Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Roundhouse is a music composition designed for 10 to 20 musicians from any stylistic background performing on pitched musical instruments which can be adapted to the equally tempered scale. The score materials are minimal and the responsibility for the work is given to the performers to realise and fill out the work in the moment of performance, with some direction from a conductor. Musicians move within the perofmrnace space while playing. The work investigates the spatiality of sound and the contingency of the aural experience of the audience due to the changing position of the sounds and their combinations influenced by proximity, conductor and performer choice, and chance occurrences. Sound choices are offered to performers via easily memorised tonal and performance area cues.

Work Details

Year: 2022

Instrumentation: Voice, flute, clarinet in B flat, bass clarinet in B flat, trumpet in B flat, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, electric guitar, violin, viola, cello (or any instrument that can be adapted to equal temperament and is able to be played while the performer is walking -slowly- in the performance space)

Duration: 15 min.

Difficulty: Easy — The work is based on two simple scalic tetrachords and two easily memorised two and three bar melodic phrases

Commission note: Commissioned by Bruce Mau and the Massive Change Network for 'Design For All the Senses,' a multimedia event held during 'Massive Change Sydney' funded by the UNSW Faculty of Art Achitecture and Design

First performance: 28 Sep 22. The Roundhouse, UNSW, NSW

The composer notes the following styles, genres, influences, etc in relatino to this work:
This work, while by no means radical in terms of it's concept or performance process, is associated with experimental music practices. Works such as those by Christian Wolff, John Cage, and Anthony Braxton share some conceptual and process similarities.