I composed this around Christmas 2010/11. The text is a standard one for the Troparion of Christmas in the Orthodox Church, used in slavonic. I wanted to create something that captured the idea of Eastern chant and exaggerated features of a meterless feel, at times making rhythm a little jarring deliberately. A version of "Veni Veni, Emmanuel" as sung by "The Ten Tenors" was highly inspirational in the writing. I tried as much as possible to be modal and to use open fifths wherever possible to create that sound world. Enjoy!

Thy Nativity O Christ Our God (Christmas Troparion)

Here, I have taken a song from an animated Russian movie from the soviet era I loved as a child (and always will!) called Cheburahka. You can find the original of this song on youtube and maybe even other parts of the movie. This song occurs when it's Cheburashka's birthday if I remember correctly. Anyway, I made a theme and variations type arrangement for piano and even am cheesy and try to put it in major. Please excuse the mistakes/hesitations, I made this up on the spot...

Here is the link in case you were interested re my inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2qbcpSIqDo


Ya Igrayu Na Garmoshke ~ theme and variations on piano

another song from the cute Russian cartoon movie, Cheburashka. Here, Cheburashka (the odd bear/mouse creature is with Krokodil Gena and Shapoklyak (a cheeky old woman who plays tricks on Gena and Cheburashka earlier in the film, and spreads propaganda) sitting on top of a train which they call a blue wagon. Of course, the croc is playing accordion. Once again, there is a bit of clumsiness of my part, but again, this was improvised on the spot. I allow myself to deviate a bit more from the theme and altar the theme itself, not just the left hand accompanying figures. I spend more time in the major as well.

Here is the link if you wanted to see the movie scene by which this was inspired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4m-jXuQHLg

Galuboi Vagon (Blue Wagon - from Cheburashka) - piano variations

As part of a uni subject called "Music as Noise", I made a soundscape, recording my own sounds (except for one bird call (white-eyed vireo) which I found on wikimedia commons) from the real world and assembled them in the program audacity. It's a fairly abstract work, but I take inspiration from experimental composers such as John Cage and Pierre Schaeffer who liked to collect sounds from the real world and organise them electronically. Like Schaeffer, I sometimes distort my sounds beyond recognition (audacity offers many effects such as reverb, reverse, fade-in/out, change pitch, change speed, etc. which was useful for this desired effect). I combine the sounds of nature (birds, my dog, crunching leaves and the wind) with technological sounds (areoplane motor, jingling keys and opening blinds), so in a way my composition calls into question the relationship and coexistence between these different elements in the shared space. Hope you all enjoy!

Sound Art Project (backyard soundscape)

experiment for a #clmooc (connected learning massive open online course) comic for Tania Sheko. This is the midi version which seems to better suit the comic genre. I will also upload a sibelius sounds version (slightly more realistic sounding instruments). 

Pinball (midi)

this is the sibelius sounds version of my previous upload of the score for the #clmooc comic (so the instruments sound slightly more realistic). 

Pinball

This is a stand-alone overture I wrote in the last couple of months which is inspired by late Romantic style but includes my own unique twists of harmonic progression, tone colour, texture and formal structure. I use sonata form in a modern way, placing special emphasis on the development section and the recap and coda, much like the first mvt of Beethoven's 9th, are not mere restatements of the exposition, but expand and further develop the themes and motifs. While the ending is very nearly dangerously cliché, I hammer in one of the main repeating thematic fragments one last time, taking advantage of my favourite combined tone colours of bass clarinet, low register bassoon and cor anglais which occurs through much of the piece.

Overture In D Minor

In the Orthodox tradition, feast days or observances are almost always anticipated from the night before. Likewise, with the observance of Good Friday, it begins from Thursday night with a unique service comprising largely of the reading of the 12 passion gospels while all hold lighted candles in complete darkness. Towards the end of the service, a hymn known as the exapostilarion is sung (this form of hymn usually occurs in most matins services after the singing of the canon, a set of 3-9 odes with verses read between them, which usually connect the feast/observance with old testament events). For Good Friday eve, the exapostilarion speaks of the good Thief on Christ's right who at the last moment repented and was saved. I have taken the text of this hymn and written my own chant for mixed choir, taking influences from Russian Orthodox style and Bach chorale style.

