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.
The Sounds of Chow Gar is an original 6-movement composition by Thomas Green, for his duo Shugorei (percussion and electronics), plus string quartet (originally performed by Black Square Quartet). The music is meticulously set to the motions of traditional Chinese kung fu practitioners and includes the recorded sounds of their breathing, heartbeats and footwork. The integrated work was premiered as a live musical performance (50 minutes), including projected visual recordings of the kung fu forms, in February 2024. A six-movement audio recording of the work (35 minutes) was released on 20 February 2024. I am nominating this work because it is unique and exceptional, for three interrelated reasons: 1) The quality of the composition is superb, convincingly bringing together highly unusual instrumentation, featuring the skill of the composer building music from pre-existing materials (i.e. the rhythms latent in the kung fu); 2) the concept is unique, quite possibly existing as the only Australian musical work which is integrated with Chinese kung fu in this way; and 3) it is a story of community interest and diversity, embedded into the very fabric of the work, where a story of a long-standing Chinese-Queensland family is part of the work's concept and execution, demonstrating the development of artforms which are unique to multicultural societies