Night [2005/2008]

Original Score (2005): 5 octave handbells (with optional handchimes), SATB choir, clap sticks and didgeridoo in C;
New Arrangement (2008): SATB choir, percussion, piano and didgeridoo in C.

Duration: circa 5 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium (Handbells Level 3 - 4).
Available from: The Australian Music Centre

This work, a setting of Judith Wright's evocative poem of the same name, was commissioned by the Handbell Society of Australasia for performance in August 2006 at the 12th International Handbell Symposium, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. The 2008 arrangement of the work was premiered by ProjectKoor, The Netherlands, directed by Paul Gieles.

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Midnight Mass [2007]

Score: SATB choir, soprano & bass baritone soloist, treble voice soloist, organ and orchestra.
Duration: see below
Level of difficulty: Easy-Medium
Available from: The Australian Music Centre

Midnight Mass (for SATB choir, soprano & bass baritone soloist, treble voice soloist, organ and orchestra) was commissioned by Father Arthur Bridge for performance at Midnight Mass, held at St Patrick’s Church, Blacktown, NSW, on Tuesday 25 December, 2007.
 

The Midnight Mass setting comprises:
 
I. Processional (O come, all ye faithful) (3’08”)
II. Lord Have Mercy (1’07”)
III. Gloria (1’36”)
IV. Responsorial Psalm (2’40”)
V. Gospel Acclamation (1’46”)
VI. Profession of Faith (Creed) (4’40”)
VII. Offertory Song (Lo, there is light!) (3’13”)
VIII. Holy Holy Holy (1’09”)
IX. Memorial Acclamation (0’30”)
X. Amen (Full) (1’31”)
XI. Lord’s Prayer (2’00”)
XII. Lamb of God (0’46”)
XIII. Communion songs:
i. Away in a Manger (2’33”)
ii. Silent Night (3’31”)
XIV. Recessional (Joy to the World) (2’40”)


I wish to thank Father Arthur Bridge for commissioning the work. I also gratefully acknowledge the
contribution of time and talent made by all the musicians and behind-the-scenes workers involved in
the premiere performance of the work.

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Ezekiel [2004]

Score: SSABar choir, piano and percussion
Duration: circa 8 minutes
Level of difficulty: Easy - Medium
Available from: The Australian Music Centre

Ezekiel (for SSABar choir, piano and percussion) was commissioned in 2004 by The Hunter Singers, Newcastle, directed by Kim Sutherland, with financial assistance of the Music Board of the Australia Council.

The work, of approximately 8 minutes duration, draws upon a poem by the Australian writer Luke Davies, entitled “Ezekiel”. Luke’s poem appealed to me with its vivid images of natural phenomena, flora and fauna, and with its allusion to the realm of sci-fi.

The words and music reflect on the science of familiar things (flowers, clouds, bees, rain, light, as well as our other elemental surroundings) to reveal a contemporary and fascinating reflection on 'the big picture', that is: our place in the vast universe, what we are experiencing, and what we are expressing with our human emotions.

The musical ideas in my composition have been inspired by the sounds and rhythms of the poet’s language, as well as the poet’s images. Syncopated, energetic rhythms propel the melodies in the first half of the piece through a series of repetitions. Then, from the middle of the piece onwards, a series of modulations allows my music to build to a climactic and energetic conclusion.

I sincerely thank The Hunter Singers for commissioning the work. My thanks also goes to Luke Davies for kindly allowing me to set music to his poem. I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Music Board of the Australia Council.

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Huge Earth [2003]

Score: massed SATB and SA choirs, SATB motet choir, orchestra, organ and soloists (piano and recorder)
Duration: circa 15 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer

Huge Earth was commissioned for performance by St Andrew's Cathedral School, 2003.

When composing the work, I was inspired by three things. First, the School's large array of performers (2 massed choirs, a cappella motet choir, orchestra, pipe organ and soloists) encouraged me to write music about something magnificent. I was then led (by way of the poetry section in Dymocks, George Street, Sydney) to a wonderfully creative and inspiring text for my work in the form of an extract from "Dew", a poem by the acclaimed Sydney-based author, Luke Davies. The third and no less important source of inspiration for my work was the energy and enthusiasm that I knew St Andrew's Cathedral School would bring to the premiere of my work.

"Huge Earth" begins and ends with a music that involves all the musicians with choristers singing of the awe-inspiring magnitude of the earth, "bigger than we can possibly imagine, held together as if by string or magic". The middle section of the work features the recorder and piano soloists, unaccompanied motet choir, orchestra, and massed Primary School Choirs singing of the huge earth "smelling of jasmine and honeycomb, poppy dust and diesel" as it rumbles through the spiral fringes of the galaxy.

