What's special about Aust music in the last 25 yrs? (1 Viewer)

[chepas]

Just a very vague, general question, what is so distinctive of Australian music of the last 25yrs compared to everywhere else? Admittedly I have listend and heard very little, but is there an impression people are getting about 'Australian' music?.

Any comments, anyways?

Cheers

 

[santaslayer]

the advent of australian idol......lol, i dunno

 

[MouNtY]

i agree. there hasn't really been much happenin' with australian music lately that would give any sort of distinction from the others. I do however acknowledge the fact that there is some good aussie talent in the charts at hte moment. however i don't think that there is much taht sets them aprt from the rest of the music industry.

 

[santaslayer]

kylie, danni, guy, .......on top of my head

 

[chepas]

lol. i meant in the way of composers etc for the mus2 core topic, Aust music of last 25 years - however it doesnt say anthing against encompassing pop culture and 'mainstream'..... though still i see nothing hugely groundbreaking even in the pop culture scene.

music in the western art music sense seems to have died with composers in the mid 20th Cent. no composers of the magnitude that the big famous ones like mozart etc lately. nothing groundbreakingly stylistic revolution.... thats probly why its so vague.

cheers

 

[Standaman]

Hey mate, i think i can give you some ideas...

Basically, you need to look at the big composers like Sculthorpe, Hindsen and Edwards. Contemporary Australian music has a large "world music" influence, especially from balinese and eastern instruments. Appropriation is used extensively for new ideas - have a look at Pacem Domine by Ross Edwards, he uses a gregorian chant.

You also need to look at the influence of Aboriginal music on people like Sculthorpe - for one of his pieces, Kakadu, he actually ripped off an aboriginal chant and put it in the string line!

ALso, for people like Hindsen, you need to have a look at the influence of dance and techno on orchestral music. Look at "Rush" and "MPH", you can clearly see the techno influences, even though they are written for strings.

Hope i could help...

- Stan

 

[ameh]

nothing exciting that stands out, and when it does e.g. delta the public seems to make a big deal out of it

 

[chepas]

thanks heeeaps stan. now at least i have a direction to go down!

also that thing about the association between techno/orchestral i was looking for a bit of a link like that. thanks.

Cheers

 

[Standaman]

glad i could help

 

[Josephine]

The one thing distinctive about Australian music is that a lot of it's based on the environment, nature, etc, eg. Sculthorpe's Kakadu (but that piece is so overdone).

Also with the core topic, you don't have to have all your set works being Australian, it just says "Australian focus". We just finished a piece called Adjustable Wrench by Michael Torke, this American guy. Very cool piece, and it's got this funky bass solo in it, as well as jazz, pop and minimalist influences. So you could decided to do one non-Australian work, just to see developments n other countries.

 

[ujuphleg]

i'm not a great fan of the 20th century art music deal but its interesting i suppose if not sometimes slightly painful to the ears.

other things that are interesting to look at is are pieces such as ladders of escape by michael smetanin and past life melodies by sarah hopkins. the former is for bass clarinet and has really funky rhythms, the latter has a cello part which emulates the sound of didgeridu.

good luck to everyone in their half yearly exams.

P.S. Stan, the spelling of Matthew Hindson is with an 'o' and it's pronounced with the 'i' sounding like 'eye' and not like an 'in' sorry, just gotta be perdantic.

 

[chepas]

Oooh. Past Life Melodies, that was cool. A choir I was in last yr performed it at the opera house, and they had the whirly things and all. In the overtoney-long notey phrases the 10-12 different parts just sort of turned into a whenever-you-feel-like-'resolving'-to-the-next-part sorta thing. That's the thing with scoring and stuff with 20th C art music. Everyone's loves writing their own system of notation, so all us laymen are left trying to decipher it! Hehe.

Did the 2003 HSC exam in class today. That melody dict. was not the best! There was a cool mantra-like piece in it. Ross Edwards' 'Somethingorother Iforgethetitle'.

 

[Adam B]

Yeah i performed past life melodies in my choir at The NSW art Gallery, it is an excellent piece of music

 

[Adam B]

Check out Martin Wesley Smith for Aussie music

He uses electronic influences for classical music, very goo music. Its modern music that doesn't sound crap - "which is getting to be a rare thing these day"

 

[chepas]

Mmm... excellent.

Our mus teacher is going to organise an 'excursion', for us two sole mus2 students to go to that Aust Music Centre in The Rocks, which shall be very good indeed. I was alone as well until this year, when I gained another person for competition! Either way, I will still get either 1st or second ranking for all theUAI calculations. Sweeet. hehe.

I'm so screwed for Aust music. I gotta start listening some more, so this AMC should be heaven on earth seeing what people are raving on about.

Did anyone get this thing on these forum whatsits (I think run by MusicaViva?) at the Aust Institute of Music in May? There's a seminar thing with Carl Vine on the Xth of May and then with Raffaele Somethingorother in the Xth, and their being Aust composers (I think?!?), hopefully it shall be an experience.

 

[ccgs_jono]

oi...I think I'm gonna go to that Musica Viva thingy...are you gonna go??? Carl Vine is a huge compositional hero for me lmfao (as sad as that sounds) he really is awesome. I'm the only person doing Music at my school now since it has become too hard for the other 4 people *sigh*...they ALL dropped it...!! Anyway...yeah Music of the Last 25 years Australian Focus is a cool topic I think...it's just reallllly difficult to be ORIGINAL these days...seriously everything remotely pertaining to Australia has been done...most of it in Kakadu...lmao. Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander influences just seem a bit cliche now...as do the Eastern influences...as do the Natural landscape influences...as do the Technological influences...lmfao seriously what is left for us now?!?!?!

 

[chepas]

I know! Crikey. I really have no idea. I am in dire need of inspirtation so...

This MusicaViva thing is this the thing on at the Aust Institute of Music at Surry Hills/Some TAFE somewhere some dates in May? Cos I'm going to some Carl Vine thing and a Raphaele Blablabla thing in May...

 

[ujuphleg]

AMC is cool.
you only have 2 mus2 students at your school too? cool.... we only have 2 as well.

the AMC is great for all the Australian stuff, for finding songs to play. actually on their site they have a list of pieces written in the last 25 years.

http://www.amcoz.com.au/msearch.htm

they have repetoire lists there in instrument lists. what instrument do you play??

hope that helps

 

[chepas]

Ooh. Very nice. Mus teacher goes today that we could even organise an 'excursion' for our huge class during the week seeing how that it's apparently only opened in school hours?

Noticed your AMC thread too. Mad.

I'm a trumpet player.

Cheers heaps!

 

[moon_styla]

do u know stephanie barrett or sumfin?? cant spell her surname shes really good at the trumpet