classikON MD Pepe Newton caught up with Australian composer (and classikON Ambassador) Alan Holley to chat about his upcoming world premieres.
Pepe Newton: Alan, over the next few weeks, new vocal compositions by you to texts by Mark Tredinnick will be premiered in Carol Concerts in Victoria. Are Christmas Carols your new thing?
Alan Holley: A few years back I was chatting with Douglas Lawrence and Elizabeth Anderson of the esteemed Australian Chamber Choir about the idea of a set of carols based on the nature of Australia. They loved the idea and I discussed with Mark Tredinnick the project and he saw a set of nine poems on the subject of birds and the changing seasonal landscapes unfolding before him. Then Covid intervened and Mark started adding ideas of the passage of life itself into the set of ‘carols’ based on the sounds and images of the natural world.
These lyrical words suggested to me works for chamber choir and also for a small group, a quartet, and hence the set for Fiore Chamber. It is a thrill to have 6 carols, 5 performances in all, sung in Victoria in the space of just a few weeks.
PN: How does Mark’s text fit the Christmas theme?
AH: The word ‘carol’ comes, via a Greek word, from a French word meaning singing and dancing in a semi-circle and surely we all want to praise the world that nurtures us. Mark’s words draw us into the environment of streams and lakes and birds and the changing nature of all around us. Ultimately it is a celebration. Surely that is what Christmas is all about!
PN: What was your musical inspiration Alan?
AH: Both Mark and I have a church background, his grandfather and my father were ministers of religion and we are both aware of the music and rhythms of hymns. For me a most important aspect of the new carols has been marrying Mark’s words into songs that both honour the text and also hopefully move to the next stage of creating music that both references our shared religious backgrounds with an awareness of being part of a diverse nation of many voices. And, as ever with my music, a few little birdcalls work their way into the musical fabric – though I have tried hard to camouflage them.
PN: Are these carols secular or religious?
AH: There are surely enough, maybe even way too many, religious carols and so these ones probably will be viewed as secular. There are moments of playfulness, some of joy and some of longing.
In the Two Crows how can you do anything but have fun whilst in The Carol of the Living Mark suggests we take time to contemplate the brevity of our existence and still have joy being part of all around us. (see the poems mentioned below)
The new carols will premiere in two concerts…
Fiore Chamber’s concert Something New – An Australian Commission-Fest is on Sunday 19th November, 2pm at St John’s Anglican Church, Camberwell
Alan says, “It is such fun to be in the Fiore project sharing the stage with five emerging composers from across the country and all with impeccable backgrounds in singing and writing for vocal ensembles – Joshua Adams, Lily Flynn, Lydia Gardiner, Juliana Kay and Daniel Riley”.
Australian Chamber Choir’s concert Baroque Christmas
Australian Birds
Texts by Mark Tredinnick, Music by Alan Holley
The Carol of the Two Crows
The Carol of the Butcherbird
Sat 2 Dec at 3PM Sterling Place Community Centre DUNKELD (see also Royal Mail accommodation/dining packages)
Sun 3 Dec at 3PM Basilica of St Mary of the Angels GEELONG
Sat 9 Dec at 3PM Thomson Memorial Church TERANG
Sun 10 Dec at 3PM Our Lady of Mount Carmel MIDDLE PARK
Watch on ACCess Live stream on Sun 10 Dec at 3PM or watch afterwards on demand
The poetry…
Poems reproduced with the permission of Mark Tredinnick
![user222 mrc mostlymozart [splendour of vienna]](https://cdn-classikon.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/user222-mrc_mostlymozart_splendour_of_vienna.png "user222 mrc mostlymozart [splendour of vienna]")
