ACOF 2004 Participant - Anthony Young

Anthony Young

Anthony Young's The Farewell was a composition written for ACOF 2004.

 

 

...I had been musing on the idea of saying farewell, not to specifically to people, but to ways of life, cultures and things we get used to seeing every day, but sadly don't last forever...

Program Notes - The Farewell

I often use programmatic subjects in writing music, and when I began thinking about what this piece would be, one subject kept returning to me: the idea of saying goodbye to many things throughout our lives. All through our lives we see things disappear that are important to us.

What I had specifically in mind, rather than the loss of loved ones, was the dwindling of ways of life. The fading of traditions, old practices, environments both natural and man-made, handed-down knowledge, and so on. Things we cherish and hold sacred from our childhood become relegated to history, and then forgotten on a regular basis. And the farewell to all that was what this piece was originally to be about.

However, in November 2003, a long-time friend died suddenly, and my thoughts were turned to my farewell to him. But I did not want to make this a requiem or an elegy. It needed to have at least some glimpse of the energy and audacity with which he lived.

I have sought to bring together both the original subject, and the new. I've explored themes of resignation and resistance, reminiscence and grief, and final farewells.

Composition Diary - June 2004

I am starting these diary entries at a later stage than other participants in the symposium, using a pre-existing work, but I will give some details from over the last seven months which cover the completion to first performance of my work, The Farewell.

Having been appointed the joint Composer-in-Residence for the Auckland Philharmonia, I was given a brief which included a major composition for orchestra for the AP's major concert series. The guidelines were fairly basic: between eight and ten minutes in length; use of the standard orchestra (3*3*3*3*; 4331; Timp 3Perc Hrp Pno Strings); a piece appropriate for the premier concert series. As far as subject matter (if there was to be any), that was up to me. I decided to use the whole orchestra (not having yet used piano in an orchestral piece) and to base the piece on the theme of "farewell".

I had been musing on the idea of saying farewell, not to specifically to people, but to ways of life, cultures and things we get used to seeing every day, but sadly don't last forever.

However, as I was starting the piece, a close friend whom I'd known for many years died suddenly. With the idea of 'farewell' already developing, it was natural for this sad event to become part of the music. I didn't want the piece to be a requiem or elegy: Clinton was a vivacious and audacious person, and something in the sombre nature of those forms seemed inappropriate. The piece needed energy to do him and the original ideas justice. Essentially, the piece is not about my friend, or the other things we lose in life, but about how we feel the loss of them, and the difficulty in letting go of those people and things we love.

Stylistically, the piece remained much the same throughout the idea phase: a generally minimalist style piece, but with an extended harmonic palette and inclusion of melodies that exist free from the repetitive processes involved.

The first draft was due in February for a read through in March. Having not had a creative break between the completion of my Masters folio and the composition of The Farewell, I was worried about the result of the readings. There had been many starts which had gone nowhere, and throughout the composition, I had been constantly concerned about the quality of the work. To my relief and joy, the read-through was successful and I had written a piece that was better than I had expected - which is always a great feeling.

I delivered the final copy of the score at the end of April, revised and with an ending (the draft just stopped approximately two minutes from the end.) Rehearsals began in the week leading up to the performances on the 24th and 25th June. Rehearsals went well, with the conductor, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, making many helpful suggestions and taking an 'ownership' of the piece, which is very encouraging. (Sometimes musicians have a tendency to stand back from making too many interpretive decisions with a new work when the composer is there, leaving them to the composer. It's great when they put there personality into it too.)

The both concerts went extremely well, and the concert was programmed with two guitar concerti, Vivaldi's Concerto in D and Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Naturally those piece in the concert attracted full houses, which is a great benefit to me.

Having now had a performance, I will now commence the reorchestration of the work for the Tasmanian Symphony.

Composition Diary - August 2004

Work on the reorchestration has been slow over the last month. I've had other work with an earlier deadline, and so this naturally gets first priority. I've also been preparing for a concert premiere of my opera, Through A Window, which I'm conducting on the 21st August.

In what is a sizing down of the my original score for The Farewell, I've faced a couple of tricky problems. The most obvious being what do I do with material that is for instruments that are not present, such as piano and percussion. Trying to decide what is the most important isn't easy when you've originally written the piece for a larger orchestration. Which leads to the second problem: do I aim for the same goal that I aimed for with the original piece? The Farewell has such an emotional background, and I'm not sure how much I want to alter that.

I've decided to try and go with something different. The walls of sound which I envisaged for the Auckland Philharmonia, won't necessarily work with the TSO. With the suggestion that the original was over orchestrated from the tutors, I will attempt to produce something that is more sparse, without altering the motivic and harmonic content.

There are several areas where I am trying for greater timbral variety and clarity. I can't be sure I will feel the same about the piece or not, as I have a strong emotional attachment to it already. But I suppose this is the perfect opportunity (and challenge) to attempt this rewrite.

Compostion Diary - November 2004

In it's final form for ACOF, my piece The Farewell has essentially remained unchanged. There are certain passages which may seem different, but they are really no more than reorchestrations. In the final orchestration, I have taken into account the string section that will be smaller than the orchestra I originally wrote for, and had to contemplate the best way of changing from triple to double woodwind. With the latter, I realised that some sections where the woodwind material seems quite melodic and essential could be substituted, without detriment to the piece, for new patterns on fewer instruments in the minimalist framework.

As I may have said before, despite intentions to create something different with The Farewell for the new orchestration, there was so much emotional involvement with the piece as it was, that doing so seemed to be detracting too much from it's original state. It would have been far easier to write a completely new piece in the amount of time I had, then change what I had already written.

Having a very positive crit from Julie Simonds at Symphony Australia is a very pleasing affirmation of my presentation skills. From my experience, one hears when one has made mistakes, but good parts seem to be taken for granted.

Since my last diary entry I've conducted an opera and graduated with a Masters degree from the University of Auckland. I look forward to seeing you all in Hobart in December, and am very excited about what is looking to be a wonderful experience