Cello - Zhu En Li

With Hidden Meaning is a solo cello work in three parts. As the composition progresses, the cello's musical material begins to deviate from its lyrical opening to a more inward-looking exploration of textures and timbres.

With Hidden Meaning: III. "Glimpses"

With Hidden Meaning: II. "For Me"

Written for Beo String Quartet as part of the 2017 Charlotte New Music Festival (NC, USA), "A Sharper Breath" is the first in a set of intended miniatures for varying configurations of string quartet.

When we hear bad news we often draw a sharper breath, or even struggle to breathe. This composition attempts to portray the act of inhaling and exhaling, the three instruments rising and falling against one another through a mostly un-resolving progression.

Violin - Jason Neukom
Violin - Sandro Leal Santiesteban
Viola - Sean Neukom

Thank you to Beo String Quartet and the Charlotte New Music Festival organisers.

A Sharper Breath (for two violins & viola)

"...The overall effect like a large, elegant sculpture as one idea flowed seamlessly into another. Time allowed various special bowing techniques to be explored."
          - Carol Dixon on "After The Storm" | CutCommon Magazine (2018)

After The Storm is the third and final part of A Storm, A City and features only solo cello. This scene depicts the regular frenetic pace of the city of Melbourne slowly resuming as the storm subsides. The cellist is required to perform with the bow behind the strings (playing the C and A strings) and with two bows simultaneously before returning to conventional bowing for the end of the piece. After The Storm highlights the strong collaboration between composer Lewis Ingham and cellist Nikki Edgar, with the majority of the sounds derived from workshopping ideas and exploring the sonic potential of the cello. After The Storm is the most strictly notated and technically challenging part of A Storm, A City, with the cello slowly exploring sounds from the different bowing positions and fluctuating between meditative resonances and harsher instrumental colours.

A Storm, A City (2017) - Composed by Lewis Ingham | Performed by Nikki Edgar (cello)

A Storm, A City - III. After The Storm

During The Storm is the second part of A Storm, A City. This scene depicts the suffocating rain reflecting and pooling below Melbourne's city skyline. The electronics part has quite a clear sonic relationship to the sound of falling rain, whilst the cello gradually performs an additive phrase/melody before and after two improvised passages.

A Storm, A City (2017) - Composed by Lewis Ingham | Performed by Nikki Edgar (cello)

A Storm, A City - II. During The Storm

Performed by Ensemble Offspring as part of their 2019 Hatched Academy Composer Summer School program (Darlinghurst, Sydney).

Flute: Lamorna Nightingale
Clarinet: Jason Noble
Percussion: Claire Edwardes
Viola: Henry Justo
Cello: Blair Harris

Programme Note:
I managed to catch a glimpse of Jupiter through a telescope on a freezing evening in 2019. Working against the rotation of the Earth, which quickly spun Jupiter out of view within seconds of lining it up in the telescope, I managed a few moments where I could stare at this giant planet with its four Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede) splayed out, almost too perfectly, with two moons on either side of this textured hanging orb. The image, and experience, stuck with me. 
 
Jovian Glimpses oscillates between moments of stasis and moments of trajectory, working with the idea that this giant celestial body with its orbiting moons, whilst static in appearance when viewed from our own sky, is a turbulent place with rapid orbits and monumental forces at play.

Concert audio recorded by Matt McGuigan

Jovian Glimpses (excerpt) | Ensemble Offspring (2019)

Lewis Horrigan Ingham: How Are The Stars Where I'm Not Looking? (2018)

Orchestral reading session recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Benjamin Northey (conductor) in October 2018 at Iwaki Auditorium (Southbank, VIC)

How Are The Stars Where I’m Not Looking? is an orchestral composition completed in 2018. The influence behind this composition was NASA’s Voyager mission, which launched two spacecraft in 1977 to explore the outer planets of our solar system, and beyond. After fly-bys of Jupiter and Saturn, the two sister-craft (Voyager 1 and Voyager 2) started on different trajectories, Voyager 2 continued on to explore Uranus and Neptune whilst Voyager 1 began its journey toward interstellar space. This composition focusses on the journey of these two sister-craft to Jupiter and Saturn and their gradual separation into the loneliness of space.

Excerpt One: This excerpt represents the two sister-craft as they pass Jupiter. The flute melody heard in the opening of the excerpt, which permeates this entire section of music, was derived from data measured by Voyager 2's onboard instruments as it flew-by Jupiter. Two mixed quartets arranged in the orchestra to represent Voyager 1 (piccolo, horn, harp, violin) and Voyager 2 (bassoon, trumpet, vibraphone, viola) interact with this 'Jupiter melody' before returning to the emptiness of space.

Excerpt Two: This concluding section of the orchestral work portrays the two sister-craft as they drift further away from one another into the outer reaches of the solar system, and beyond. Both the mixed quartets from the first excerpt feature temporally and registrally separated from one another against a sparse orchestration.

