the sleeper?
ouch
I slap my arm absent-mindedly
and leave a trail of blood


© David John Lang 2016
Inspired by the sunrise of the 21st July 2016 at Slaven’s Roadhouse, near Coal Creek on the Yukon River, Alaska.

Adelaide Wind Orchestra, 22 March 2018.
Conductor: David John Lang
Recording: Ray Thomas
Assistant: Adam Gillespie
Producer: Anne Cawrse

Yukon Sunrise

This is India Hooi playing The Imaginary Waltz - the version for toy piano (right hand) and real piano (left hand).

The Imaginary Waltz (toy piano version)

It’s six o’clock in the morning. The feet know where they’re going, but the mind wanders, still half-asleep. Bottebrush, bitumen, jacaranda, Stobie pole – all barely register in the semi-darkness. The sun waits behind the Adelaide hills and the streets are quiet. 

But listen: a magpie is warbling…

[performed by Elsabeth Parkinson at Elder Hall in February 2018]
[recording: Ray Thomas]

Walking around Adelaide early in the morning listening to magpies

Composed and performed by David John Lang.
Recorded by Ray Thomas, February 2018.

Catcher Variations

Composed in 2010 to an old Australian ballad by Thomas E. Spencer about a bush cricket match.

The words of the poem can be found here:
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/spencer-thomas-a/how-m-dougal-topped-the-score-0018001

David John Lang

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