four to eight players

String quartet no. 1 (2021)

c. 15 mins

Score availability: Published by the Australian Music Centre

Program note

This work was jointly commissioned by Port Fairy Spring Music Festival and ABC Classic for the Goldner String Quartet as part of the ABC Fresh Start Fund

For a young composer such as myself, there is a peculiar weight of history and baggage that comes with titling a new composition ‘string quartet’ – more so than with any other genre of chamber music. To do so is to invite your contribution to the medium to be judged structurally and creatively alongside all of the great string quartet cycles of composers past and present. I undoubtedly approached the task of writing my first (of hopefully many) with a seriousness that reflects the extent of this challenge.

Though conceived in three movements, all are closely connected to one another – they share similar points of departure and return but take differing journeys through the primary material from which all of the music is sourced: a ‘distorted’ sonority on C. Begun in June 2020, most progress towards completion of the work was made over the autumn of 2021.

The first movement is in a single flowing tempo, beginning with a whispery con sordino outline of the sonority which weaves and oscillates against a syncopated yet lyrical viola melody. A more energetic ‘double tempo’ feel emerges for the movement’s climax before the music recedes back into the mysterious atmosphere of the beginning.

The second movement, a brief and lively scherzo, makes for a more jovial (though at times acerbic) interlude. Its structural simplicity belies the considerable technical challenges it presents for the players, with plentiful use of tight syncopations and hemiola patterns in both the melodic and accompanying material. Like the first movement it finishes surreptitiously, paving the way for the weightiest movement of the three: the finale.

The final movement reworks the sonority on C into progressively more translucent harmonies. It is the expressive heart of the work, assimilating the relatively introspective journey of the first two movements into a more outward display of feeling. There are, nevertheless, considerable moments of stasis and reflection, and the work’s ending is as quiet and introspective as its beginning.

performances

• 15 October 2022; Goldner String Quartet; Reardon Theatre, Port Fairy, VIC

• 11 November 2022; Goldner String Quartet; Hobart Town Hall, TAS

• 27 May 2023; Goldner String Quartet; Palais Royale, Katoomba, NSW

score sample and media

swirl, for string quartet (2020)

c. 3 mins

Score availability: Published by the Australian Music Centre

Program note

Swirl was commissioned by the Australian String Quartet with funds received from Creative Partnerships Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. Intended as a concert opener or encore, Swirl is a lively work conceived in a single tempo which is subject to numerous metric modulations to generate contrast and build energy and acceleration.

Performances

• 3 December 2021; Chroma Quartet; Queen Street Gallery, Woollahra, NSW

• 4 December 2021; Chroma Quartet; Queen Street Gallery, Woollahra, NSW

• 1 February 2022; Australian String Quartet; Elder Hall, Adelaide, SA

• 4 February 2022; Australian String Quartet; Ukaria Cultural Centre, SA

• 2 April 2022; Australian String Quartet; Mt Sturgeon Woolshed, Dunkeld, VIC

• 4 April 2022; Australian String Quartet; Mt Sturgeon Woolshed, Dunkeld, VIC

• 5 November 2022; Australian String Quartet; The Lab, Adelaide, SA

• 4 May 2023; Alkyona Quartet; Melbourne Museum, VIC

• 6 May 2023; Alkyona Quartet; Melbourne Museum, VIC

• 10 May 2023; Alkyona Quartet; Melbourne Museum, VIC

• 14 May 2023; Alkyona Quartet; Melbourne Museum, VIC

• 27 September 2023; Chroma Quartet; The Concourse, Chatswood, NSW

sCORE SAMPLE

unearth ii, for four cellos (2020)

c. 3 mins

Score availability: Enquire

Program note

Unearth II, for four cellos, is a sequel to Unearth, the flute and oboe duo originally composed for the NSW Bushfire Fundraiser Concert Series which reflected upon the Australian bushfires of the summer of 2019-20. This sequel was composed shortly after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and heavy restrictions (many of which prevented the assembly of musicians) were imposed to halt the spread of the virus. It was written for my sister, Eliza Sdraulig, to multi-track with four cello parts but would be equally suited to performance by four separate cellists.

Performances

• To be announced

sCORE SAMPLE and media

sPEAK, for flute/Piccolo, clarinet, Violin, Cello and piano (2018)

c. 16 mins

Score availability: Enquire

Program note

The original two-movement version of this piece, Speak, was commissioned for and premiered by Ensemble Q in November 2018. An additional movement, placed between the existing movements as a new second movement, was commissioned and workshopped by the Australia Ensemble as part of the 2019-20 Layton Emerging Composer Fellowship. The work is scored for flute (doubling piccolo), clarinet, violin, cello and piano.

Speak is cast in three distinct movements. Conceptually, each movement describes a different domain of language and communication. The first, entitled Dialogue, considers the nature of external exchanges between beings, encompassing multiple threads of conversation and intricate interactions. The second, entitled Recollection, explores the transient and often revisionary nature of recalled thoughts and conversations, with subtle variations within fixated repetitions. The third, entitled Inner Speak, is also introspective in character, but reflects patterns of a more holistic internal monologue through interweaving lines and subtle changes in feeling.

Performances

• 4 November 2018; Ensemble Q; Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Brisbane

• 28 July 2022; CSO Chamber Ensemble; Atrium, National Museum of Australia, Acton, ACT

• 27 August 2022; Australia Ensemble; Sir John Clancy Auditorium, Sydney, NSW

sCORE SAMPLE And media

octet for strings (2018)

c. 17 mins

Score availability: Published by the Australian Music Centre

Program note

This piece was commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Geoff Stearn, and premiered at the 2018 Huntington Estate Music Festival by the Goldner and Orava Quartets. It is scored for a standard string octet of four violins, two violas and two cellos.

Though cast in a single continuous movement, the Octet contains several clearly identifiable sections. At the outset, a sinewy progression of block chords is heard which becomes the motto theme of the whole work. From this, an agitated viola solo appears as the atmosphere becomes increasingly foreboding. Before long, the music breaks out into an inferno of unrelenting energy and drive, shifting with agitation between differing solo and ensemble textures. After a considerable climax, ideas begin to fragment – the tempo slows to a mood recalling the opening and, after a reflective return of the viola solo, the music winds down to silence.

From this emerges a long oasis of calm and tonal purity. Lyrical solo lines interweave with transparent harmonies although there are moments of shadow too. After a state of complete tranquillity is reached, scattered pizzicati herald a return of the earlier frenzy as the piece tumbles towards its cataclysmic finale.

I would like to thank Musica Viva Australia, Geoff Stearn and Carl Vine for giving me the opportunity to compose this work. I would also like to thank the Huntington Estate and, of course, the outstanding Goldner and Orava Quartets for preparing and giving the work’s first performance. Thank you also to my teacher and mentor Paul Stanhope for his invaluable advice and encouragement throughout the compositional process.

Performances

• 25 November 2018; Goldner & Orava Quartets; Huntington Estate Music Festival, Mudgee, NSW

• 15 May 2023; Rosin Octet; Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, Netherlands

sCORE SAMPLE And media