Cello Sonata No.3 'Diabolus'
Performed by Nadia Barrow
Commissioned by ANAM for the ANAM Set Festival
Rise Fund
Producer: Duncan Yardley
Engineer: Russell Thomson

Diabolus

Conductor: Benjamin Northey
Performer: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Date: 20/02/2019
Venue: Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Event: A Symphonic Celebration
Supported by the Cybec Foundation
Recording courtesy of ABC Classic

A Hero's Journey (LIVE) - Benjamin Northey and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Commissioned by Omega Ensemble for CoLAB 2022.
Performed by Omega Ensemble.

Calon Arang

'Primrose' was commissioned by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery for their 2014 exhibition 'Memento Mori'. The work explores the theme of mortality through the allegory of a flower. 'Primrose' also draws inspiration from Hans Memling's 'Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation'.

'Primrose' for String Trio (2014)

String Quartet No.2 (2014)

The 'Frida Kahlo Portraits' was premiered by the Australian String Quartet at the National Composers Forum (Adelaide) in 2010. The work is comprised of 5 miniatures, each based on a self-portrait by Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo. The collection musically emulates the forlorn autobiographical themes that Kahlo explores throughout her artistic oeuvre. 

'Frida Kahlo Portraits' for String Quartet (2010)

Odyssey is a symphonic poem based on Homer’s epic of the same name. The idea behind Odyssey was conceived more or less around the same time as the Chamber Symphony ‘A Broken Vow’ and so there are thematic correlations between them, both in terms of musical material and subject matter. Like ‘A Broken Vow’, Odyssey also explores notions of psychological distress and process. The episodic nature of the music is attributable to the idea of a circumlocutory peregrination, such as that which Odysseus took – the music constantly wrestles with itself to rediscover where it began, hence a sense of homecoming, a defining theme of Homers epic. 

Odyssey

Performed by Krista Low.

Bloodlust for solo cello, refers to the primal and instinctual urge to kill or cause harm. It's about bacchanalian freedom and surrendering oneself to darker kinds of desire. The piece was conceived in terms of performative gesture and is consequently structured around bellicose physical gestures such as large aggressive bow strokes, sections of rapid snap pizzicato and rapid off the string passages.

The piece wrestles with dualities in a Nietzsche inspired struggle between the Dionysian and the Apollonian; mans inner struggle to reconcile emotion and carnality with rationality and logic. 

Bloodlust

Extract of the TSO performing 'Odyssey' at the 2015 Composers School Concert.

Odyssey (Extract) Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

From 'The Homeric Hymns'

In Greek mythology, Hermes was the Olympian god of boundaries and transitions. He was depicted as a capricious and astute character able to move freely between the mortal and divine worlds. Hermes was an emissary for the gods; a conciliator between the mortals and the divine. He was also charged with guiding souls into the afterlife.

Hymn to Hermes

Performed by Gemma McNamee (soprano), the University of Western Australia Symphony Chorus and Wind Orchestra.

Commissioned by Andrew Foote and the University of Western Australia's School of Music.

'Komm Du' is based on the poem of the same name by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke who produced the work in the final two weeks of his life before succumbing to cancer in December 1975. I have sought to reconcile notions of beauty and suffering, life and death, within this work. This aesthetic goal is something that I have fervently indulged for some time and is what ultimately brought me into contact with Rilke's literary oeuvre. This concept often manifests musically as the interaction between tonality and atonality as well as other musical binary opposites. 'Komm Du' explores a vast range of sentiments to do with suffering and death and seeks to placate these notions with beauty in order to achieve resolution.

Komm Du

Premiered by the Australian Youth Orchestra, 20/01/2017, Elder Hall, Adelaide, S.A.

Adapted from String Quartet No.4 'Romeo and Juliet'.

A Fool's Prayer

From the 'Homeric Hymns'

In Greek mythology, Zeus was the god of sky and thunder and ruler of the Olympian deities . He is often depicted seated in his throne or upright wielding his signature thunderbolt. Zeus was infamous for his insatiable lust; his salacious impulses led to frequent transgressions against both the divine and mortal. In lieu of his lewd sexual antics, Zeus was revered for his paternal benevolence and charity.

Hymn To Zeus

The Crucible

ABC Classic FM 2018, Chris Lawson (Engineer) and Jennifer Mills (Producer). 

Performed by Arcadia Winds.

Hellfire

Mark Holdsworth [BMus, BA (Hons), MMus] is an Australian composer and researcher currently based in Perth, Western Australia. Holdsworth is a graduate of the University of Western Australia's Conservatorium of Music; he received first class honours for his Bachelor of Arts (2015) and was awarded the coveted Rupert Thackray Prize for Music Education,  he was also the recipient of a full Australian Postgraduate Award for his Master of Music (2018). Holdsworth studied primarily under renowned Australian composers James Ledger and Dr. Christopher Tonkin.

Holdsworth's current projects include four new commissions for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2018-19 Australian Composers School, and 2 new commissions for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as part of Holdsworth's appointment as the MSO Young Composer in Residence for 2019.

... Holdsworth's works have been premiered by some of Australia's most prestigious musicians. In 2010, he was selected for the National Composers Forum (Adelaide) where he received tutelage under composer Carl Vine. The event culminated in the premiere of his Frida Kahlo Portraits by the Australian String Quartet. In 2014, he was selected for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra's Young & Emerging Artists: Composition Project, culminating in the premiere of his Chamber Symphony: A Broken Vow (further information and podcasts may be accessed through the official ABC and Australian Music Centre websites). Holdsworth was subsequently commissioned by Ted Snell and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery to compose Primrose for the 2014 Momento Mori Exhibition. In 2015, Holdsworth was selected to attend the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's Composer's School culminating in a performance of Odyssey, Holdsworth's symphonic overture, for which he was awarded the Dorothy Ellen Ransom Prize in the previous year. His relationship with the TSO has since led to the collaborative education project Songbook. Holdsworth has also worked on various film projects including the FTI WA short film Outline directed by Cody Cameron-Brown, which premiered at the Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner in 2016. The short was nominated for 5 Western Australian Screen Awards including Best Original Music. In 2016, he was commissioned by Andrew Foote and the School of Music at the University of Western Australia to compose Komm Du a work for solo soprano, mixed choir and wind symphony. Komm Du was premiered by Gemma McNamee, the UWA Symphony Chorus and Wind Orchestra. Holdsworth was accepted into the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's 2016 Composition Summer School where he received tutelage under Sir James MacMillan, Gordon McPherson, Oliver Searle, Rory Boyle and David Fennessey. His work for sextet, The Ashes of Time was performed and recorded by the RCS's ensemble in residence, Musiclab. Following his involvement at the RCS, cellist Krista Low gave the world premiere of Holdsworth's latest solo cello work The Crucible at Academie Voix Nouvelles, Royaumont Abbey, north of Paris, France. In 2017, Holdsworth was among four composers selected nationwide to attend the Australian Youth Orchestra's National Music Camp where his second chamber symphony, A Fool's Prayer, was premiered by an ensemble comprising tutors of the AYO NMC. Holdsworth was subsequently commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to compose a new work for the 2017 Cybec Composition Program. L'appel du vide was premiered by a subset of the MSO in February 2018. Holdsworth was consequently appointed the MSO Cybec Young Composer in Residence for 2019. Holdsworth has also been chosen to return to the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's Composer's School for their new two-year reformatted program involving the commission of four new works across 2018-19.

Mark Holdsworth

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