Category Archives: Mixed Ensemble

Catalogue of Works, Mixed Ensemble, New Composition News

New work: Video Game Dreaming

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Update: Arranged for saxophone quartet

A new work has just been completed: Video Game Dreaming for clarinet quartet (1xEb, 2xBb, bass clarinets). It is a work in three movements with a duration of approximately 14 minutes. It was composed for the Clarity4 clarinet quartet, an excellent ensemble based in Canberra.
Distorted Video Game

Here are the programme notes.

i. Start Select Pause Reset

ii. Gamer’s Hypnagogia

iii. GameBoy Music

Video Game Dreaming is a work written in response to video games, their characteristics and their effects upon our everyday lives. For the past 30 years or so of my life I have been an avid player of video games, going right back to the advent of Pong and Space Invaders in the late 1970s through to the first-person shooter and real-time strategy games of the current day. To some people, video games are a waste of time, whereas for others, they are an intriguing, addictive form of relaxation and even social interaction.

This piece is in three movements. The first, “Start Select Pause Reset”, refers to the buttons found on the controllers of many video game consoles. Each of these buttons interrupts and alters the flow of the game in progress, just like the music in this movement is segmented and interrupted. The term “hypnagogia” refers to the state (and hallucinations) between waking and sleep, and provides the inspiration for the second movement. One problem with playing too many video games is the difficulty of sleeping afterwards, with images from the games constantly flooding your mind, uninvited. It is as if the game is still playing in one’s brain without conscious control. The final movement, “GameBoy Music”, takes as its starting point the idea of a malfunctioning video game, perhaps a hand-held game in which the batteries have gotten wet.

Catalogue of Works, Mixed Ensemble

Heroes (2020)

for solo soprano saxophone

Duration: 2 minutes

Faber Music publishing details, including online score to view

Programme Notes

The word “heroes” is bandied around a lot these days in contemporary society. 

When I set out to write Heroes, for saxophonist Amy Dickson, I was thinking of what it must be like to be one of those medical professionals: to get up in the morning and just think, is this the day? Is this the day when I might contract the virus? There must be a sense of foreboding, of dread.

Hopefully, this can transform to triumph by the end when they have helped so many people, yet survived to go back, again, tomorrow. There are so many people who are putting their lives on the line for the rest of us in the current situation (the COVID-19 pandemic.)

They, to me, are today’s real heroes.

notes by Matthew Hindson 2020

Catalogue of Works, Mixed Ensemble

technologic 145 (1998)

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for large chamber ensemble
1.1.1.1 1.1.1.0 harp or piano 1.1.1.1.1

duration: 14 minutes

Faber Music publishing details

Audio Excerpt

Excerpt from start of 2nd mvt:

Programme Notes

technologic 145 is a work in three movements. The first is a slow-moving, grinding introduction which features a didjeridu-like cello solo. The second movement is an energetic and vibrant work featuring virtuosic and rhythmic playing from most members of the ensemble. The final movement acts a slower, more contemplative summary.

As the title suggests, technologic 145 is influenced by aspects of techno music, particularly its repetitive structures and driving rhythms.

The work was a finalist in the 1998 ABC Young Composer Award.

notes by Matthew Hindson.

CD Recording Available?

    Not at present.

Reviews

    “Sheik Yerbouti at the MPO (Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra)

…But with the third item, Matthew Hindson’s Technologic 145, our conductor’ s unintrusive time-counting managed to move the ambitious score from a sombre heroic opening to chariot-racing pace and back again. With horns immitating sirens, trumpets whooping in loops, and Field himself contributing a hand-clapped triplet during a pause, the music sounded like an episode of Donald Duck’s misadventure. Hindson cited the libidinous influences of techno and death metal music. But our good government need not fear; the richly melodic work conveyed more bluegrass frenzy than demonic orgies. Traces of repetitive bars were given such colourful variations and embellishment that you can hardly recognise them as disco sonics.

