NOMINATION: Work of the Year - Chamber
Chamber music is defined as works for between 1 and 12 players, with or without vocal parts, and with or without electronics
A work is defined as a single complete musical composition, or expression. This includes music with movements or sub-works (i.e. song cycles), installations, and real-time compositions (improvised music).
If you believe your work to be nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
Art Music Award guidelines →
Nominee
Alice Chance
Title of the work
Gifts from a Thieving Bluebird
Performer
Affinity Quartet
Performance Date
23/10/2024
Venue
The Concourse, Chatswood
Nominator Statement
Alice Chance is in my estimation one of Australia's most imaginative and engaging young (or younger!) composers. She has a rare gift for piquing an audiences interest and pushing at the edges of their musical expectations whilst all the while remaining lyrical, personable, and accessible.
Her 'Gifts From A Thieving Bluebird' was commissioned by Musica Viva Australia and performed by the Affinity Quartet in October 2024 and I think is a shining example of her imaginative and personable compositional style.
Briefed by Musica Viva Australia to 'respond in some way to Schuberts 'Death and the Maiden'' Alice described the Schubert as being 'rich with terror' with 'a surreal dance[like] quality, drawing upon [the world of] fantasy'. Her own work drew on her love of fairy tales, folklore, fables, and European (and especially French) culture and languages eventually leading to Marie-Catherine dAulnoy (Madame dAulnoy), a late seventeenth century writer known as the mother of the French fairy tale. Her 'lOiseau bleu' (The Blue Bird), revolves around the tale of a Princess and her Prince, who has been magically transformed by her evil stepmother into blue bird, who steals precious treasures from the palace as tokens of his love.
Each short 'section' of the work has a discrete mood and musical colour and truly captures the flight of the Prince transformed into a Blue Bird, the Princess waiting in her tower, the prismatic glint of diamonds and emeralds, and the cool flash of a grand pearl watch.
The string writing is playful, harmonically rich, technically varied, and provides a narrative role to each member of the quartet in turn. For me it is a gem of piece (pun intended) and a true example of programmatic chamber music with a 21st Century audience in mind: accessible and not too long! Within its seven minutes it captures something colourful and imaginative. I consider it an excellent commission, a very worthy addition to the Australian repertoire for String Quartet, and happily nominate it as 'Work of the Year: Chamber Music' for the Art Music Awards.
Nominee
Alice Chance
Title of the work
Gifts from a Thieving Bluebird
Performer
Affinity Quartet
Performance Date
23/10/2024
Venue
The Concourse, Chatswood
Her 'Gifts From A Thieving Bluebird' was commissioned by Musica Viva Australia and performed by the Affinity Quartet in October 2024 and I think is a shining example of her imaginative and personable compositional style.
Briefed by Musica Viva Australia to 'respond in some way to Schuberts 'Death and the Maiden'' Alice described the Schubert as being 'rich with terror' with 'a surreal dance[like] quality, drawing upon [the world of] fantasy'. Her own work drew on her love of fairy tales, folklore, fables, and European (and especially French) culture and languages eventually leading to Marie-Catherine dAulnoy (Madame dAulnoy), a late seventeenth century writer known as the mother of the French fairy tale. Her 'lOiseau bleu' (The Blue Bird), revolves around the tale of a Princess and her Prince, who has been magically transformed by her evil stepmother into blue bird, who steals precious treasures from the palace as tokens of his love.
Each short 'section' of the work has a discrete mood and musical colour and truly captures the flight of the Prince transformed into a Blue Bird, the Princess waiting in her tower, the prismatic glint of diamonds and emeralds, and the cool flash of a grand pearl watch.
The string writing is playful, harmonically rich, technically varied, and provides a narrative role to each member of the quartet in turn. For me it is a gem of piece (pun intended) and a true example of programmatic chamber music with a 21st Century audience in mind: accessible and not too long! Within its seven minutes it captures something colourful and imaginative. I consider it an excellent commission, a very worthy addition to the Australian repertoire for String Quartet, and happily nominate it as 'Work of the Year: Chamber Music' for the Art Music Awards.