Fluttertalks is scored for open instrumentation. Through a structured improvisatory style, it explores the inherency of communication and mutual collaboration in the natural world.

Recorded live 27/10/15
Flutes: Shaun Barlow, Henry Liang and Angus McPherson
Clarinets: Solomon Frank, Benjamin Samuels and Yinnie Yip

Fluttertalks

A realisation of Cardew’s ‘Treatise,’ comprising an ungainly bricolage of vocal samples collected in spontaneous collaboration with a number of composers, vocalists, instrumentalists and musicologists at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. 
This project was organised by fellow composer Claudia Rapisarda and I in order to investigate the effects of visual stimuli in eliciting an intrinsic improvisational vocabulary. The result is as we intended; a celebration of both the universality of this musical language and the expressive idiosyncrasies of individual performers.

(2015)
Vocalists: Chris Bouhabib, Ender Carden, Solomon Frank, Justin Green, Henry Hulme, Katrina Kovaks, Sandra Liu, Johannes MacDonald, Claudia Mackay, Josephine Macken, Claudia Rapisarda, Jeremy Richmond, Ella Seabrook, Hamish Spicer, Sarah Thompson, Joshua Winestock, Yinnie Yip.

Treatise (Cornelius Cardew)

A preview of my Wind Symphony piece recorded in its prototypical stages; the work is a fanfare primarily concerned with the construction and dispersion of textures that shape the colour of the ensemble and inform the trajectory of harmonic expansion within the work.

Workshopped with and recorded by the SCM Wind Symphony 18/05/16
Conducted by John Lynch

Fanfare For Counterspectacles [an excerpt]

Cloud Cantus is concerned with the macro and micro movements of cloud species within the Earth's atmosphere. Samples recorded using contact microphones and pre-processed techniques are sculpted into sound masses imitative of these species. The resultant skyscapes are dynamic and volatile in their acousmatic presentation, as the movements of these sound masses guide the trajectory of materials within the stereophonic space.

Presented live 04/06/16
Instrumental Samples from Solomon Frank (clarinet), Josephine Macken (flute), Enrico Mainas (Piano) and Sofie Nicolson (Viola).

Cloud Cantus

“The fattening dots burst into nimble swimming tadpoles."

Recorded 25/10/16
Text from Seamus Heaney’s poem of the same name.
Workshopped and performed by the SCM Creative Vocal Ensemble

Death Of A Naturalist

A further extract from my Wind Symphony piece and experiment in simple canon, recorded in its prototypical stages.

Workshopped with and recorded by the SCM Wind Symphony 18/05/16
Conducted by John Lynch

Fanrare For Counterspectacles [a further extract]

This song cycle is a study of the Psalms in 7 genres, according to Longman’s analyses.
The title translates to ‘New Song’, an allusion to Psalm 96, which constitutes a divine endorsement of new music. The macrostructure of the work is an abbreviated consideration of David’s life.

Tenor: Gabriel DeBurgh
Harp: Jo Baée
Piano: Sutthi Suton
Cello: James Morley
Double bass: Will Hansen

Canticum Novum

Expressions of the character of a music box, long abandoned, singing madness and unhinging the sound of itself as its voice strays increasingly further from the confines of intention.
It is a strange and unnerving process, re-articulating the impeded lunacy of half-spoken murmurs in a failing inanimate.

First performed 20/06/2017 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Trumpet: Sam Thompson
Piano: Darci Gayford
Percussion: Nancy Zheng

OBJECT

Workshopped by the Mivos string quartet at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
22/12/2017

Laceration I: Lung & Bone

For soloist; alto flute, alto voice & electronics.

Workshopped in progress by Claire Chase at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
23/05/2018

Still (in progress)

composer, Sydney.

josephinemacken.composer@gmail.com

Josephine Macken

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