NOMINATION: Work of the Year - Choral
Choral works are defined as accompanied or unaccompanied works for massed voices (more than 1 singer per part).
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
Kevin March
Title of the work
Electric Cathedral
Librettist(s) or source author(s)
Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher
Performer
The Consort of Melbourne
Performance Date
3/10/2024
Venue
Bluestone Church Arts Space
Nominator Statement
I would like to enthusiastically nominate Electric Cathedral by Kevin March, with text by Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher, and 3D sculptures by ReVerse Butcher, for the APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Choral.
This immersive long-form multimedia work for six vocal parts spans six movements, each meditating on one of the big questions in life: love, death, rebirth, the nature of consciousness, and so on. While the singers perform, they are surrounded by the titular Electric Cathedral luminous projected 3D sculptures which drift slowly about the space, evoking digital stained-glass windows brought to life.
The work aims to create the kind of space for deep reflection usually associated with sacred music traditions, but outside of any particular religious tradition or trappings. Thematically, musically and experientially it is an incredibly ambitious work, and the fact that it realises these ambitions is nothing short of transformational.
Specifically, I nominate Electric Cathedral for Work of the Year: Choral because it embodies:
- Exceptional mastery of vocal writing, using each voice type to maximum effect and creating an impressive palette of vibrant and colourful textures through expert selection of specific voice combinations in particular tessituras.
- Detailed, sensitive and imaginative text setting of newly commissioned poems by Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher Marchs music at all times effectively examining, colouring and drawing new meaning from the poets words.
- Deep, thoughtful engagement with the underlying themes of each movements text to create a moving and genuinely thought-provoking musical meditation.
- Expressive and sophisticated manipulation of intricate, nuanced harmonies each movement presenting characteristic chords or modal clusters which are then examined from every angle through various transformations in a stunning reflection of the 3D sculptures and projected environments created by ReVerse Butcher, in which luminous figures slowly rotate and are examined from a variety of angles.
- Expert control of long-form multi-movement structure, incredibly rare in the world of choral music. The music changes and develops organically with great restraint, taking the audience from rich, full sonorities to the starkest of textures with the sense of an inevitable journey.
Kevin March has an international profile as a composer of opera, art song and chamber music. Electric Cathedral firmly establishes him within the choral music genre also, for its exceptional craftsmanship, thought-provoking content and masterful use of vocal ensemble forces. This work marks a significant milestone in the Australian choral music scene, resonating deeply with audiences and pushing the boundaries of choral music concerts in extraordinary and innovative ways.
Additional nominator statement:
The vision behind Electric Cathedral was about evoking a secular sense of the sacred, taking texts that profoundly explored aspects of the common human condition in a universal way and setting them within the 'sacred' context of vocal music in a church.
Each movement felt like a universe unto itself, with complex layering, but all adding up to a unified complete artwork. I found the overall musical experience transcendent.
The vocal writing felt almost organic, like it had naturally grown out of the earth, yet was at the same time so directly, humanly expressive. The harmony often had a luminiscent, kaleidoscopic quality that seemed to take the sound of the sacred and make it feel at home in the 21st century.
The work clearly came from a composer who has a mastery of vocal writing, and it felt to me like a masterpiece.
Nominee
Kevin March
Title of the work
Electric Cathedral
Librettist(s) or source author(s)
Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher
Performer
The Consort of Melbourne
Performance Date
3/10/2024
Venue
Bluestone Church Arts Space
This immersive long-form multimedia work for six vocal parts spans six movements, each meditating on one of the big questions in life: love, death, rebirth, the nature of consciousness, and so on. While the singers perform, they are surrounded by the titular Electric Cathedral luminous projected 3D sculptures which drift slowly about the space, evoking digital stained-glass windows brought to life.
The work aims to create the kind of space for deep reflection usually associated with sacred music traditions, but outside of any particular religious tradition or trappings. Thematically, musically and experientially it is an incredibly ambitious work, and the fact that it realises these ambitions is nothing short of transformational.
Specifically, I nominate Electric Cathedral for Work of the Year: Choral because it embodies:
- Exceptional mastery of vocal writing, using each voice type to maximum effect and creating an impressive palette of vibrant and colourful textures through expert selection of specific voice combinations in particular tessituras.
- Detailed, sensitive and imaginative text setting of newly commissioned poems by Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher Marchs music at all times effectively examining, colouring and drawing new meaning from the poets words.
- Deep, thoughtful engagement with the underlying themes of each movements text to create a moving and genuinely thought-provoking musical meditation.
- Expressive and sophisticated manipulation of intricate, nuanced harmonies each movement presenting characteristic chords or modal clusters which are then examined from every angle through various transformations in a stunning reflection of the 3D sculptures and projected environments created by ReVerse Butcher, in which luminous figures slowly rotate and are examined from a variety of angles.
- Expert control of long-form multi-movement structure, incredibly rare in the world of choral music. The music changes and develops organically with great restraint, taking the audience from rich, full sonorities to the starkest of textures with the sense of an inevitable journey.
Kevin March has an international profile as a composer of opera, art song and chamber music. Electric Cathedral firmly establishes him within the choral music genre also, for its exceptional craftsmanship, thought-provoking content and masterful use of vocal ensemble forces. This work marks a significant milestone in the Australian choral music scene, resonating deeply with audiences and pushing the boundaries of choral music concerts in extraordinary and innovative ways.
Additional nominator statement:
The vision behind Electric Cathedral was about evoking a secular sense of the sacred, taking texts that profoundly explored aspects of the common human condition in a universal way and setting them within the 'sacred' context of vocal music in a church.
Each movement felt like a universe unto itself, with complex layering, but all adding up to a unified complete artwork. I found the overall musical experience transcendent.
The vocal writing felt almost organic, like it had naturally grown out of the earth, yet was at the same time so directly, humanly expressive. The harmony often had a luminiscent, kaleidoscopic quality that seemed to take the sound of the sacred and make it feel at home in the 21st century.
The work clearly came from a composer who has a mastery of vocal writing, and it felt to me like a masterpiece.