MODART provides emerging compsoers with the opportunity to develop a new work for vocal ensemble and receive a public performance by the Song Company
MODART
MODART is a professional development project that provides opportunities for emerging composers to develop works for vocal ensemble, and which then receive public performance by The Song Company.
Biography: Judy Pile
Judy Pile's diverse compositional interests and intense passion for social justice have led her everywhere from the concert platform to political street theatre. Past commissions include Naming the Big C: Despatches from the Cancer Zone (The Listening Room, ABC Classic FM); The Seduction Machine, a simulated computer game for live performers, audience and keyboard sampler (Composing Women’s Festival); and a multilingual choral piece, Daminon-irlon yearmenn-bik – Peace on Earth (Astra Chamber Music Society).
In 2005 It dwells between (countertenor and cello) and In history's way (SATB choir) received their first performances; and throughout the year Judy has been composer-in-residence at Marian College, Sunshine – working with a multicultural group of student writers and the school choir on a project about the experience of moving countries.
Judy lives and works in Melbourne. She is a graduate of Adelaide and La Trobe Universities.
Program Notes: Three Minutes on a Fast Train
Three Minutes on a Fast Train was inspired by the bizarre vocal behaviour of mobile phone users on public transport, where etiquette has not yet caught up with technology.
Deals and romances are dissected, clinched or broken using a narrow all-purpose vocabulary. The range of topics is limited. No-one is totally present in the physical and aural space shared with their fellow travellers.
The six Song Company singers have unique, versatile voices and wild imaginations. Rather than aiming for a traditional ensemble blend, I have invited each singer to invent a discrete vocal personality as prompted by the musical material, the text and a possibly loaded character name assigned to each line.
I based the text on fragments of phone conversation overheard in trams and trains. The 4+3+3 configuration of mobile phone numbers and the idea of travel suggested a 'pad' of insistent rhythmic chatter.
It is difficult but exciting to share ideas with other composers in the early stages of a project. Writing for six voices is certainly a challenge. For me, the generosity and frankness of Roland Peelman, the singers and the other composers made the MODART05 workshops an ideal learning environment of adventure, cooperation and true exchange.
