Helen Gifford
Helen Gifford OAM is an Australian composer whose music often draws on Balinese and Javanese elements. She writes for stage, orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo instruments.
For me, composition functions best as a form of speculative invention, where a flux of objective/subjective considerations interact to form sounds that are intuitively engineered. Mental strategies on their own are not sufficient but focusing on craft serves to unlock instinctual responses. Whatever the approach, intellectual effort, philosophy held, state of the art, it is unlikely to be comprehensively applied as from the instant of first decision to the continuing moment-by-moment choices other forces are unwittingly brought into play. Genetic disposition, psychic energy, habit and bias all combine to modify initial calculations and so override deliberate intent. Greater rational control may block these reactions but could also cancel out the inspirational subliminal coordinative thought processes. I find that the essence of compositional method lies in determining a balance between conscious commitment and triggered reflex and resolving the conflict that arises from this creative interplay.
Helen Gifford on Helen Gifford
Helen Gifford is featured on the following titles
Elektra
Australian piano music by Helen Gifford, Tony Gould, Andrew Ford, Julian Yu and Michael Kieran Harvey. The title work, Elektra, extends acoustic piano sound through computer processing, in a collaboration with sound engineer Michael Hewes, who shaped the instrument’s resonances in real time.
Compositions by Helen Gifford also appear on
Siva
Michael Kieran Harvey plays Australian piano masterworks of the last fifty years. Raymond Hanson, Gordon Kerry, Brendan Colbert, Helen Gifford and Neil Kelly are the composers gathered on this recital of concentrated virtuoso writing.
Astra 60
This recording captures a concert of Australian piano music celebrating Astra’s long support of Australian composers and performers. For sixty years the Astra Chamber Music Society has placed new Australian work beside international new-music currents, always with a distinctive cultural frame.
Hornocopia
About 110 minutes of French horn music, from classical staples to contemporary scores. Much of the programme sits on the AMEB French Horn syllabus, and several works appear here on CD for the first time – a practical set for students and teachers.
Contemporary Australian Piano
A valuable collection of Australian piano works by some of the country’s most respected and inventive composers, performed by pianist-composer Larry Sitsky.
Fable
This solo harp collection spans sixty-six years of original Australian composition. Jacinta Dennett performs works by Australian women composers, showing the instrument’s distinctive colour, range and expressive force.
Unearthly Music: Music by Australian Women Composers
A tribute to twentieth-century Australian women composers, this flute and piano recital gathers lesser-known chamber works in the hope that listeners, performers and programmers will bring the music to a wider audience.
Hamilton
The Team of Pianists present a programme of excellent piano works for solo, duo and two pianos, spanning popular classics and Australian repertoire.