I sincerely thank St Andrew's Cathedral School for commissioning the work, as well as all the performers for their inspiration and talent, the staff for all their behind-the-scenes work, and to poet Luke Davies and publisher Allen & Unwin for their kind permission to set the text. Special thanks also to the soloists Laura Bell (recorder) and David Helfgott (piano), and to conductor Chris Belshaw.

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Psalm 62 [2002]

Score: SATB choir, string orchestra, and organ (optional).
Duration: circa 5 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer

This setting of Psalm 62 (My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God) was commissioned by St Aloysius' School, Sydney.

The score calls for a steady tempo throughout, evoking, for me, the notion of travelling toward a destination by placing one foot in front of the other. This slow, march-like momentum becomes deeply felt as the music progresses.

Extending throughout the work is a lyrical melodic line, underscored by modulations which direct the flow of music to a joyful climax and a gentle, quiet conclusion.

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The Paean [2002]

Score: SA choir, 2 violins, viola, cello and piano.
Duration: circa 5 minutes, 30 seconds.
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer

This score draws its text from the evocative poem of the same title by Roland Robinson. The poet describes a scene in which desert stars blaze in fires blue and cold.

"East, the bounding line of earth quickens, runs with livid gold. Dark, the circling regions lie: ache of gibber-plain, the yawn of barren, ravined ranges while the bore-head smokes into the dawn."

The climax of the choir piece arrives when, from the hollowed purple plain, clamour wakens shrill and loud. "In their thousands rise the birds streaming in a far dark cloud. On the burning east that host soars, then bursts in shrill, prolonged crescendo, there, the molten gold with the showering birds is thronged. ..."

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Waratah [2001, rev. 2008]

Score: SATB choir, brass and percussion.
Duration: circa 10 minutes, 45 seconds.
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer

Waratah (for SATB choir, brass and percussion) was commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for performance at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, on 7th July 2001, under the direction of Brett Weymark. Revised in 2008, the work has subsequently been performed at the 59th Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival and recorded by the Queensland University Musical Society.

The work, a setting of Roland Robinson’s poem ‘Waratah’, concerns a flower which, sprung from Eden earth, burns amidst drenched depths of blue-grey bush.

When composing the music, I found inspiration in the poet’s contrasting images. His description of the waratah as a fierce and holy flower suggested to me both savage and sanctified musical ideas, as did his image of a misted, mauve-grey light glistening through crowding depths of fronds and spears and blades.

A waterfall, spilling from fern-hung heights, inspired the cascading music which flows to my setting of the final verse, wherein, the waratah is left to burn on, through the centuries, in the bush and rain.

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Lula [2001]

Score: SA choir and piano
Duration: circa 2 minutes
Level of difficulty: Easy/Medium
Available from: Alfred Music Publishers, (Australia).

Lula was composed upon the request of Alfred Music Publishers (Australia) for inclusion in their catalogue of Australian choral music for schools. The text of my composition comprises two syllables: "lu - la". A lively, high-spirited little piece with a colourful

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A Dream Only Just Begun [2000]

Score: massed SATB choir and orchestra, with bass voice soloist
Duration: circa 8 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: The Australian Music Centre
 
A Dream Only Just Begun was commissioned by Ars Musica Australis to commemorate Australia’s Centenary of Federation.

Scored for SATB choir, bass voice soloist and orchestra, the work is a setting of Peter Skrzynecki’s poem “Didgeridoo”. The poet’s description of the didgeridoo’s sounds of joy and pain - “a vortex in our ears that spiralled and spun” - inspired me to compose a mostly rhythmic and syncopated music.

My scoring of the two middle verses of the poem includes music for a bass voice soloist. He sings of drawing breath and of the wind that blows up: “deep, passionate, resonating with earth and sea”.

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Eternity [2000]

Score: massed SATB choir, organ and orchestra
Duration: circa 20 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer
 
Eternity was commissioned for performance on 30th July, 2000, by the Combined Sydney College Choirs and Orchestra, at the “Millennium Concert”, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, conducted by Ben Macpherson. Scored for SATB choir, organ and orchestra, the work comprises three movements with two short interludes.

The first movement is entitled “Deep in the silent centuries”. It draws its text from Roland Robinson’s poem “The Sleeping Bush”. Finding himself gone back to a time and place, with the rocks and the trees, deep in the silent centuries, the poet stands listening and wondering by what track he has come.

