BY SIX-FOUR AND SPIRAL, AS TOLD TO CUTCOMMON
Melbourne new music ensemble six-four is this week set to team up with like-minded Sydney group SPIRAL for a free concert of works composed and arranged specifically for their groups.
The thing that brings them together? A mutual passion for new music — and a love of collaboration. And you’ll get to see it in six-four x SPIRAL.
In this interview, we ask six players from across each ensemble why they value collaboration at this stage in their careers, and why it’s important to showcase new works, too.
Chloe Sanger – six-four, violin
As a musician, I will constantly draw from the works and stories of others. So I’m excited to hear SPIRAL live for the first time, because sonically they’re really different to six-four. Their instrumentation is so unique; all their music is new music, either written from within the ensemble or in collaboration with it.
Six-four are just starting to delve into that world more, arranging pieces to fit our ensemble and writing new ones. For me, this is quickly becoming the only way I want to operate, and it is what new music is all about — performers and composers shaping works in tandem.
Anna Telfer – six-four, flute
Collaboration between young ensembles is important in a number of ways. As young ensembles, we can support each other’s growth by sharing our audience and gaining artistic inspiration. Collaborating creates a greater awareness of what other musicians are accomplishing. It is too easy to exist in a bubble and be content with the familiar. I don’t think that’s where artistic growth happens.
Three years ago, we chose repertoire solely because we enjoyed performing it, but now the most important aspect of our concerts is what we can offer the audience and composers. It is exciting to introduce an audience to a piece they’ve never heard before, and what perspective they may take away from our performance. Supporting new music is also supporting diverse composers, and representation is valued highly by our ensemble.
Tom D’Ath – six-four, clarinet
Collaboration between young ensembles is something I see as imperative to whatever professional success an ensemble aspires to. We’ve been very lucky to have the support of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music during our early years, but we do have to face the reality that some of us have finished studying, and eventually we will all leave the institution that incubated us. Interaction and collaboration with ensembles similar to us like SPIRAL presents an opportunity to open lines of communication and performance with people in a similar situation to us.
The decision to perform new music is really something I feel obliged to do, particularly when members of any given ensemble are actively writing music.
Josephine Macken – SPIRAL, flute
Collaborating with other emerging groups presents a valuable challenge to the archetypes of making and sharing music. Engaging with divergent practices, and the possibilities they present, has equipped us to reflect on our developing methods as a group and the widening scope for creativity in these decisions. Further, the importance of sharing access to spaces, resources and experiences across the sector cannot be overstated.
Nearly all of SPIRAL’s collaborative projects have hinged on the creation of new work. In my experiences within and beyond the group, collaborations prioritising new music have tended to yield more fertile discoveries and better strengthen artistic relationships.
Rory Knott – SPIRAL, electric bass
Collaboration helps ensembles to further develop their sound and add to their musical vocabulary. Without collaboration, ensembles will struggle to push in new directions and may stagnate their development.
I value bringing new music into the world because music is constantly evolving, and without it the world would be a much greyer place. It is import to SPIRAL to showcase each of our members’ works regularly, and provide a safe platform for our members to experiment and push their own creative agendas on the ensemble.
Johannes MacDonald – SPIRAL, flute/saxophone
Australia’s new music scenes tend to easily centre themselves around each state’s musical institutions. Young ensembles find themselves inheriting not only the aesthetic and political leanings of the each institutions’ many conflicting elders and bureaucrats, but also the structural and business models of the pre-existing arts organisations in our area.
Collaborations between young new music ensembles allow us to compare these values and beliefs, to see what is shared, and to see what is otherwise taken for granted as a universal truth. Additionally, we are able to share audiences, and build a greater nationwide musical network.
Our greatest allies in this position are not our institutions or the pre-existing ensembles. Our greatest allies are eachother.
See six-four X SPIRAL at 7.30pm 28 November in the Ian Potter Southbank Centre.
Images supplied.
