After we recorded the first two movements of Chris Sainsbury’s wonderfully evocative “Symphony of the Birds” he entered it into the New England Philharmonic’s call for scores – and won! The New England Philharmonic will perform the first movement on October 30, 2010, in Boston.  (Concert details)

As Sainsbury says, “I’m sure the fantastic recording by the Fauxharmonic Orchestra added much weight to my submission to the New England Philharmonic, and assisted in the ultimate win in their Call for Scores Competition.”

Listen: First Light –

Chris Sainsbury on his “Symphony of the Birds”

[Chris Sainsbury's website]
This piece was commissioned by Chris Bearman, Musical Director of the Central Coast Symphony Orchestra and Conservatorium in Gosford City, Australia. The brief was to ‘keep it local’ which was great as it is in keeping with my thinking. I’d been increasingly concerned about the global focus in all aspects of life. To achieve this ‘local idea’ I used local bird sounds of the region (at latitude 33 on the east coast of Aust) as source material for the piece.

Having grown up in the same region I’ve lived with these birds and they’ve got their claws into me (not always metaphorically)!

This work was conceived and realised using my concepts of:

1. Ground Sounds
2. Sky Sounds
3. Near-melodies

The terms are original (as far as I know) and deliberately uncomplicated. They are Australian as far as I’m concerned. I am now thinking and hearing under these ‘elements’ of music, which of course cross-over with the various elements of music that we know. The difference is really in the hearing – in the genesis of ideas and the working of material, and in the thinking.

Ground sounds are characterised by sustain, repetitive device, ‘melod-ercussion’, and the non-development of idea (in a Western sense). These are present through sustain, subtle convergences, absence of dramatic interpolations, veiled ostinati, use of tone- scenes (the dominance of particular colour combinations), and subtle melod-ercussive device (melodic thumps, scratchings, breaks and bumps).

Sky sounds are simply the phenomenon of sky reverb and sky amplification, which vary in the natural environment with landscape, weather and time of day. At various points I set out to orchestrate reverb and amplification into the work (as in the first half of movement two).

Near-melodies are the melodic fragments of birds. They sound short songs and calls, often fantastic tunes which they abandon as soon as they’ve begun. Of course they are entire (probably for birds), but we need something longer to call ‘a piece’. In this light I strung them together end on end at times (for major themes), ‘classicising’ them. There are however, many near-melodies that are left in tact in the work, abandoned as soon as sounded.

I use some fifty bird sounds as motives in the work, with all melodies and chords stemming from those. With this amount of ‘tunes’ rolling one can see the need to be careful about Western developmental thinking. It could become too big and messy! Indeed I don’t dramatically ‘develop’ any bird sound melodically, but leave them always intact. There is no augmentation of interval, nor inversion of tune, nor fragmentation or such device. I have used simpler treatments such as transposing up a step and have at times expanded the rhythm of the near-melodies. Basically I suspended part of me the composer and I didn’t mess too much with the birds!

Some near-melodies in the work are clearly identifiable bird sounds, down to the species. Some are ‘my good rendition’ of a bird sound I heard and whilst it works for listeners as bird sound, it would be difficult to identify the species (especially some of the parrots). The species include parrots (Lorikeets, King Parrots and others), Wattle-birds, Butcher-birds (my favourite), the Koel, Plovers, Gulls, Various Finches, and more. Some I didn’t even see, but notated.

All the notations are classicised into a twelve note system. Birds have a syrinx, rather than a larynx, and make complicated sounds. It was my primary intention to write music, not completely emulate bird sounds. In this light the various movements are basically Western in format. It is a vehicle which assists the listener to ‘hear my local environment’, essentially enabling a visit!

I hope you enjoy the work. Don’t listen too closely for the various birds, just take wing yourself!”

The judges of the fourth annual Fauxharmonic International Composition Competition have selected Brian Fennelly’s work “Fantasia Concertante” for violin, cello and orchestra as the winning entry.  The work will be performed during the coming season by Duo Parnas and the Fauxharmonic Orchestra.

About Brian Fennelly

Brian Fennelly (born 1937) studied at Yale with Mel Powell, Donald Martino, Allen Forte, Gunther Schuller and George Perle (M.Mus 1965, Ph.D. 1968). From 1968 to 1997 he was Professor of Music in the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. In addition to a Guggenheim fellowship, his awards include three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two commissions from the Koussevitsky Foundation as well as commissions from the Fromm Foundation, Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest, and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. In 1997 he received a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been awarded composer residencies at the Rockefeller Foundation Center in Bellagio (Italy), Camargo Foundation in Cassis (France), Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), and Copland House (NY).