Before the second movement commences, the pipe organ introduces the first interlude: a setting of Francis Webb’s words: “Pure in spotless beauty burning, One more leaf is softly turning…”

The second movement of the work, entitled “Lest we forget”, juxtaposes two texts: “Communio” from the Latin Requiem Mass and the words “Lest we forget”.

The pipe organ and choir return for the second interlude: “… One more goal for human yearning, One more page of life to fold.”

The final movement is called “A Sunrise”. It is a setting of Francis Webb’s early poem of the same name, which depicts the birth of a day: from the unfurling of the faint seraphic banner to the arising of the fiery king.

I would like to acknowledge Roland Robinson’s publisher, HarperCollins, for permission to set text from “The Sleeping Bush”. I also thank Francis Webb’s sisters for granting me permission to set “A Sunrise”.

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The Twenty-Third Psalme [1999]

Score: SATB choir and organ
Duration: circa 4 minutes, 20 seconds.
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer
 
Twenty-Third Psalme, scored for Mixed (SATB) Voices and Organ, was commissioned in 1999 for performance by St Mary’s Singers and The Newington College Chamber Choir, at St Mary’s Cathedral, in Sydney, Australia.

When beginning to compose the setting, I looked to George Herbert’s text for rhythmic ideas and became attracted to the idea of using a 5/4 pulse. This rhythm then inspired other characteristics of the piece, such as its form, melodic material and harmonic language.

Following an organ introduction, the choir, unaccompanied, sings the first three verses of text. The organ music returns, leading us towards the central section of the piece, wherein the musical material and mood alters with the setting of verses four and five. The final section represents a slightly broader return of the earlier music with the setting of the last verse and coda forming the concluding climax of the work.

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The Dreaming Land [1997]

Score: SA choir and orchestra
Duration: circa 15 minutes
Level of difficulty: Easy-Medium
Available from: contact the composer
 
The Dreaming Land (1997) for SA choir and orchestra was commissioned by the Department of School Education NSW Performing Arts Unit for performance at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House by the NSW Combined Primary School Choirs and NSW Secondary Schools Symphony Orchestra at the 1997 Primary School Choral Concerts.

The work comprises three songs entitled "Desert Dawn", "Galah Song" and "Aflow". The words of these songs are drawn from poems of the same names by three Australian poets: Rex Ingamells, Kenneth H. Gifford and Kevin Gilbert. While the unique 'fingerprints' of the three poets lend contrast to The Dreaming Land, all of the poems reflect something of the immense beauty, austerity and spirituality that is evident in so much Australian poetry penned in response to aspects of Australia's inspiring land, sea and sky.

The first song, entitled "Desert Dawn", after the poem of Rex Ingamells, reflects on the wind and stars in the desert and on the long hush before the sun's rise. It commences with tuned percussion, ethereal strings and voices whispering softly of "the long hush, the long, long hush, under the starlight in the desert with the winds". The song moves towards a gentle flowering, and then to a further climax near the end of the piece when the choir sings of "waiting, waiting, waiting the sun's rise". Like a frame for the work, the tuned percussion, strings and whispering voices return in the closing bars of the song.

"Galah Song" is a bright setting of Kenneth H. Gifford's poem of 1944, about the far reaching voice of the Galah. The song begins with a distinctive melody which returns between each of the strophically set verses. Each time the opening melody returns, an added element is introduced, such as a rhythmic drone sung by the choir ("Tapping the lifeblood of the dreaming land") or a sung countermelody (Ga-lah, la, la, la). The music broadens as the choir sings the final verse and the song concludes with a final rendition of the opening melody.

"Aflow", the final piece in The Dreaming Land, is based on Kevin Gilbert's reflective poem about the offering of thanks as he glances up at the evening star. The song starts with a calm, flowing melody which gradually grows as the choir sings of being thankful for having "lived and seen creation in its majesty". With these words the music flows into the middle section of the song, and the orchestra carries us forward with a new theme. The whole choir, singing of "creation in its majesty" soon joins the orchestra to form the climax of the song. Having reached a crescendo, the orchestra returns to the opening music as the choir sings softly to us of being aflow with awe and thankfulness for a life which saw "your hand in the evening star".

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Unity [1997]

Score: SATB choir and orchestra
Duration: circa 6 minutes
Level of difficulty: Easy-Medium
Available from: contact the composer
 
Unity (1997) for SATB choir and orchestra was commissioned by the Department of School Education NSW Performing Arts Unit, for performance by the 1997 NSW Combined Public Schools Senior Choir and NSW Public Schools Orchestra at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House.

