Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

River is the third and final work I have written as the Young Composer-in- Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a position funded through the generous support of the Cybec Foundation.

I'm often asked what inspires me to write music and I never quite know how to answer. Usually I just go into a passive flow state and come to my senses with dots and squiggles staring back at me. While speaking to a friend about this recently, they pointed me in the direction of this quote from Philip Glass:

"My experience with music is that it's like an underground river - it's always there. And like an underground river, you don't know where it comes from and you don't know where it's going. The only difference is whether you are listening to it or not"

His words stuck with me while I was creating this piece, as I found that I was uncovering music that was waiting to be discovered rather than inventing it myself. As the music began to take shape, so too did an image in my head of a river, beginning at first from a quietly bubbling spring, then winding its way down a mountain, gathering speed, crashing down a waterfall, weaving through a system of underground caves, and finally flowing out into the ocean.

Work Details

Year: 2023

Instrumentation: 2 Flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat (2nd doubles bass clarinet0, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, 2 percussion, harp, strings.

Duration: 9 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Commission note: Commissioned by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

First performance: by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at When We Were Young (Sidney Myer Music Bowl) on 24 Feb 2024