Exapostilarion of Good Friday "The Good Thief"

At uni I took an orchestration subject and our final assignment was free choice ~ we chose our own melody or piece and orchestrated it for a mini orchestra and had to make use of idiomatic techniques unique to certain instruments which we had learnt during the semester. I chose a Znamenny Chant melody used for the singing of the Beautitudes as part of the Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy. I used tubular bells and electric organ to capture the church aesthetic (although this is ironic as Orthodox church music is strictly a capella with no instrumental accompaniment allowed). I also use drones quite frequently. In the way of techniques, I don't do anything all that crazy but make use of flutter tonguing in flute, and pizzicato and portato in strings. Timpani also features to help minimize the monotony of the drones. For textural interest, I add ornaments such as grace notes and trills and put dynamic phrasing in to bring shape to the repeated notes (the melody only uses 4 notes). Mostly the textures are sparse, but given my huge admiration for Western Romantic Orchestral (and habit to compose in that style way too often!), I finish with a big dramatic tutti and deliberately use a dorian cadence to accentuate the modal tonality of this chant melody. 

Znamenny chant for "The Beatitudes" orchestrated

This work is scored for clarinet trio (clarinet, violin and piano). It was commissioned by Ensemble Con Fuoco, a trio comprising friends/colleagues of mine from uni to be played at a concert specially designed for the performance of world premières. 

Style wise, I used a bit of minimalism. I use lots of repeating ostinati that last for a fairly long period of time before changing harmony or to a new pattern. Pizz violin and piano begin the first ostinato in unison and then clarinet brings in a melody which is mainly long notes with some minimal quaver movement towards the ends of phrases. I at first try to avoid harmony, using mostly melodic movement to create a sparser harmonic texture but a denser contrapuntal texture.

The structure is vaguely ternary with new material loosely based on the opening section being introduced in a slower tempo. In what could loosely be called a recap/development, the opening material returns but is varied in radical ways with new meters (time signatures) and rhythmic groupings being used and extra harmonies being added. I also make use of canon technique to create a fugal texture.

The title is a bit pointless as most of mine are come up with after I finish composing the piece. However the word pentagonal refers to the 5/8 meter which begins the piece and is returned to frequently in between other meter changes. The unevenness of the meter is what creates a sense of drive, momentum and a dance feel. Why grasshopper? I honestly don't know! Enjoy! (There's a live youtube version of this that you can search for)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBqaX3GMPmo

Pentagonal Grasshopper Dance

After nearly 4 years procrastinating I've finally finished this! Initially I felt like writing a more chilled out orchestral piece (Schubert style?) but those of you who know me well know that I can't resist a bit of drama for long ;) I had no idea what form I wanted this in when I began but being the Classical nerd I am I made it a loose-sonata form. When developing my ideas around the middle, I experimented a little with different colours/textures and tried also to make use of thin chamber/textures. Because I wrote this on and off over 4 years, I had different ideas at different times. When I was writing bits of the development, I was studying an orchestration subject in my 3rd year at uni and so I was trying a few techniques (albeit subtley). I didn't want a loud ending, so after some mock drama near the end I decided to wind it all down and end in a whisper...

Spring Breeze

This arrangement of mine was for a specific project, to be used in Melbourne White Night 2018. My quartet had the delightful task of performing for 12 hours (7pm to 7am) and so we needed a wide variety of repertoire. I took this opportunity to arrange some Russian folk tunes since I'm always keen to have arrangements/compositions of mine performed. The 3 songs are в землянке (v zemlyanke, in the dugout), море шумит (morye shumit, the noisy sea) and голубой вагон (goluboi vagon, blue carriage). The last is from the cute animated Russian movie, чебурашка (cheburashka). Basically I wrote variations on these themes as 3 separate movements, experimenting with different ways of accompanying or changing the rhythm. In Blue Carriage, I went further and developed motifs as a way of extending the movement and creating bridge passages/climaxes between variations. The real challenge for me with writing for a duo as I'm used to writing for larger ensembles. It forced me to think creatively in terms of keeping up interest, varying rhythm, texture and trying to give a sense of the harmony. I had a fun time exploring the colours of the viola (especially the high register) and interweaving the melodies between the 2 instruments.

Maxim Sheko

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