The work draws on a poem of Kevin Gilbert's (1933-1993) entitled "Unity". Published in 1994, the poem is concerned with the unity of "the you and the me" and our oneness with the land and sea.

Commencing quietly with celesta, strings and percussion, the musical setting slowly builds with voices singing of "joining and moving and binding and weaving". This chain of text weaves in and out of the musical setting at regular intervals and binds the various sections of the work together.

Following this introduction, the opening section of the poem "I am the land / I am the trees / I am the rivers / that flow to the seas /" is sung by sopranos with trumpets playing in unison. A further three sections of the poem gradually incorporate more singers and accompanying brass instruments. A recurring orchestral interlude which includes a prominent tuned percussion and woodwind melody follows each section of the poem, itself too, gradually incorporating a fuller texture as the work progresses.

Following the mid-way point of the work, the choral and orchestral texture is pared down to leave only the lowest voices and orchestral instruments. From this point, the work gradually builds with the inclusion of voices in ascending ranges accompanied by increasing numbers of orchestral instruments / families until the final tutti section of the work when the singers proclaim the last lines of the poem - "In the essence of life we are one."




Flight of Fancy [2006]

Score: alto saxophone and piano / also available for Bb clarinet and piano; flute and piano; oboe and piano.
Duration: circa 3 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium - High
Available from: Reed Music

This piece, a flight of fancy , comprises three sections, each lasting about a minute or so.

The first section kicks off in an energetic and cheerful way with the bright upper registers of both instruments at play. Also evident in the opening section are ideas such as angular melodic lines played in unison, a little harp-like piano accompaniment texture and a contrasting theme fashioned atop a jazzy, dance-inspired bassline.

The middle section of the work is perhaps the more unearthly music of the work. Little updrafts and whirlwinds of tinkling, glockenspiel-like piano figurations add a haunting quality to a chromatically inflected reed melody, evoking, for me, images of night and a kind of magic.

The final section of the piece – which brings us back to earth with its recapitulation of earlier material – is characterised by the sound of its 'slow-to-start', hand-cranked engine.

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Crazy Logic [2006]

Score: alto saxophone and piano
Duration: circa 12 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium - High
Available from: Reed Music

Crazy Logic (for alto saxophone and piano, 2006) was composed at the invitation of saxophonist Barry Cockcroft and pianist Adam Pinto.

In composing the work, I have chosen to use musical ideas of a mostly intense and driving nature. My melodic lines comprise semiquavers which twist, scurry, and traverse up, down and around the musical staves at a great pace. Furthermore, the two instrumentalists often play in unison or at the octave, lending added urgency and directness to the music.

While a softer, more reflective mood is revealed at the heart of the work, it is the energetic music with its chromatic kinks, jagged contours and wide leaps that elicits, for me, the ‘crazy’ mood alluded to in the work’s title. In stitching my ‘crazy’ music together, I have aimed to afford the work a certain logic by virtue of balanced phrasing and fluent transitions between sections of the work.

I thank Barry and Adam for inviting me to compose this work and for giving the work its premiere performance.

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She Like The Moon Arises [2004]

Score: soprano, oboe and piano
Duration: circa 9 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium - High
Available from: The Australian Music Centre

She like the moon arises was composed in 2004 for the Grevillea Ensemble, with Guest Artist, Diana Doherty (oboe). The work is a setting of James McAuley’s poem of the same name, published in 1946.

Comprising three sections, the score begins with a calm nocturnal atmosphere with plaintive oboe calls and a tranquil, lyrical music about the moon and stars. Simple, sustained arpeggios accompany the voice.

The central section of the work, scored for oboe and piano, is a response to McAuley’s image of “the exquisite circumspection of the stars treading the heavenly floor”. The musical ideas in this section include a “music-box” style piano figuration and an oboe solo featuring emotive, yearning phrases of disjunct intervals.

The final section of the work begins with solo voice (“And insolent hope surprises my sole heart”). Piano tremolos enter to accompany a pairing of voice and oboe and the work builds to a climax which reflects on the spurious glimmer of a dawn upon the infinite, the nevermore.

Grateful acknowledgement is made of HarperCollins Publishers for allowing me to set James McAuley’s poem to music. Also, my sincere thanks is extended to the Grevillea Ensemble and Guest Artist, Diana Doherty, for giving the premiere performance of the work.

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Serenade for a Summer Wedding [2003]

Score: 2 violins, viola and cello
Duration: circa 6 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer

Serenade for a Summer Wedding, for string quartet, was composed especially for performance upon the occasion of the wedding of Matthew's sister, Susan, to her fiancé, Mark. The premiere performance was given by The Cambridge String Quartet, led by Mr Michael Goldstein, on Saturday 20th December, 2003.

