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This month we decided to program a playlist theme we'd been thinking about for a while. Long Waves gives the listener a chance to savour some of the broader, single-movement works that composers have put forward to Making Waves.  We really enjoy how this set of works visit contemplative or evocative themes, some via solo instrument, others for ensemble, with or without voice.  With thanks to Making Waves Intern, Angus Baxter, for his thoughtful curatorial input on the playlist.

Long Waves - August 2016

Clarinet and shakuhachi impro

'One Word Full of Meaning' is a composition for six voices and a percussionist composed for the Sydney based Song Company in 2007. It is a musical setting of a number of Theravada Buddhist texts in the Pali language used for daily chanting by the monks- the texts focus on themes of transience of life and beauty, reflections of death, impermanence etc. and also includes the beautiful metta sutta ('may all beings be well and happy ....').

One Word Full of Meaning

The House of Dust is a piece for three B flat clarinets originally commissioned by Ensemble Offspring in 1998. This is a recording of a live performance by the University of Western Australia Contemporary Music Ensemble,  recorded the following year for its New Music Week, Perth. 

The title reflects an ongoing parallel interest, comparative religious studies and is the evocative name given to the bleak vision of the afterlife in The Epic of Gilgamesh. The image of a grey, colourless house of dust to which all progressed in the afterlife, regardless of status or accomplishment where they dwelled half aware, ghostly shells forever trapped  resonated at the time for various reasons. Of all my student-day compositions, this is perhaps the most prescient of future directions and with which I am most pleased. It is is a very challenging work for both groups that performed it, working with microtones, independent rhythmic layers, very quiet extreme upper register work that needs to be projected within an emotive, expressive framework.

The House of Dust

Concerto Grosso No. 1* by Pavle Cajic.
In three movements. 

*Hopefully more coming!

Pf: Amanda Chen (vln), Dominic Azzi (vln), Rachel Siu (cello), Voces Caelestium string orchestra** conducted by Pavle Cajic.

Premiered at Voces Caelestium's Standing with Ukraine Charity Concert which raised money for UNICEF's Ukraine Emergency Appeal.

Recorded by Conan Tran (www.red-studios.com.au)

This piece was inspired by two forms of music I was getting very interested in at the beginning of 2021 – baroque concerti and tango! I loved the sense of community I felt in small chambery concerto grosso ensembles, and the sense of playfulness of combining more ‘modern’ sound effects and techniques with baroque forms and tonality. My modern techniques involve a quarter-tonal unifying motif, some tango-inspired percussive effects, and generally a lot of chromaticism mixed in with modal-adjacent harmony.

**Violin 1: Yeonhee Kim, Nan Heo, Chrissia Monica
Violin 2: Daniel Parkee, James Guo, Shirley Shen, Aileen Lim
Viola: Andrea Ng, David Tocknell
Cello: Luda Tees, Salang Kim, Lauren Olofsson, Jean Lee
Double Bass: Elsen Price

Concerto Grosso

Performed on February 9th, 2024 in New Music by NEC DMA Composers Concert in Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory; Boston, MA

Philip Rawlinson, viola
Lily Stern, cello

...as the reflection of green ripples in the water..._水中绿影_for viola and cello (2022/Rev. 2024)

Burn before me burn burn – improvised poem

Bones before me – 
dried wooden corpse
the once majestic 
rosewood – 

but – 

sound is alive
and springs forth
with joy – 

ashen – 

burn
burn
sing 
live

through me
through me

through 

me

live –

Bones Before Me Burn Burn - improvised poetry and music

Performed by Michael Kieran Harvey on the Stuart and Sons piano at the Conservatorium of Music November 19, 2015. Recorded by ABC Classic FM. This piece won the 2014 University of Newcastle Jean Bogan Prize

Piano Sonata No.2 (A Universal History Of Infamy)


Springtime Dances, Winter Weeps


When confronted with the need for more music to fill a rapidly approaching concert program, I contacted flutist Brijette Tubb to see if she would be willing to learn something on short notice. She very kindly agreed - and I very frantically got to composing, as the music had not yet been written.

Four days later 'Springtime Dance, Winter Weeps' was affixed with a double bar line and sent to Brijette for her appraisal. Along with the music I sent her a profuse apology about the difficulty of the music, as much of my music ends up far more virtuosic in nature than I intend when starting out - and this piece was no exception.

