My 7th String Quartet represents a very hectic time in my life, both in terms of workload and emotional stability as a writer. This piece was written over a year (2020 - 2021) and as such saw many changes of heart throughout, which culminates in a rather 'rise and fall' notion. This work represents my continued development with different textures, harmonies and rhythmic ideas and illuminates my fascination with the 'not quite melodic' romantic style found in the 20th century Russian masters.

String Quartet No. 7 In C Major

This work was a commission given to me in 2021 by the ASO to create an orchestral arrangement of a medley of tunes from the infamous 'Spirited Away'. The task was to create a complex blend of themes from the film for a large classical orchestra. Since the prospect of a performance seems ever more unlikely due to the COVID pandemic I thought I would share my work here. I have mixed together the themes "One Summer's Day", "Day of the River", "Sootballs" and "Reprise" with a further 'reprise' of "One Summer's Day" to finish. In-between the sections I took liberty with the material to add interludes to link the themes in Hisaishi's style, while still adding my own flair, harmonies and experimenting with orchestration at every turn to bring this amazing music to life in this arrangement.

Selections From 'Spirited Away'

The Fates the Nornir Weave was my inaugural work as the newly appointed Composer-in-Residence for the Auckland based community orchestra, Wairua Sinfonietta, written and premiered in 2021.

The inspiration for the piece came from the immense inner turmoil I had experience at the time from the outbreak of the pandemic as well as significant mental and personal challenges in the preceding three years. Based around a mock 'folk tune' like melody, the piece churns and churns the motif around from start to finish in various moods and presentations, representative pf the density of one's troubled thoughts as we navigate the 'weave' that is laid out for us from birth. This piece rises to challenge the idea of pre-destined fate as we follow this melody and its attempts to 'break free' from itself. 
Credit to Elizabeth Lau and the Wairua Sinfonietta for the commission and to Alex Alford at Buffa Music for mixing this audio.

The Fates The Nornir Weave

This is a recording of myself performing my fourth Ballade in F minor from several years ago. I have always been greatly inspired as a pianist and composer by Chopin's Ballades and of the four I've written this is my best. A single theme dominates the entire work and is put through many forms and rhythms, heard first as a solemn nocturne type theme then expanded aggressively before being interrupted by a second related theme before returning as a march only to be expanded again as before to finish. Hope you enjoy it! 

Ballade in F minor Op. 58 No. 4

Roughly two years ago I was faced with an inhumanely large and all-encompassing amount of stress in my life. Accumulative years of seven-day weeks, too much writing, work and more lead to a series of painful burnouts, and after what felt like a rather close call at the time I turned to something that I never would have thought to become an anchor for me at the time; meditation.

Lunga in music means a long pause, and in Swedish it is ‘lung’. Think ‘breath’ and ‘breathe’. In this work I have tried to capture the essence of meditative breathing: in for four counts, hold, out for six counts. I wanted Lunga to stand as a reflection of my journey in the last two years, a discourse of both the natural peace and disturbances found while meditating, and to allow us all to appreciate where we have come, and where we still are yet to go.

Lunga

This work is written in remembrance of Oliver Huang-Hsu. For those who did not know him, one cannot forget his infectious humour, unwavering good nature, and exceptional talents as a musician and composer. My encounters with Oliver in the later years of our friendship were often marked by his perpetual motion, navigating swiftly from one engagement to the next, from one lesson to another.

The opening of this work attempts to capture the tranquility that I know he must have found in the brief respites between the chaos of his schedule. Perhaps a calm that seemed to emanate also from the steadfast beliefs he held. It is a calm I wish to experience, but do not.

The lively, second half of this work is a more true Intermezzo, and a tribute to the Oliver I cherished and remember most: animated, brimming with wit and cheer, and always adamant on upholding a façade of joviality with what he playfully referred to as our ‘monkey smiles’. The persistent, vivacious nature of this final section is a nod to Oliver’s style as a composer who’s works were always brimming with a sense of mirth that again, I wish to conjure in my own works, but do not. My only wish is that the work evokes a semblance of the vibrant energy that defined Oliver’s remarkable spirit as a composer, and as an individual.

Intermezzo, for Oliver

Inspired by the aesthetic nature of Lilburn’s early works, such as Forest and the Drysdale Overture with their romanticism and use of tonal and modal melodies, In Glory Undimmed for piano trio is a through composed work honouring the landscape sound world present in Lilburn’s works. Blended within the work is a brief quotation of the opening bars of the composer’s second movement of the Three Sea Changes, which has always been a personal favourite. The contrary motion chord progression followed by the arpeggiated triplet run of the Three Sea Changes are found in various rhythmic forms and melodic contexts throughout the piece, superimposed as a counter subject over the main motif that flows throughout the work. 

In Glory Undimmed

The title Alqualondë comes from the book The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, whose vast world of mythic and fantasy writings were the inspiration for this piece. Alqualondë or ‘kin-slaying’ depicts the battle of the Swan Haven where the Elves committed the first great tragedy of their race when they slew their own brothers in a vicious battle. The opening and closing sections of the piece depict the terrible battle, while the more lamentful middle section depicts the pantheon of gods who look down on the horror below and are forbidden to intervene in the conflict, and must watch the terrible battled unfold. Each instrumental solo throughout the middle section represents the discussions of the gods, musing over the battle. The fervent clangour of war drums from the timpani and bass drum and metallic clangour and skeletal-like clashes from the xylophone and cymbals in the percussion throughout, depict the brutality of the conflict, and as the grief of the gods subsides, the battle comes to a harrowing close.  

Alqualondë

Born out of the confusion of an idea for a piece and the problem of what to do with an idea once it was conceived, this work is a study on thematic use and structure. A single theme flows throughout the work but is ‘teased out’, only being stated in full at the end and, until that point, the theme is heard only note by note. Interspersed by stylistically different sections, that bear the stamp of romanticism, fugue and my own contemporary writing, these sections decorate the last new note revealed of the theme as it appears. As the theme is heard in full towards the end the different stylistic sections overlap and fight for thematic supremacy, but are banished by a final statement of the theme. 

Fantasie Tematico

Standing as one of the founding pillars of English literature, the Old English poem Beowulf has long been an inspiration. The story tells of the fictional warrior-king of the Geats who slays the monsters of Scandinavia. Beowulf and the Dragon is a programmatic piece depicting the final fight in the alliterative poem where, in old age, Beowulf rides out with his companion Wiglaf to slay a dragon that has been attacking his people. Though victorious over the dragon, Beowulf is mortally wounded, and it is his ride out the dragon, his fight with it and his heroic death that this piece depicts.   

Beowulf And The Dragon

Auckland-based composer, arranger, pianist and more. A smattering of my more personal works are here for your enjoyment. Soundtracks for my more theatrical/commercial work are available on Bandcamp under the same moniker!

E.F.J.Fagan - Composer

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