Name: Impromptu on a Theme of Chopin by Zinia Chan
Duration: 29 s
Description: I always just play the first... Six bars of Fantasie Impromptu by Federic Chopin. So today I decided to improvise from it. And boy! [The end].

I always just play the first... Six bars of Fantasie Impromptu by Federic Chopin. So today I decided to improvise from it. And boy! [The end].

Impromptu on a Theme of Chopin

Taken from the "All My Friends Are Dead (Wrapped in Plastic) Exhibition Soundtrack". free download here - http://paleearth.bandcamp.com/album/all-my-friends-are-dead-wrapped-in-plastic-exhibition-soundtrack

Orchid Solitaire

This work was written as part of an engagement with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for their 2014 Composition Project. For me, Efflorescence ('to flower out') is essentially about growth and decay - I was looking to open with simplicity and build complexity throughout the work, only to reach a peak and eventually die out to silence. In musical terms this piece represents an exploration of the different timbres that can be achieved when lines are blurred between different instruments, and when elements are layered upon one another. 

Premiered by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra on June 11, 2014. 

Recorded at ABC Studios, East Perth. 

Efflorescence - West Australian Symphony Orchestra

Pale Earth & Zinia Chan :: Dedicate Nights (Draft)

New single, taken from the debut EP "Cornerstone"

Recorded and produced by Tristan Hoogland


'Til It's Gone

Soundtrack to accompany live piano for "Grey Ghost" by Miriama Young

Grey Ghost - soundtrack alone

Grey Ghost is a meditation in piano and electronics drawing on the ancient song of the once prolific North Island Kōkako.

Miriama Young - composer
Xenia Pestova - piano
Phil Brownlee - recording engineer

Grey Ghost - piano (Xenia Pestova) with soundtrack

Soprano: Amelia Jones
Piano: Stephan Cassomenos

INSIGHT
A Sea Spray of Ash is work for solo soprano with minimal yet reverberant piano accompaniment, confronting the issue of environmental collapse, which poses a sobering threat to our existence. It conveys a narrative of ash covering the shores, natural disasters, and a reminiscent moment of when the Earth was pure, right before a solemn caution to not silence its desperate plea for survival. This work was composed during and inspired by the emergence of the 2019 Global Climate Crisis Strikes.	
					
~ Dedicated to Bridgette, Amanda and Amelia ~	

Timing: ~ 4-5minutes

PERFORMANCE NOTE
The cross-headed notes imply spoken text through whispers and shushes, with a pitch still indicated for any potentially desired Sprechstimme. Each shush is also to be done with the hand-gesture brought up close to the nose and lips. For the pianist, they are notated as pedal lifts at the same time as 3 shushes.

SET TEXT
Carbon dated evacuation
Glacial tsunami
Tectonic collapse 

Caldera crystallised
Cubic miles
Unearthed 

Atmosphere
Landslide
Ash

Though that is all in the future –
Now, I stand with you on the shore
Looking back beyond the hinterland;
An early morning omen
Of amber light
Emerging over the mountain.
(by Anonymous) 

This work received its joint public world premiere performance on the 17th of April and 22nd of May 2021 by Anna Fraser + Jack Symonds (Sydney Conservatorium of Music) and Amelia Jones + Stephan Cassomenos (Melbourne Recital Centre Primrose Potter Salon) as part of the 2021 inaugural KAMMERKLANG Call for Scores, one of two works only selected for both performances. 

*** This work won the inaugural No Divide KC 2022 International Art Song Competition (USA)
*** This work was selected by the Australian Music Centre as one of six submissions to the Australian Section of the 2025 ISCM World New Music Days Festival (Portugal) with subsequent selection by Miso Music Portugal to represent Australia in 2025’s festival between 30th May – 7th June in Lisbon and Porto, Portugal.

© Robert McIntyre 2019 www.roberttmcintyre.com

A Sea Spray Of Ash (LIVE)(soprano & piano)(2019)(Amelia Jones & Stefan Cassomenos)

this is not a fe/male body.
the body is gendered but the body is not gender.
this is a human body.

(Thanks to Emma Neveux for the French tracks.)

Noise Recording Project

this is not a fe/male body

When birds fly is a work for mixed sextet, with instrumentation including:

Flute/piccolo
Bass Clarinet (in Bb)
Violin
Cello
Vibraphone/Glockenspiel
Piano

Inspired by the 2019 NGV Cai Guo-Qiang exhibition "The Transient Landscape", this work aims to embody the continual unity by the birds throughout the gallery. This ties in with a Gestalt principle known as ‘common fate’, and how even a flock of birds can all move together simultaneously without preconception; something that we all as humans could apply more to our world today.

The work has minimalist inflections, and is structured harmonically on an 8-chord sequence split evenly for the first three sections, finally ending on two chords within the cycle for the last section that have particularly special meaning to me.

© Robert McIntyre 2019

(Unimelb Musicians - Rehearsal)

When birds fly (LIVE)(mixed sextet)(2019)(Syzygy Ensemble)

This is an ode to the Rational Academy, a great Brisbane band, but also to a time in my life and the life of the city. 

I associate this song with the scene I was involved with in the late 2000s-early 2010s, and all the social connections it facilitated. It was really formative for me, this world of bands, DIY venues, and bedroom recording, and I still listen to a lot of the music my friends made back then. 

At the same time as playing in crumbling rooms I was also studying music composition and becoming obsessed with American minimalism and post-minimalism. That was also really influential, and is still a big part of my musical style.

So when I randomly decided to do a cover of 2004, it weirdly just morphed into this strange minimalist mash-up. I hadn't really intended this to mean anything, but it is kind of like a reconciliation of these two very formative paths I was taking in this particular time of life.

Impromptu on a Theme of Chopin

Zinia Chan

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