One of my favorite things about birdsong is its atonality. In movies and such we like to talk about the melodiousness of birds singing, but birdsong is essentially atonal, and when they sing together their songs can take on a real dissonance.

Geese (2023) - Broken Frames Syndicate

for Urška Rihtaršič

Inštitut .abeceda
Festival sodobne glasbe .abeceda / .abeceda Contemporary Music Festival
Ensemble (.abeceda [ansambel za novo glasbo] / .abeceda [new music ensemble])

for microtonal harp duo or harp and pre-recorded tape

Urška Rihtaršič, harfa / harp

A harp tuned in 12 EDO and another in 7 EDO allow, through the pedal system, access to various microtonal combinations (1/20, 1/10, 1/6, 1/5, 2/7, 1/4, etc.) in relation to 12 EDO, establishing tonal centers and temperaments. The first and third sections of the piece are tautological, transposed by a distance of one tone.

GLASSSCHERBEN (2024) for Microtonal Harp

June 29th, 2024, performed by ensemble mosaik in the UpTo3 Festival

thermo_doxa (2024) [clarinet, viola, drumset, electronics] - ensemble mosaik

Growing Block / Sarah Hennies

realisation by Aditya Ryan Bhat, Sofia Carbonara, Kina Lin-Wilmoth, Sean Quinn & Yona Su

at the Mission to Seafarers, Narrm/Melbourne, 22nd September 2024

Growing Block

Colonial practices in schools (part 1) / SCHUBART

performed by Yona Su & Aditya Ryan Bhat

at Cross St Music Hall, Narrm/Melbourne, 23rd November 2024

recorded by Mira Lechner-Scott

Colonial practices in schools pt. 1

Colonial practices in schools (part 2) / SCHUBART

performed by Yona Su & Aditya Ryan Bhat

at Cross St Music Hall, Narrm/Melbourne, 23rd November 2024

recorded by Mira Lechner-Scott

Colonial practices in schools pt. 2

Torlannol- Gregory Rowland Evans

For Soprano and Ensemble
Recording performed by Juliet Fraser and Klangforum Wien, conducted by Bas Wiegers.
Commissioned by SWR, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Casa da Musica Porto. 
First performed by Juliet Fraser and Klangforum Wien, conducted by Titus Engel at Donaueschingen Musiktage, 14 October 2016.

View score - 
https://issuu.com/editionpeters/docs/ep14188_online

Skin (2015-16)

for Percussion Duo and Orchestra.
Recording performed by Christian Dierstein, Dirk Rothbrust and the Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Enno Poppe at Ultraschall Berlin, January 2018.
Commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Wien Modern
First performed 10 May 2014, Witten Days for new Chamber Music Festival, by Christian Dierstein, Dirk Rothbrust and the WDR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Rundell

View score -  https://issuu.com/editionpeters/docs/ep_14042_saunders_void_score_pcl

Void (2013-14)

For Solo Bass Flute
Performed by Helen Bledsoe 23.06.2018

Commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik
First performed 19 November 2016 by Helen Bledsoe at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

Bite (2016)

This short piece for solo piccolo, starling sandbox, presents the performer momentous fragments and scatters them into four lettered groupings. Performers are invited, though loosely, to use the scaffold of how to interpret the work; such as dynamics, tone colours and open structure. Each gesture is based on hearing and transcribing – loosely – the birdsongs of starlings that live on my estate, and by using various extended-techniques and their microscopic variations, I was able to create a sparse yet playful texture; enhanced by the unpredictable format of “sandbox” mode, where the performer engages with the score using a fluid scaffold to engage with the fragments – finding parameters within the freedoms of proximity and dimensional interplay.

starling sandbox

For more info, check out www.seanquinncomposer.com

starling sandbox

Sean Quinn - Composer

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