Listen & tracks

3 of 13 tracks have a preview · 9 works · 59:19

Stings and WingsMaria Grenfell 3 movements10:07
1. 1 Jack Jumper 3:17
2. 2 Dragonfly 3:54
3. 3 Moth Hunt 2:56
4 Falling Embers Ella Macens 6:59
5 Verve Ella Macens 4:26
6 Mirroring Alice Chance 5:14
7 Receptor Peggy Polias 6:56
8 Slipstreams Bree van Reyk 6:06
9 Violet’s Etude Elena Kats-Chernin 3:16
10 Poppy’s Polka Elena Kats-Chernin 2:35
Dance VignettesAnne Cawrse 3 movements13:40
1. 11 Meditations and Hymns 6:25
2. 12 Fancy and Flight 4:05
3. 13 Scamper and Scoot 3:10

The works on this disc come from emerging and established Australian composers and speak to local culture as well as recent national and world events.

Maria Grenfell, a Tasmanian composer originally from New Zealand and a long-standing voice with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, contributes the three-movement marimba work Stings and Wings. Inspired by her score for the film Quoll Farm, the movements sketch jack jumpers, dragonflies and moths.

Peggy Polias, a mid-career Sydney composer and participant in the Classical:NEXT–nominated Composing Women program at the Sydney Conservatorium, wrote Receptor during the first COVID outbreak in Australia in 2020. It answers the pandemic through the physicality of the virus and its stages.

Ella Macens composed Falling Embers during the 2019–20 bushfires: a glowing particle hangs over scorched ground, tracing the last light before it dies. Her earlier marimba piece Verve also appears here.

Rhythms of Change began when Edwardes realised that almost every work she had performed across her career was by a man. The project commissions women to write new solo percussion music so that Australian repertoire, and the next generation of players, can draw equally on male and female composers.

The pieces suit high-school, tertiary and professional players. Scores are available through the Australian Music Centre, with public video recordings on YouTube, and the aim is that they enter exam lists and conservatorium curricula in Australia and beyond.

At the time of release the commissions were already circulating in live and online programs across Australia, with Edwardes taking the project further afield to encourage composers and percussionists of every gender toward a more equitable classical repertoire.

In the artist’s words

Rhythms of Change sees the creation of important new works for solo percussion by female identifying Australian composers, directly addressing gender equity in classical music programming now and into the future. The project was triggered by the realisation that the majority of the pieces that I had been performing throughout my career were written by men. To re-address this gender disparity, for Rhythms of Change I commissioned seven of my favourite emerging and established female identifying Australian composers to write new works for solo mallet percussion.

As a commissioning and performance project my Rhythms of Change initiative ensures that the next opus of Australian percussion music will be more fairly represented by women, so that the next generation of musicians can do what makes sense in our day and age – play music written equally by male AND female composers. The works are designed to be performed by a range of musicians – from high school to tertiary students, through to professionals, with the compositions made readily available for purchase through the Australian Music Centre. I hope you enjoy listening, and for those budding percussionists out there, I urge you to consider programming some of this awesome new music in your next recital!

— Claire Edwardes

I am very grateful for your project and feel that the gender balance among composers for percussion is the most important challenge we face currently – I feel the need for greater equity more than ever right now. Thank you for your efforts Claire!

— Steve Schick

Reviews

I can guarantee that anything Claire Edwardes does (whether solo or with Ensemble Offspring) is going to be absolutely fascinating. I think the highlight for me ... was Ella Macens’ Falling Embers, which has the most ethereal sounds conjured out of a vibraphone and crotales in a moving reflection on the fires of the 2020 summer. An outstanding release. ★★★★

— Paul Ballam-Cross, Limelight

Artists

Claire Edwardes

percussion

Claire Edwardes is an internationally acclaimed percussion soloist, chamber musician and artistic director of Ensemble Offspring. The press has described her as a ‘sorceress of percussion’, performing with ‘spellbinding intensity’ and ‘graceful virtuosity’.

Alice Chance

composer

Alice Chance is an Australian composer, conductor, arranger and lyricist. Her works are heard in concert halls from the Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall Angel Place to the Kennedy Centre, and in cathedrals in Sydney, California and New York.

Elena Kats-Chernin

composer

Elena Kats-Chernin AO (born 1957) is an Australian composer whose piano rags, chamber miniatures, ballet and stage scores have become central to contemporary Australian repertoire.

Anne Cawrse

composer

Maria Grenfell

composer

Maria Grenfell writes chamber, orchestral and film music shaped by poetry, image and the natural world. Guitar miniatures catch Leunig’s whimsy in colour and gesture; percussion pieces skitter like insects through accents and sudden turns of melody.

Ella Macens

composer

Peggy Polias

composer

Bree van Reyk

composer

Digital booklet

Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDF

Buy now

$25.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

Stream now

Apple Music Spotify

Also available to download from the iTunes Store.

Performers

Claire Edwardes · percussion

Technical credits

Recording Engineer Belinda Webster (track 9)
Matthew McGuigan (track 5)
Simon Berckelman (all except tracks 5 and 9)
Mastering Engineer Bob Scott
Venue City Recital Hall, Sydney (track 9)
Golden Retriever Studios (all except tracks 5 and 9)
Sydney Conservatorium of Music (track 5)
Thanks to Creative Australia

Details

List price: $25.00 AUD
Total playing time: 59 minutes 19 seconds
Release date: 22 Sep 2021
Categories: Australian, Classical
Genre: Contemporary Classical
Catalogue: MD 3459
EAN: 9314574345926

More to explore

Clairaudient

This is percussionist Claire Edwardes’ fifth CD. Clairaudience is clear hearing, or the ability to perceive sound from outside sources, often in the spirit world. Psychics who are clairaudient hear voices, sounds or music that are not audible to the normal ear.