'Thum Prints' @ BBC Proms
'Thum Prints' @ BBC Proms

Tom and I were super pumped to perform Thum Prints at the BBC Proms Australia with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra at Hamer Hall, Melbourne. This was the QSO's first performance outside of QLD in its entire history. A big deal! The concert was live across Australia on ABC Classic FM and delayed on BBC. 

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Gordon Hamilton
'Dulce et Decorum Est' – premiere by London Mozart Players
'Dulce et Decorum Est' – premiere by London Mozart Players

This work for orchestra and choir is a setting of the famous Wilfred Owen WW1 poem. The choir is a column of soldiers: ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge’. A gas attack sends them into a spiral of confusion as one man dies ‘guttering, choking, drowning.’ The organ only enters near the end, after the man has died, and a solo soprano (an ‘innocent tongue’) sings the titular text in latin. Of course its meaning – ‘sweet and noble it is to die for country – is intended to be scathing and ironic. The organ music sounds deformed: a sunken instrument in some bombed out church nearby – only “half beautiful”.

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Gordon Hamilton
The Modern Greek Chorus

For Suzie Miller’s adaptation of Euripides’ Medea (produced by La Boite Theatre Company and directed by Todd MacDonald), the team and I have taken an exciting creative leap and incorporated a completely-sung ‘Greek' Chorus. I’ve plucked four singers from the ranks of my vocal ensemble The Australian Voices.

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Gordon Hamilton
In Memory of Those Who Couldn't Marry

I’m pretty excited about this… The Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) are apparently letting me have another go at them. I composed a piece for them this year called Ghosts in the Orchestra, where I get a bunch of singers from my choir The Australian Voices (TAV) to stand among the orchestral players and sing instructions at them. The instructions get unrolled into little symphonic miniatures.

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Gordon Hamilton
Singing Naked Sounds Better
Singing Naked Sounds Better

Here's an article I wrote for the ABC Classic 2 Tumblr. Have you ever wondered why your singing sounds so good in the shower, but when you belt out an aria in front of friends, a stranger’s voice emerges? Where did the charismatic, full tone disappear to? Why do we sound better in the buff? Here are four reasons.

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Gordon Hamilton
Joby Talbot's 'Path of Miracles'
Joby Talbot's 'Path of Miracles'

Every now and then a piece of music comes along that makes me think of a familiar instrument in a different way. After a nutritious education of orthodox piano training I was introduced to Messiaen's piano – an avery, organ, orchestra and religious object all rolled up together.

Joby Talbot's hour-long choral work Path of Miracles recently shocked me out of a humdrum attitude toward the choir (goddammit lots of choral music can be predictable and boring).

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Gordon Hamilton
8 Things to Like About Richard Strauss
8 Things to Like About Richard Strauss

Strauss is seen as bridging the late romantic and early modern eras. His daringly-orchestrated tone poems and operas are central to the repertoire and he played a crucial role in the post-Wagnerian development of opera. His progressive harmonic palate and expanded tonality remain strikingly-modern even today.

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Gordon Hamilton
ACO: Triple Grammy Snub
ACO: Triple Grammy Snub

Not that the Australian press took any notice, their envious gaze fixed firmly across the Tasman on Lorde, the incredibly-talented 17-year-old darling of NZ.

Not that the Australian press took any notice, their envious gaze fixed firmly across the Tasman on Lorde, the incredibly-talented 17-year-old darling of NZ.The Australian Chamber Orchestra was the only Australian act to win at the 56th Gramophone Awards with their album Winter Morning Walks picking up a stunning 3 (yes, that's THREE!) Grammys.

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Gordon Hamilton