This piece was originally conceived in my first year of formal composition training. It was an exercise in minimalist writing, certainly not a serious piece of music. After much study, compositional experimentation and practical experience, I have returned to this piece, adding revisions and infusing it with the more mature me. I feel as though I have come full circle – I feel I have completely abandoned everything I have been taught, but I somehow feel at home.
My music usually displays fast, energetic and continually changing rhythms and textures, extended harmonic relationships and extreme motivic development. It is quite liberating to write music that is simple on the page yet through its natural process of development creates something quite complex, exciting and organic. There are moments of direct harmonic and rhythmic juxtaposition, mimicking the terraced quality of Baroque music, but there are also sections that take elements from rock/riff-based music and trance. I have specifically avoided any intellectualisation of this piece, allowing the subconscious (sleeping) mind to propel it forward.
Composer Bio: Amy Bastow (b.1984)
Website:
www.amybastow.com
Amy Bastow started out life composing classical music but now spends the majority of her time composing music for film and television. Amy currently composes and produces the music for Channel 7′s drama “Winners and Losers” (series 3), which boasts over 1.1 million viewers in Australia each week and airs in 14 international countries.
Since graduating with a First Class Honours Degree in Composition and a string of awards and scholarships from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2008, Amy has written music for over 70 projects, including music for film, TV, commercials, mixed media, theatre, education and the concert hall, in Australia and internationally.
Amy has written music for many of the country’s leading professional ensembles, including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Australian String Quartet, The Song Company and The Australian Youth Orchestra. Amy’s concert music has been performed internationally in New Zealand, Europe, the UK and in Beijing. Amy’s music has featured at many festivals, including the ISCM World New Music Days, the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the 40 Hour Film Festival, the National Composers’ Forum, the WOW Film Festival and the Performing Australian Music Competition in London.
Amy has held posts as a composition lecturer at the University of Sydney, has taught piano and composition at St Andrew's Cathedral School (Sydney) and Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School (Melbourne), has written music for schools and has been invited as composer-in-residence for music education programs.
Amy also writes and produces her own independent music, is host and producer of the Melbourne music radio show Kiss My Arts, and is a writer and music journalist for Vulture Magazine.
from
Kammerklang: Alpha,
released January 29, 2013
Composer: Amy Bastow
Percussion: Claire Edwardes, Daniel Luscombe
Piano: Jacob Abela
Keyboard: Amy Bastow
Sound Engineer: Jayson McBride
Recorded for Kammerklang 2009