To my great delight, excitement and amazement she was completely and utterly undeterred. The performance, just two weeks later, was a tremendous success.
 Springtime Dances, Winter Weeps is a work of contracts with two starkly different musical feels; it captures the bleakness of winter and the feverish play of spring. It is a virtuosic work that is a great contribution to the flute’s solo repertoire, and one which can be at home in a wide variety of concert programs.

Performed by Brijette Tubb (Flute)
Recorded by Chris Healey

Springtime Dances, Winter Weeps

https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/barkl-michael

Michael Barkl 'Two Pieces for Flute Alone' Laura Chislett - flute, piece 1

unity.projections[001=>2]  - for accordion and cello (2020)
/live recording/

Branko Džinović (accordion)
Aleksandar Latković (cello)

Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra Hall
10 March 2020

unity.projections[001=>2]  - for accordion and cello (2020)

I created this improvised piece after hearing of the passing of Figo, a dog (I am convinced he was a dingo!) who came to stay with Martha and her family in Bandung after he was saved from a 'dog-meat' market in Bandung, West Jakarta. Such an awful practice, and Figo was clearly traumatized by the experience - he was suspicious of strangers, particularly human males, something I experienced firsthand. But he lived a long, long life and it's sad to see him pass on. The accompanying photo captures his personality, as it came to express itself towards his end!

Vale Figo

For large chamber ensemble, NJO conducted by Hans Leenders.

Perpetual Inertia

Making Waves is a monthly series of curated playlists streaming one hour of quality, new composed music.  Founded in 2015, Making Waves shines a spotlight on the music of Australian composers. Fresh playlists are released on the first day of each month and older playlists are made available all year round via our archives; perfect for those with just a few minutes to explore one track or for hours perusing a myriad of diverse sound-worlds.


The project offers wider exposure to emerging composers, their music and the talented performers who champion it. We also provide an easy-to-access platform for listeners to sit back and enjoy a curated hour of exciting new music or explore our living composers more actively.  The playlist themes (and media through which they’re shared eg. Soundcloud, YouTube) evolve each month depending on the content received directly from our talented composers.

At its core Making Waves is a curated listening space. In 2016 we branched into producing our own content through a special project, Making Conversation, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign. Making Conversation: Australian Composers Project is a series of podcasts and vodcasts presenting the human side of living Australian composers, released on popular audiovisual and social platforms mid-2017.
Composers Lisa Cheney (Melbourne) and Peggy Polias (Sydney) are curating this project.

 Listeners, we encourage you to explore current and past playlists and discover more about our featured composers. 

Composers, we encourage you to send us links to your streamable audio via our website. Visit: www.makingwavesnewmusic.com for more information.

I try to write rich, intense, rewarding, expressive music reflecting my various music theory and performance interests as well as love of nature, literature and my explorations in aesthetics and East Asian culture and spirituality.

I am a composer, percussionist and co-artistic director of the composer-performer collective Sideband as well as member of the experimental improvisation project 'Mind on Fire'. I began serious musical studies with a focus on xylophone and percussion, later developing an interest in composition, and improvisation. I also have a strong interest in non-Western music, and have undertaken study in Javanese Gamelan and Tabla, as well as studying jazz, resulting in a broad and highly individual compositional and performance style.
I have written for a wide range of music ensembles, from symphony orchestra to solo piano, with a my focus being chamber music incorporating voice and improvisation-based music in which I perform on vibraphone. My focus is on experimentation with rhythmic and formal elements, and microtonal harmony as well as incorporating developments in atonal theory. 
My music has been commissioned or performed by a range of ensembles and soloists, including Daniel Herscovitch, Luminescence, Sideband, the Song Company, Ensemble Offspring, members of Elision, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra New Music Ensemble under Roger Smalley, Australian Piano Quartet, Kerry Yong, Jihyeon Lim, conductor Barry Webb, and the Sydney Conservatorium Percussion Ensemble. A number of works have been recorded for broadcast by the ABC.
As a percussionist I have performed in a variety of ensembles, with a focus on participating in performances of his own music. Recently, the focus has increasingly been on performing, as a member of Sideband and in Mind on Fire, an improvisation-based project with my brother, Sam Gill.

I taught composition and music theory for fifteen years at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (2000 to 2015), and occasionally engaged in casual lecturing up to 2020.
Further information about my ideas can be found in my writings, such as: www.sideband.com.au/zen-music-gill.html
www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/…-on-fire
www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/…uestions


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One Word Full of Meaning

Brad Gill Music

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