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Saturday [2003]

Score: cello and piano
Duration: circa 5 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium
Available from: contact the composer

Saturday, for cello and piano, was composed in March 2003, at the request of cellist, Eunice Oh. In composing the work, I began with an insistent cello theme containing syncopated rhythms and frequent use of the interval of the fifth (ie: use of the open strings of the cello).

The theme, which is at times mirrored in the piano part, maintains its driving pulse throughout most of the work. A more lyrical section appears toward the centre of the piece, punctuated by references to the syncopated music.

I thank Eunice very much for requesting and performing the piece.

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Bird of Paradise [2002]

Score: soprano, violin and piano
Duration: circa 8 minutes
Level of difficulty: Medium - High
Available from: contact the composer

Bird of Paradise (for soprano, violin and piano, 2002), a setting of James McAuley's poem entitled "To the Holy Spirit", was composed for the Grevillea Ensemble, an acclaimed trio of musicians comprising Wendy Dixon, Marina Marsden and David Miller. In three stanzas, McAuley's poem focuses on the magnificent Bird of Paradise which, plumed with glowing iris, descends from the high mountain to visit regions of eucalypt and palm.

With a piano part inspired by sounds of wind chimes, the setting commences with a depiction of a calm morning scene. The soprano, against violin counterpoint, sings of the bird as "plumed with glowing iris along each curving wire".

The central section of the work makes dramatic use of the ensemble and calls for a heightened level of rhythmic energy as accompaniment to the poet's evocation of the prophetic bird's dancing in rippling spectrums of fire.

The third section of the work involves a gradual flowering of the music. Against pizzicato violin, the soprano sings of a sacred rhythm, a rhythm which inspires "the trembling breath of the flute" and "the exultant cosmic psalm." A shimmering progression of piano tremolo chords forms a background to the violin and soprano as they journey towards the work's colourful conclusion.

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Savage Coast [2000]

Score: flute, violin, cello, percussion and piano (also available for flute, oboe, percussion and piano)
Duration: circa 6 minutes
Level of difficulty: High - Very High
Available from: The Australian Music Centre

Composed in 2000, Savage Coast is a virtuosic, vibrant and evocative composition that draws inspiration from the wild interaction of sea and coast.

The premiere performance of Savage Coast was given at the Australian National Academy of Music, South Melbourne, by the Zurich New Music Ensemble, with guest artist Matthew Orlovich (piano), under the direction of Simon Bainbridge (Royal College of Music, London).

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June Twilight [1991]

Score: soprano, tenor, flute, bassoon and piano
Duration: circa 6 minutes.
Level of difficulty: Easy - Moderate
Available from: contact the composer

June Twilight received its first performance at the "old Darlington School", University of Sydney, on 31st October, 1991. The work was performed by Melissa Irwin (soprano), Brett Weymark (tenor), Amanda Chominsky (flute), Fiona McNamara (bassoon) and Simon Docking (piano).

The work is a setting of a poem by English poet and former Poet Laureate, John Masefield. The composition commences with a brief introduction in which the instrumentalists evoke the calm of the afternoon before the singers enter.

During the piece, the afternoon calmness slips away into night and the mood momentarily becomes ominous. The final words, "Love, can this beauty in our hearts ever end?", are sung by the tenor voice and the mood is carried over by the three instrumentalists whose music dissolves into that of the concluding bars of solo piano.

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Suite [1990]

Score: flute, oboe, clarimet and bassoon or cello
Duration: circa 10 minutes
Level of difficulty: Easy - Moderate
Available from: contact the composer

This suite of three short pieces was first performed at the Department of Music, University of Sydney (Composers' Concert) on 18th October, 1991, by Amanda Chominsky (flute), Carolina Castillo (oboe), Ingrid Pearson (Clarinet) and  Eszter Mikes-Liu (cello).

The three pieces comprising the suite are entitled Woods and Wind, Twilight Tide and Amongst the Reeds.

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Opal Blue [1988]

Score: alto saxophone and piano
Duration: circa 5  minutes, 20 seconds.
Level of difficulty: Moderate
Available from: contact the composer

This easy-going, jazz-influenced score is one of Matthew's earliest pieces, composed in 1988 for his Higher School Certificate Examination in Music. The score was first recorded by alto saxophonist Mr Ken Roberts (Snr) with Matthew Orlovich at the piano. Several subsequent performances have taken place, including a performance given by Matthew Orlovich (piano) with Matthew Radzyner (alto saxophone), at the Sydney Town Hall.