“In an email to me, Hindson explained, “The extent of the repetition is going to be different in an acoustic concert piece because people are sitting down in seats actively listening to the music, rather than using it as a conduit to pronounced physical movement.” But it certainly is one of the most kinetic music ever written for a bunch of seated folks. If we weren’t too breathless by the end of it, we would have certainly gotten up and danced a jig. – Pang Khee Teik, The Edge, August 2001.

Other Information

This work featured in Veitstanz: Shake Rattle and Roll, a ballet choreographed by Berndt Schindowski, performed by Ballet Schindowski in Gelsenkirchen, Germany (January – March 2004).

Catalogue of Works, Keyboard Works, Mixed Ensemble, New Composition News

Pulse Magnet (2001)

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for two pianos and two percussion

list of percussion required:

  • Percussion 1: Brake Drum, Orchestral Bass Drum, Vibraphone with motor, 5 Temple Blocks, 2 Gongs, 2 Congas, 2 Bongos, Tam-Tam, Glockenspiel, 3 Suspended Cymbals, Whistle, Large Siren.
  • Percussion 2: Brake Drum, Orchestral Bass Drum, Glockenspiel (all shared with Perc. 1), Giant Woodblock or Temple Block, Chicken Shaker, Drum Kit comprising: S. Dr., B. Dr., Toms, Hi-Hat, Large Crash, Medium Crash, Ride, Splash, 3 Temple Blocks, 2 Cowbells, Tambourine

duration: 16 minutes

Faber Music publishing details

Audio Excerpt:
Excerpt, first 2 minutes of first movt

Programme Notes

Pulse Magnet has been described as a rhythmic exploration of attraction and repulsion, exploring the vibrancy of sonic interaction between piano and percussion. It is a work in three movements, following a fast-slow-fast structure.

This piece is scored for two pianos and two percussionists, and was written for the Australian Virtuosi in 2001. The huge battalion of percussion used in this work provide access to a wealth of tone colour possibilities, but Hindson has also explored a number of ways in which a pair of pianos can be used.

Pulse Magnet was initially conceived with the idea of a ‘super-piano’ in mind, that is, with both piano parts acting to do things that a single piano was not capable of doing. Hence the two piano parts are frequently antiphonal and canonic, and create chords of great density and complexity, stretching the ability of all four hands.

adapted from a note by Kim Waldock.

CD Recording Available?

    Not at present.

Other Information

Pulse Magnet is one of the pieces featured in Hands On Hindson, an educational resource produced by Musica Viva Australia.

Catalogue of Works, Mixed Ensemble

Comin’ Right Atcha (2002)

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for mixed chamber ensemble

version 1: amplified ensemble of clarinet, bassoon, trpt, trom, kit, pno, vln, db

version 2: 15 member chamber ensemble: 1.1.1.1 1.1.1.1 kit pno 1.1.1.1.1

duration: 9-10 minutes

Faber Music publishing details available for version 1 and version 2

Audio Excerpt:
2 minutes from towards the start of the work.

Programme Notes

The initial source of inspiration for Comin’ Right Atcha came from a conversation with the conductor of the Absolute Ensemble, Kristjan Jaarvi. He encouraged me to write a work that was inspired by the funk music of James Brown, and to an extent this has been reflected in some sections of the piece, particularly some of the smaller motives and overlapping layers of rhythmic material.

The majority of the material in this piece has been generated from two small motives. The spoken rhythm of the title, “Comin’ Right Atcha” (and its variant, “I’m Comin’ Right Atcha”), creates one of these, and this is heard earliest in the violin part after the opening hi-hat solo. The other motive is a short, three-pitch descending fragment. The rhythm of this fragment has also been derived from the speech-rhythm of another piece of text.

In this piece I have tried to give all members of the ensemble some sort of solo. This reflects the outstanding calibre of the performers for which I was writing – indeed, a characteristic of all the opportunities I have been fortunate enough to receive as Featured Composer in this year’s Musica Viva season.

notes by Matthew Hindson.

CD Recording Available?

    Not at present.

Other Information

Musica Viva Australia has produced a resource for students on this piece as part of its Hands On Hindson educational resource. This includes a process diary of its composition.