His music has been awarded prizes in many competitions, which include the Goffredo Petrassi Competition for Orchestral Music (1993), International Trumpet Guild Competition (First Prize, 1990), the Louisville Orchestra New Music Competition (First Prize, 1986), Shreveport Symphony Competition (1981), and the Premio Citta di Trieste (1981). Twenty-five of his works appear on CD, with orchestral and chamber music released on the New World, CRI, Troy, Pro Viva, First Edition, Capstone, and New Ariel labels. Releases of orchestral music include Fantasy Variations, In Wildness is the Preservation of the World, On Civil Disobedience, Chrysalis, Thoreau Fantasy No. 2, and A Sprig of Andromeda, the last five all Thoreau-inspired works.

Brian Fennelly’s music has been performed by several orchestras including the Rochester Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, and The Louisville Orchestra, as well as by chamber ensembles such as the American and Empire Brass Quintets, and the Concord and Audubon String Quartets. His choral music has been sung by the Gregg Smith Singers and the New York Virtuoso Singers, among others. International performances include two at the Warsaw Autumn (Poland) and four at the ISCM World Music Days (Iceland, Israel, Belgium, and Canada), with recordings by The Louisville Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Prague Radio Orchestra, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Polish Radio National Symphony, as well as acclaimed chamber ensembles and soloists.

Fennelly’s music is published by Margun Music (Schirmer), MMB Music (St. Louis), Pro Nova (Munich), Ricordi (Milan), Earnestly Music (Sharon, MA) and American Composers Edition (New York), among others. In addition to composing and teaching, he has been active as a pianist and also as an officer and board member in a number of music organizations; he also co-directs the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, which he founded in 1976.

Fennelly resides in Kingston, New York with his wife Jacqueline, who played French horn with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic for many years. Liam Fennelly, a son from a previous marriage, is a viola da gamba player living and working in Europe.

About the contest judges

Ruth Mendelson, composer

A New York Times Critics’ Pick, composer/instrumentalist/producer/arranger/editor Ruth Mendelson has been writing award-winning scores for film, HBO, A&E, Discovery Channel, Disney, Animal Planet, The Learning Channel, PBS, CBS, and NBC (among others), as well as creating innovative multi-media “surround-scapes” for over 20 years.  She was the first woman in the history of Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) to teach in the Film Scoring Department, which she enjoys part-time to this day.  An active studio musician, Ruth has been featured playing a number of instruments in a wide variety of genres with artists in LA, New York Boston, Europe and India.  She is also a guest lecturer, music director and author. She has performed at the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, as bassist for the One Human Family Gospel Choir, and is currently collaborating with renowned primatologist  Dr. Jane Goodall on a variety of youth empowerment and environmental projects.  Ruth is founder and president of Eagle Vision Initiatives, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving society through communications and the arts.  Eagle Vision’s premier initiative, the WELL WISHES Project, is now successfully establishing unprecedented  lines of communication and resources between the world’s youth.  Her deepest commitment is to be of service and assist in bringing love, compassion and positive change to society via a wide range of creative projects and programs.

Leo Eguchi, cellist

Cellist Leo Eguchi enjoys a very active and multi-faceted performance schedule – he can be heard as a the cellist of Xanthos, a contemporary music ensemble in residence at Boston University, as a founding member of the (fully collaborative) Kalistos Chamber Orchestra, assistant principal of the conductor-less Camerata New England, principal of the New Bedford Symphony, a member of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra and the Portland Symphony, as well as in frequent appearances with the Boston Pops Esplanade, Rhode Island Philharmonic and Boston Lyric Opera Orchestras.

