Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Amanda Cole  

When Claire Edwardes called to ask if I would like to write a new piece for Nowra East Primary School Choir, my response was something like 'um… ah… maybe… let me think about that one'.

For the past ten years or so, I have been exclusively writing experimental art music for adults. Initially I didn't think writing for a children's choir was part of my compositional trajectory. One thing that did spark my interest was that, last year, at the height of the pandemic, my now 9-year-old daughter Ivy was in the Sydney Children's Choir, participating on Zoom. She was singing really great pieces by Australian composers including Sally Whitwell, Stephen Leek, Michael Atherton, Gordon Kerry, Paul Stanhope and Paul Jarman. I was really impressed with how these composers had crafted engaging, creative and clever music that was perfect for children. Some songs were modal, some used a mixture of time signatures, some were humorous and others were more serious. I started getting a bit of a taste for children's choral music by Australian composers.

Another reason why I kind of wondered if writing a piece for children's choir was for me was that I avoid lyrics and words like the plague. I prefer to be more abstract and, in my recent microtonal choral writing for adults, have been exploring timbres made from changing vowels. I also have been avoiding melody, and most children's choral pieces are melodic.

I did have a break-through with writing vocal melodies, a few years ago, with Sydney-based soprano Jane Sheldon, who gave me a poem to set for a short piece and some excellent advice. After I mentioned that I was finding it hard to deal with text, she suggested I write the melody first and retro-fit the words afterwards. Her strategy worked for me, as I was freed from the rhythms of the spoken text.

I decided to take the plunge, live dangerously and give the school choir commission a go. Not long after I said yes, some poems arrived, written by Indigenous students from a Nowra primary school, who had spent time at Bundanon writing about the landscape as part of Red Room's 'Poetry in First Languages' project. I had no idea what to expect. To my pleasant surprise, their words were amazing! Straight away, a poem by 'Nicole' jumped off the page: it had the line 'peaceful as meditation music'. Most of my experimental art music has a meditational vibe, so I was straight on the phone and email to secure that poem!

Once I had Nicole's poem I thought about the type of music I wanted to write. The brief I gave to myself was to write something in the realm of the repertoire Ivy had been singing with the Sydney Children's Choir. I did something I haven't done for a very long time: I sat down at the piano (an instrument in 12-tone equal temperament tuning) and jammed out some melodies.

Compositional planning and strategy went out the window. I was feeling in the zone, and the piece just busted out of me. With Nicole's lyrics on the music stand, I was away, singing and playing. The piece seemed to write itself. The line 'gambalali (flowers) run away from danger' sparked an upbeat, rhythmic and energetic section. The line 'peaceful as meditation music' set in motion a relaxed mood in a pentatonic scale. I was feeling excited, I was actually writing an awesome kids' choir piece! After hearing a few MIDI playbacks, Ivy was keen to sing Flowers, Birds (which takes its title from Nicole's poem) and said it was the first piece of mine she actually liked.

I finished my piece and sent it off with a piano accompaniment and chords for the school music teacher to rehearse with. The gig got postponed a couple of times due to COVID-19 but by Christmas 2020 there was news that it was back on. I got a little bit of a shock when it was pointed out that I hadn't submitted the orchestral parts for the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra. I had missed that detail somehow. I spent all spare moments over the Christmas holidays arranging the piano accompaniment of Flowers, Birds for orchestra, another thing I hadn't done in a very long time.

Ensemble Offspring with students from the Nowra East Primary School

After writing for small ensembles for many years, it seemed like there were so many instruments in the orchestra, and it was hard to deal with the score on my small laptop screen! Printing out the instrumental parts to check gave me flashbacks of concert band parts sitting on my music stand in high school. It felt like a real circle-of-life moment.

Rehearsals have now started for Flowers, Birds along with the other pieces commissioned for the concert from Bree van Reyk, Damien Barbeler, Brenda Gifford and Tristan Coelho. Alice Chance is the conductor and made beautiful demos of all the new pieces using her voice and the MIDI piano parts we provided. After the first rehearsal, Claire and Alice had a list of excellent practical suggestions such as removing harmonies from certain sections and adding a vibraphone part to play the chords. I was emailed a recording from the first rehearsal which was so exciting after having only heard MIDI versions of the piece.

I am really looking forward to hearing all the pieces with my family in the magical place that is Bundanon. I think I am going to get a real kick out of hearing children my daughter's age singing a piece I wrote. I do hope Nicole, who wrote the poem I set, will get to hear what her words turned into! Hopefully Ivy will be impressed with her mum and maybe even sing along. Who knows if I will write another piece for children's choir but I certainly did enjoy writing this one.

Birds, Flowers
by Nicole, Year 6, Nowra East Primary School

green, peaceful, beautiful

the grass and leaves are so green and the sound is beautiful and peaceful the budjanlali yanggum
(birds singing) is as peaceful as meditation music.

gambalali (flowers) run away from danger

> Sonic Sites 'acoustic exploration' at Bundanon Homestead on Thursday 17 June at 5:30pm. Immersive & participatory sonic performance featuring Ensemble Offspring, local musicians and composer collaborators, occupying natural and built spaces at Bundanon to explore the acoustic and resonant potential the place. Features new works by Brenda Gifford, Damian Barbeler, Bree van Reyk, Amanda Cole, Tristan Coelho. Full event details (AMC Calendar). Read also conductor, composer Alice Chance's blog article on working on Sonic Sites.

> Amanda Cole - AMC profile. See also homepage https://www.amandacolemusic.com/