How Are The Stars Where I'm Not Looking? (two excerpts) | Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (2018)

Lewis Horrigan Ingham: Concrete, Glass, Shadow (2019)

This work was commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2019 as part of the Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program. It was performed and recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Matthew Coorey (conductor) in January 2020 at Iwaki Auditorium (Southbank, VIC)

The writing of this work for chamber orchestra was influenced by the cityscape of Melbourne, a city I have always known and been fascinated by. Concrete, Glass, Shadow represents the city at different times of the day, mapping a lengthening of shadows against an immovable and towering environment built from concrete and glass. This excerpt is taken from the final section of the piece, where shadowy textures reign, but always with the glint of glass high above.

Concrete, Glass, Shadow (excerpt) | Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (2019)

Lewis Horrigan Ingham - Under the Anthropocene (Pt. I) (2020)

Text: Earth Interview in the Anthropocene (Anne Elvey, 2014)

Recorded in early 2020 with: Kate Bright (mezzo-soprano) and Ryan Williams (recorders)

This composition was written in response to the ongoing climate emergency. The work is based around a poem by Anne Elvey, "Earth Interview in the Anthropocene", which presents the thoughts and perspectives of the Earth in relation to the activities of its human inhabitants. Across the four movements of this composition, the poem is divided and contextualised with additional text: numerical text derived from climate data compiled by the Bureau of Meteorology; and a short fragment from the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation myth which is mentioned in Anne's poem. The presentation of climate data in this composition is at times abstract (presented as pitch material through the recorder part, or sung through the recorder), and at times direct (spoken or sung); its consistency is a reflection of our awareness of this global issue at this current point of the 21st century. The fragment taken from the Enuma Elish is a snippet of conversation between Tiamat and Apsū, the first two gods in this creation myth, in which they discuss the unending clamour caused by the other gods, their children. This small fragment of the Enuma Elish resonates with the tone of Earth Interview in the Anthropocene.

Pt. I: Contrabass recorder solo with pitch material derived from the climate data relating to Victoria’s mean temperature anomaly. As a further synthesis of the data, the recorder player sings and speaks some of the numerical climate data into their instrument.

Earth Interview in the Anthropocene is used with permission from the author. Earth Interview in the Anthropocene was previously published in Rabbit 12: Late (Autumn 2014).

All numerical text/data used in this work is from the Bureau of Meteorology (Australian Government) and collated from 'Australian climate variability and change - Time series graphs' available at: www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/in…racker=timeseries under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (Au).
Full terms at: creativecommons.org/licenses/...

For further excerpts of this work, please visit: https://www.lewisingham.com.au/listen

Under the Anthropocene (Pt. I) | mezzo-soprano + recorder (2020)

Lewis Horrigan Ingham - Under the Anthropocene (Pt. III) (2020)

Text: Earth Interview in the Anthropocene (Anne Elvey, 2014); Enuma Elish (Babylonian)

Recorded in early 2020 with: Kate Bright (mezzo-soprano) and Ryan Williams (recorders)

This composition was written in response to the ongoing climate emergency. The work is based around a poem by Anne Elvey, "Earth Interview in the Anthropocene", which presents the thoughts and perspectives of the Earth in relation to the activities of its human inhabitants. Across the four movements of this composition, the poem is divided and contextualised with additional text: numerical text derived from climate data compiled by the Bureau of Meteorology; and a short fragment from the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation myth which is mentioned in Anne's poem. The presentation of climate data in this composition is at times abstract (presented as pitch material through the recorder part, or sung through the recorder), and at times direct (spoken or sung); its consistency is a reflection of our awareness of this global issue at this current point of the 21st century. The fragment taken from the Enuma Elish is a snippet of conversation between Tiamat and Apsū, the first two gods in this creation myth, in which they discuss the unending clamour caused by the other gods, their children. This small fragment of the Enuma Elish resonates with the tone of Earth Interview in the Anthropocene.

Pt. III: The four lines from the Enuma Elish are presented, set in the original Akkadian language. The text then reverts back to Earth Interview in the Anthropocene with the recorder player reciting further climate data through their instrument.

Earth Interview in the Anthropocene is used with permission from the author. Earth Interview in the Anthropocene was previously published in Rabbit 12: Late (Autumn 2014).

All numerical text/data used in this work is from the Bureau of Meteorology (Australian Government) and collated from 'Australian climate variability and change - Time series graphs' available at: www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/in…racker=timeseries under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (Au).
Full terms at: creativecommons.org/licenses/...

The text of the Enuma Elish is based on the transliteration by W. G. Lambert from Babylonian Creation Myths, published 2013 (Eisenbrauns). Permission to use this material is given by Pennsylvania State University Press.

For further excerpts of this work, please visit: https://www.lewisingham.com.au/listen

Under the Anthropocene (Pt. III) | mezzo-soprano + recorder (2020)

Lewis Ingham is an Australian composer based in Ballarat and Melbourne (VIC). His compositional voice is tinged with a modernist aesthetic, but his music is very much for the present era, often exploring themes of climate change and ecology. Lewis' compositions have been admired for their depth in instrumental colour and harmony, and have been performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, the Australian Youth Orchestra, Arcadia Winds, and Hypercube (USA).


Recognised for his talents through numerous awards, scholarships, and commissions, Lewis creates depth and detail within his compositions by slowly unfurling and transforming melodic gestures within the web of his personal and defined harmonic language. The innate delicacy and intricacy within his music is apparent in his compositions for both small and large instrumental forces.

Lewis Ingham | Composer

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