Hommage à Ligeti

A 16-voice, quadruple mensuration canon written as an experiment in synchronized repetition and superimposition of multiple speeds.

Wavemaker, for electronics (2022)

Responsories for piano quartet (2014)
Written for and performed by the Australia Piano Quartet

Responsories for piano quartet

Pf. Garrick Ohlsson

In 2021, I was approached by Paul Kildea from Musica Viva Australia to write a piece for Garrick Ohlsson for his 2023 Australian tour. He would be playing music by Franz Liszt, Samuel Barber, Franz Schubert, Alexander Scriabin, and Frédéric Chopin (of which Garrick is a famous interpreter). While researching and reflecting on how my creative voice could complement the program I stumbled on a description of Garrick’s playing saying that he possesses a “calmly demanding presence”. 

I decided I would channel a piece by Liszt which evokes the same descriptors for me, Sposalisio (meaning marriage) from Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage). In this piece, Liszt describes Raphael’s high-renaissance painting, Sposalisio, in musical form. Though some of the motivic and structural scaffolding owes to the Liszt, conceptually and stylistically, the piece has come to resemble something more pluralistic than a marriage. Convocations combine the unlikely and disparate elements of the romantic piano giants, modernist styles, an Australian tour, a Tasmanian composer, and an American concert pianist in a congregation that aims to give life to a spiritual soundworld.

Convocations (2023)

Performed by Stephen Whale
Elebash Recital Hall, New York City, March 21st


Einojuhani Rautavaara, Piano Sonata nr. 1, 'Christus und die Fischer'

Performer: Jack Barnes

The Piano Sonata is in 5 movements: 
I: Auspices ex Avibus
Birds envisage of an ominous future despite the warmth, comfort and optimism of their surroundings. 
II: Ardent Narcosis
A serene, sun-kissed middle section is bookended by sections of relentlessly volatile romantic hysteria. 
III: Asphyxic Voids 
An aimless aria winds its way through this movement in wearied submission. Air bubbles can be heard in the middle of this section, seemingly in perpetual descent. At the end of this section, heartbeat-like utterances can be heard. 
VI: Amygdalic Blitz
Untamed energy, ecstatic tension between fight and flight. The last part of the section gives in to unfettered maniacal and violent instincts bringing about its own orgiastic destruction. 
V: Aftermath
A limbo-esque state of suspension between good and evil, redemption and reprimand.

Piano Sonata (2017)

Commissioned by Bernadette Harvey with funding from the Australia Council and the Freshwater festival. Premiered by Bernadette Harvey, Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, April 2017. Recording of complete work by Bernadette Harvey, June 2017.

International performance by Patrick Sckrilecz (Schallfeld Ensemble), Konzertsaal, Reiterskaserne, Kunst University, Graz, Austria, May 4 2018

Kolam for piano solo is an extended five movement cycle that is intended to be a sonic meditation on the ancient and mysterious practice of kolam. 

Kolam is a ritualistic form of decorative threshold art, drawn on the ground using rice flour at the entrance of a private home. It is an ancient practice traditionally passed on from mother to daughter. A kolam itself is a mandala-like drawing composed of a continuous line curving around a matrix of dots. In the state of Tamil Nadu, in South India, kolam-making is widely practised by the women of the house each morning from daybreak. Kolams are thought to bestow prosperity to homes, are seen as a sign of welcome, and also ward off the “evil eye”. Kolam patterns range between geometric and mathematical line drawings to free form artwork and closed shapes. Once drawn, these designs are left to be walked over, for passing insects to eat, and gradually disappear by the end of the day only to be reformed again the next morning.

Image - Flower kolam. Photo by Tim Dargaville, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, South India, April 2018

Kolam for piano solo (2014)

Performers: Ensemble Offspring
Claire Edwardes: Vibraphone, Woodblocks, Suspended Cymbal
Lamorna Nightingale: Bass Flute, Flute
Jason Noble: Bass Clarinet
Henry Justo: Viola
Blair Harris: Cello

The more familiar I become with Samuel Beckett’s work and life story, the more endearing his duality becomes. He is, on the one hand, demanding and uncompromising; on the other a man of great modesty, bravery, humanity, generosity and forgiveness. It's absurd (not in the sense that his works are) to eulogise Beckett in under 10 minutes especially as, in his extreme modesty, he found most admiration uncomfortable. However, given our lifespans never crossed and given his bleak, funny, deeply moving and perversely humane plays have left such an impression on me I feel the need to bid him Adieu through music.

Adieu (2019)

Me playing a shortened version of Rhapsody in Blue (Page 11 I cut to page 31). The full 16 minutes will be recorded shortly.

Rhapsody in Blue (6 minute version) - George Gershwin pf Thomas Misson

Hijack is about how language and ideas can be warped, weaponized, manipulated and “hijacked” for sometimes malevolent purposes. After the opening cello melody the seemingly innocuous Pachelbel’s canon is slowly warped into a sickly, confrontational and fearful state. Trying to heal the situation, the viola picks up where the cello left off only to be met with hostile assaults from the other instruments. Eventually, the other instruments, seeing the viola tired and vulnerable, radicalize it into a numb state of unquestioning obedience.

Hijack (2020)

Thanks to Douglas O'Connor (Alto Saxophone) and Eunmi Ko (Piano) for their wonderful playing as part of the 2020 USF International New Music Festival.

After writing the large-scale, programmatic, emotionally effusive and self-destructive Piano Sonata in 2017 I felt that the next piece would have to be a kind of emotional counterweight. Keeping the lightness, textural transparency and humour of Mozart and Haydn in mind while writing this piece the form and structure also started to shape itself more traditionally too. Hence this became titled a sonata.

Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2018)

Misson’s compositions are inspired by psychology, the complexities of nature, politics, the extremes of the human condition and the ever-present imperfection central to it. His music often expresses a desire to reimagine familiar musical tropes in surreal, and blackly humorous ways.

Convocations (2023)

Thomas Misson

Related tracks