Matthew Orlovich: Australian Composer: The Listening Lounge

Welcome to The Listening Lounge! I hope that you will enjoy hearing this selection of sound bytes from my catalogue of original music compositions. If you would like to know more about any of the works, feel free to email me.

Solo Instrumental

Title: Roundabout (for solo violin, 2002)
Score duration: ca 2 minutes
Performed by: Matt's Home recording
Matt's Note: This piece is the first in a set of 12 short pieces that I am writing for solo violin. It draws upon various types of bowing, left hand pizzicato and repetition of phrases.

Title: Fragment of Gratification (for solo piano, 2000)
Score duration: ca 1 minute
Performed by: Adam Pinto
Matt's Note: This piece, a sample of which is performed here by Adam Pinto, was my contribution to a book of Australian piano pieces published in 2000. The book (called Fragments of Gratification) contains piano music by about 20 Australian composers. It's available online from reedmusic.com.

[Excerpt]

Title: Watercolours (for solo piano, 1995)
Score duration: (approx.) I: 2 minutes 30 seconds; II: 2 minutes 38 seconds; III: 2 minutes 6 seconds; IV: 2 minutes 51 seconds; V: 2 minutes 37 seconds.
Performed by: Yvonne Lau
Matt's Note: Watercolours comprises five movements or pieces, each inspired by the sounds of the Central Javanese gamelan. A recording of the complete work is available on the First Light CD released by the Fellowship of Australian Composers, Inc. (See CDs)

[Excerpt: Mov. I]

A Cappella Choir

Title: Aviation (for a cappella SATB choir, 2000)
Score duration: ca 8 minutes 12 seconds
Performed by: The Australian Voices
Matt's Note: This piece is a setting of a poem (Aviation) by John Kinsella. Its combined images of landscapes and machines appealed to me. The music is for voices alone (no instruments).

Title: Lo, there is light! (for a cappella SATB choir, 1996)
Score duration: ca 3 minutes 50 seconds
Performed by: The Harvard University Choir
Matt's Note: Harvard University (USA) commissioned this work for their 87th Annual Harvard Carol Festival. It is a setting of text by A.B. (Banjo) Paterson and Bishop Reginald Heber. I like to play this piece at least once each Christmas! Here's a sample...

[Excerpt]

Title: On Sutherland's Grave (for a cappella SATB choir, 1991)
Score duration: ca 10 minutes 20 seconds
Performed by: Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Choir
Matt's Note: This piece was composed for The Song Company (Australia). It has since been performed both in Australia and overseas by choirs including the Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Choir, The Australian Voices and the Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir. The work is a setting of excerpts from the Latin Requiem Mass and Henry Kendall's poem "Sutherland's Grave", combined with narration from the Log and Field Book of Russell Drysdale, penned upon the occasion of his visit to The Dig Tree.

[Excerpt]

Title: The Listening Land (for a cappella SATB choir, 1996)
Score duration: ca 10 minutes 13 seconds
Performed by: The Australian Voices
Matt's Note: Commissioned by The Australian Voices, this piece is a setting of poetry by Victor Carell (The Listening Land) and journal entries of the explorer Ernest Giles.

[Excerpt]

Title: Tides of Ocean (for a cappella SATB choir, 1998)
Score duration: ca 5 minutes
Performed by: The Australian Voices
Matt's Note: This piece was commissioned by The Australian Voices and is a setting of Victor Carell's poem about being at sea and the joy of coming home.

[Excerpt]

Title: Voice of the River (for a cappella SATB choir, 1997)
Score duration: 5 minutes 35 seconds
Performed by: St Peters Chorale
Matt's Note: A setting of poetry by Victor Carell, this time combined with an anonymous 12th century text (Dulcis Jesu Memoria).

[Excerpt]

Choir + Instruments

Title: A dream only just begun (for SATB choir orchestra and bass voice soloist, 2000)
Score duration: ca 8 minutes
Performed by: MLC School Burwood and Trinity Grammar School, conducted by Richard Gill.
Matt's Note: This work is a setting of poetry by Australian poet Peter Scrzynecki. The work juxtaposes choir and soloist while the orchestra lends colour and a great climactic conclusion.

Title: Eternity (for SATB choir, orchestra and pipe organ, 2000)
Score duration: ca 20 minutes
Performed by: 19 Sydney Colleges, conducted by Ben Macpherson.
Matt's Note: In three movements, this work received its premiere performance at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, in 2000. The splendid reverberation of the great cathedral is evident in the recording. The work is a setting of poetry by Francis Webb and Roland Robinson. The middle movement is a setting of the words "Lest We Forget" and excerpts from the Latin Requiem Mass.

Chamber Music

Title: Savage Coast (for flute, oboe, percussion and piano, 2000)
Score duration: ca 6 minutes
Performed by: Matt's Home Recording
Matt's Note: This piece contains a very energetic piano part! I had the pleasure of performing it with the Zurich Ensemble for New Music at the Australian National Academy of Music. The piece is great fun to play once you have memorized the notes!

[Excerpt]

Orchestral

Title: The Monkeys' Bridge (for orchestra, 1995)
Score duration: ca 3 minutes
Performed by: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Matt's Note: The Monkeys' Bridge gained for me the ABC Orchestral Composers Award. It is a short piece which features tuned percussion, drones and pentatonic melodies. Here's a sample...

[Excerpt]

Theatre Music

Title: The Wasps (audio CD, 2003)
Score duration: ca 18 minutes (music)
Performed by: Matthew Orlovich
Matt's Note: "The Wasps" is a new play by Churchill College Fellow and internationally acclaimed poet, novelist and playwright, John Kinsella, with an original score specially commissioned for the play from Sydney composer Matthew Orlovich. A hypnotic play about ritual, disease and new age mysticism, it is an exciting fusion of dance, trance and poetry. (Source: The Marlowe Dramatic Society).

[Excerpt from Act I, Sc.iv]

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