A strong advocate of new music, Mr. Eguchi has premiered dozens of pieces by and worked closely with many notable composers, including William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, George Crumb, Lukas Foss, Joan Tower, Ken Ueno, Yehudi Wyner, Gabriela Lena Frank and Michael Daugherty.  Steve Smith of the The New York Times recently raved about a Xanthos concert featuring Mr. Eguchi, “…in the hands of musicians so copiously skilled and confident, this undeniably challenging music had genuine appeal.”  Aside from Xanthos, Mr. Eguchi performs with contemporary music groups such as Brave New Works, Firebird Ensemble, White Rabbit and ALEA III.  Mr. Eguchi also loves to play recitals and chamber music – he was a founding member of the Lunaire String Quartet and has performed with Chameleon Arts Ensemble and the Walden Chamber Players.  Other recent chamber music and solo highlights include performances with members of the New Hampshire Music Festival, BMOP’s “Club Café” series and participation in the Educational Bridge program – an exchange tour of Russia and collaboration with Moscow Conservatory musicians.  In addition to his classical career, Mr. Eguchi can be heard on stages ranging from intimate klezmer ensembles to stadium rock shows.

A native of Michigan, Mr. Eguchi began his cello studies at the age of twelve with Eva Ell and Louis Potter Jr. (author of The Art of Cello Playing).  He holds Bachelor’s degrees with honors in both Physics and in Cello Performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied cello with Anthony Elliott. Graduate studies then followed at Boston University on the Dean’s Scholarship, where he was a student of George Neikrug and recipient of the String Department Award for Excellence, upon completion of his Master’s degree.

Markand Thakar, conductor

Markand Thakar is music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. Former assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, he has conducted orchestras across the United States and Canada. Other Baltimore Chamber Orchestra recordings for Naxos conducted by Markand Thakar include a disc of concertos by Ignaz Pleyel, and a disc of viola concertos by Carl Stamitz and Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Thakar, a protégé of Sergiu Celibidache, is the author of Counterpoint: Fundamentals of Music-Making (Yale University Press) and Looking for the Harp Quartet: An Investigation into Musical Quality, and is co-director (with Gustav Meier) of the graduate conducting program at the Peabody Conservatory.

Find out more about our search for the next great sad string orchestra piece.

Performed by The Fauxharmonic Orchestra,
Conducted by Paul Henry Smith

“Man, this is absolutely dynamite!

You have done a fantastic job of capturing all of the nuance of the piece – the variety of the percussion, the string divisi, the mutes – all of it is here. I can’t imagine how many hours of work went into this. I just want to congratulate you on your frighteningly accurate representation of the piece.”

– David Heuser
Associate Professor of Composition at University of Texas San Antonio,
Winner of the 2006 Fauxharmonic Orchestra Composition Contest.

About the winning composition

Listen to the Fauxharmonic Orchestra performance: A Screaming Comes Across the Sky

“A Screaming Comes Across the Sky” was commissioned by the Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival for its “New Texas Overtures” season in 2005. The title of the piece is the first sentence from Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow. The piece was premiered in 2005. One reviewer of that performance wrote:

David Heuser’s ‘A Screaming Comes Across the Sky’ was a shot-in-the-arm beginning. … Heuser’s music certainly matched the title through its intense, driving rhythms and thunderclap-loud outbursts. This was all-American music at its most dynamic and visceral. Yet the piece by the University of Texas-San Antonio composer was well-crafted and smartly orchestrated … The music continually engaged mind and body as it careened along.

— Houston Chronicle (July 2005)

About the composer

David Heuser is associate professor of theory, composition, and electronic music at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Heuser’s music has been performed by various groups and individuals and on festivals and conferences throughout the US and abroad. He has won a variety of awards, grants and commissions including an ASCAP Young Composer Award, many ASCAP Standard Grants, a First Music commission from the New York Youth Symphony, an Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival “New Texas Overture” Commission, and the Delius Composition Contest Chamber Music Award.

More about David Heuser

Honorable Mentions

The following outstanding compositions were selected by the judges for hornorable mention:

About the contest

The Fauxharmonic Orchestra’s international composition contest was established in 2005 to help foster new orchestral composition, and to showcase digital orchestral performance. The contest winner receives a $1,200 prize and a recorded performance by the Fauxharmonic Orchestra.

This year’s contest involved eighty-six entries by composers from the US, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Canada. Judges for the 2006 contest were:

Emily Doolittle, composer (bio)

Markand Thakar, Music Director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra; Co-director of the graduate program in orchestral conducting at the Peabody Conservatory of Music (bio)

Herb Tucmandl, CEO and Founder, Vienna Symphonic Library, the world’s pre-eminent maker of digital orchestral instruments and performance systems (bio)

Paul Henry Smith, Music Director of the Fauxharmonic Orchestra, a digital orchestra ensemble devoted to producing recordings of orchestral music, new and old, of the highest artistic caliber.