Musaic (2007)
11 minutes
for Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation - Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, 4 percussion, Piano/Celeste, Harp, 1 Violins, Viola, Cello, Double Bass*
Commissioned as part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program.
First performance by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on May 5th 2007, conducted by Kevin Field.
*While the work was composed originally for single strings (2 violins, viola, cello and double bass), performances with regular orchestral strings have occurred and been successful.
Musaic was a finalist in the APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards in 2008 in the Orchestra Work of the Year category.
11 minutes
for Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation - Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, 4 percussion, Piano/Celeste, Harp, 1 Violins, Viola, Cello, Double Bass*
Commissioned as part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program.
First performance by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on May 5th 2007, conducted by Kevin Field.
*While the work was composed originally for single strings (2 violins, viola, cello and double bass), performances with regular orchestral strings have occurred and been successful.
Musaic was a finalist in the APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards in 2008 in the Orchestra Work of the Year category.
Zoom in with a musical microscope on Anne Cawrse’s Musaic, and you will see that the whole thing is constructed from a single musical interval. Imagine it visually like a bunch of small, plain squares, uniform in size and colour. But these pieces have been tessellated and superimposed in a myriad of different ways to create a musical mosaic- a Musaic that sounds neither square nor
plain, but undeniably beautiful.
What is this musical interval, the ‘square tile’, from which this music is made? Known by musicians as a ‘perfect fifth’, it is the simplest ratio that can exist between two pitches after the octave. Its sound is clear but bare- think the first two notes of The Last Post. Used as the basic material of Musaic, it results in music that is wonderfully open and light.
This bright transparency is enhanced by the way Cawrse has orchestrated the music. It is scored for chamber orchestra; so instead of a matte wash of strings, there is the clarity that comes from having just one player per part. The ringing, tinkling sounds of piano, harp and metallic percussion instruments (glockenspiel, vibraphone, crotales) call to mind pure, running water, clear as glass.
© David John Lang 2019
plain, but undeniably beautiful.
What is this musical interval, the ‘square tile’, from which this music is made? Known by musicians as a ‘perfect fifth’, it is the simplest ratio that can exist between two pitches after the octave. Its sound is clear but bare- think the first two notes of The Last Post. Used as the basic material of Musaic, it results in music that is wonderfully open and light.
This bright transparency is enhanced by the way Cawrse has orchestrated the music. It is scored for chamber orchestra; so instead of a matte wash of strings, there is the clarity that comes from having just one player per part. The ringing, tinkling sounds of piano, harp and metallic percussion instruments (glockenspiel, vibraphone, crotales) call to mind pure, running water, clear as glass.
© David John Lang 2019