Hitting the right note: films showcase New Zealand composers

How do students of musical composition get their works heard live in public during a global pandemic?

The answer is they don’t.

This was one of the motivations behind an ambitious project to have the works of five recent University of Auckland Master of Music (MMus) graduates performed in studio sessions by professional musicians, while being filmed by SOUNZ Toi te Arapūoru, a charity that champions New Zealand music.

The 80-minute ‘virtual concert’ features eight music videos ranging from five to 20 minutes long, and was recorded in the Kenneth Myers Centre and the University’s Music Theatre, both state-of-the-art studios.

The whole project involved around 30 musicians, including the notable NZTrio, for which two of the works were specifically composed, members of the Auckland Philharmonia, several of the country’s top freelance musicians and University staff.

One of the composers and the project's producer, masters graduate Fergus Fry, says the idea originally came from School of Music head Dr David Chisholm in response to the cancellation of performances during the pandemic, which led to composition graduates finishing without having any documentation of their work.

“Knowing how important it is for emerging composers to have a high-quality portfolio featuring audio, and in particular video recordings of their work for future opportunities, David asked me to produce and coordinate a series of recording sessions to capture the cohort's work.”

Fry says the project builds on an earlier one which saw current University PhD student Liam Pram have a piece performed and recorded by members of the Auckland Philharmonia.

“It was also a result of the bumper crop of composition students that came from the introduction of a new masters programme in 2021, of which I was a part.”

Among the pieces are two of Fry’s own works, ‘Pareidolia I,’ which he says, “integrates electronics derived form an archive of childhood home videos with intricate ensemble writing”, and ‘Senescence and Rumination’, a solo violin work which he describes as simply “new music”.

“Our cohort of music makers has such diverse creative practices,” he says, “and the works are incredibly varied, but all fit loosely under the umbrella of ‘contemporary art music’.

He says they show the real diversity of compositional approaches championed by the school, so there’s something for everyone.

“There's virtuosic solo writing, pulsing and intricate chamber writing, atmospheric and landscape, large ensemble writing, and even pseudo cinematic vibes; if you’re into exploring new sonic worlds, then this is a project you'd enjoy.”

Fry says it was a “real luxury” to have a studio recording that didn’t involve an audience.

“The recording engineer John Kim captured it all in such incredible detail, giving us lots of control over the final mixes. In a concert, you only have one go at capturing a piece, with coughing or shuffling from the audience sometimes obscuring those details.”

He says it was also great to have the chance for multiple takes, which “allowed the really intricate writing to shine and stay in focus”.

He felt a mixture of “elation, relief and panic” hearing the works finally come to life.

“We only had two hours of rehearsal per piece, so in those first moments you’re waiting for it to fall apart, all while being overjoyed with how it sounds in some places, and desperately uncomfortable in others.”

Overall, it was a great project to stimulate engagement across the whole School of Music, with “composition, classical performance and jazz performance colliding”, says Fry.

And as well as potentially jumpstarting careers and offering valuable artistic opportunities, the project also provided professional ones, he says.

“Coordinating this was one of my first professional contracts and it also enabled my fellow composer Ewan Collins to be brought on as the audio mixer. Several postgrads and recent graduates also performed in the ensembles.”

Shot and edited by SOUNZ Films’ Chris Watson, the films feature the compositions of Fergus Fry, Oliver Bramah, Rosa Elliot, Ewan Collins and Joshua Taylor, with renowned Australian conductor Leonard Weiss conducting the two large ensemble works.

The virtual concert playlist can be viewed on Facebook, YouTube and the SOUNZ website.

About SOUNZ
Since 2013, SOUNZ has comprehensively documented performances of music by New Zealand composers with audio provided by RNZ Concert, and full concerts and other documentary materials filmed and edited by Chris Watson.

SOUNZ Films has documented around 1500 New Zealand works and also maintains an archive of over 16,000 registered works. It is facilitated by SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music and funded by NZ on Air.