Making Waves is delighted to share this month’s playlist, String Quartet Waves!
As an ensemble, the string quartet has been codified such that is a genre unto itself. Perhaps this is due to its typical designation for the most intimate and considered of thoughts, from Beethoven to Shostakovich, and Schoenberg to Crumb. Yet despite its age, it is a genre that is ever contemporary. Championed by quartets such as Kronos Quartet and JACK Quartet, the genre is filled with brilliant new compositions.
In Australia, the string quartet has found another home, in the creations of Sculthorpe and Westlake, and in the work of ensembles such as the Australian String Quartet, Flinders Quartet and Acacia Quartet. As such we are excited to share a collection of contemporary Australian string quartets, filled with contrasting moods, energies and complexities. We hope you can sit back and enjoy this months playlist.

String Quartet Waves (March 2019)

International Women's Day 2019

Commissioned by the Silo Collective and performed by the Enigma Quartet, this is my recording of the world premiere performance of my String Quartet, "The First Movement" on November 17, 2015. 

String Quartet: The First Movement [Live recording]

@2016 
Performed by the Briar String Quartet (Matthew Rigby- Violin 1, Navin Gulavita- Violin 2, Georgia Stibbard- Viola, Sage Fuller- Cello) 
Premiered at the Composer's Concert, St Stephen's Church Richmond, Victoria

Recorded at Sing Sing Studios, South Yarra, Victoria
Engineer: Aaron Dobos 

I always heard the phrase ‘The first step is always the hardest’.
Beginnings spark a potential energy, waiting to burst out. The endless possibility and avenues a road can lead is enthralling; blossoming new and dynamic waves. It’s exhilarating, yet restrained, not knowing where the road leads or how it will end.

This piece is my first step.

String Quartet No. 1 - "First"

'The Fine Art of Conversation' (2015) for string quartet performed by the Huon Quartet.

More info and sheet music at: https://angusdavison.com/

'The Fine Art Of Conversation' for string quartet (2015)

14/08/2017 - Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, Australia
Performed as apart of ‘Scratching the Surface: A selection of works from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection’

Performed by:
Jennifer Barrington - Soprano
Shaun Lee-Chen - Violin I
Jasmine Middleton - Violin II
Rachel Hicks - Viola
Jeremy Garside - Violoncello
Conducted by: James Ledger.

Recipient of the Dorothy Ellen Ransom Prize for Music Composition - 2017

Stephen de Filippo's Album

Two Pieces - Soprano & String Quartet

What is 'space'? Where is 'nohwere'? How do we understand these concepts? How do we cultivate 'nowhere' and 'space'? These are questions that I considered when approaching this work. Into Ethereal Space responds to the exhibition title 'Nowhere=Space' by exploring contrasting peaceful, meditative sections and flurried rhythmic sections. This piece invites you to enter into a space of contrasts and to explore, contemplate and consider what 'nowhere' and 'space' might mean.

This piece was commissioned for the opening of 'Nowhere=Space' at 107 Projects. This is a live recording of the premiere performance, 11 July 2018.
Performed by Quart-Ed: Caitlin Sandiford, Sarah Qiu, David Tocknell and Karen Cortez.

July 2018.

Inside the Mosaic

Into Ethereal Space

3. You Cannot Be Serious

Matthias Bamert
West Australian Symphony Orchestra

This work was commissioned as an education piece, and is
designed to showcase the sections of the orchestra at the circus or at the zoo:
Brass (opening): fanfare, welcome to the circus/zoo;
Woodwinds: the monkeys;
Strings: the trapeze/the swans;
Percussion: lions and tigers;
Tutti, and brass fanfare to end.
The conductor may pause at each new section to introduce the instruments
of the orchestra, or may have the opening few bars of each section of music
played before performing the piece without pause.

Roar!

For solo soprano and SSAATTBB. Commissioned and recorded by The Australian Voices, 2012. Conducted by Gordon Hamilton.

Dedicated to William Duckworth and Jocelyn Wolfe.

Text:
DROUGHT

BY JUDITH WRIGHT

The summer solstice come and gone,
now the dark of the moon comes on.
The raging sun in his pale sky
has drunk the sap of the world dry.
Across the plains the dustwhirls run
and dust has choked the shrivelling tree.

This is my world that dies with me, 
cries the curlew in the night.
I have forgotten how the white
 birdfooted water in the creek
used in spring to call and speak.
All is fallen under the sun
and the world dies that once I made.

The strength that brandished my green blade,
the force uncoiling from the cell,
 drains like water from a wrecked well,
 says the dried out corn of the earth.
The seed I cherished finds no birth.

Now the dark of the world comes on.

Into Ethereal Space

Sophie Van Dijk - Composer