BY LILY BRYANT
If you’re a fan of Australian film, chances are you’ve heard the timeless scores of Oscar-nominated composer David Hirschfelder. With credits like Strictly Ballroom, The Dressmaker, and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, his music has graced our screens for over three decades, and will be celebrated by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in their upcoming concert Metropolis: Sounds of Cinema.
Through newly arranged orchestral suites, these three iconic scores will be reimagined for live performance, with David himself playing piano out front.
“I’m really excited and a little bit nervous — it’s a long time since I’ve had to perform, and with such a professional orchestra!” he says.
“Normally I’m more comfortable hiding in my room writing music than getting out there performing it, but I thought you know what, it’s time to give it a go.”
Programmed alongside film music from fellow Australian composer Bryony Marks, audiences should expect nostalgic favourites, with some symphonic revelations.
“There was quite a lot of prep in all of them really, because I revisited all the orchestrations and made some changes,” David explains.
“With Strictly Ballroom I had to completely write a suite from scratch, based on the recordings I had from 30 years ago, and I felt like a university professor adjudicating my 30-year-old self.
“I tried to preserve the youthful naivety and spirit of that, but at the same time make sure that the elements we have in a full symphony orchestra are fully utilised.”
Orchestrations to maximise these new sonic possibilities were created jointly with Jessica Wells, an example of the collaboration that is essential to the development of film music.
“Being a screen composer is very much a collaborative art form — you work with the director’s vision and how the story needs to be told, and how the music’s going to enhance the journey of the narrative,” he explains.
“On The Dressmaker, one section of the suite was originally written for 5/4, but the director didn’t think that was going to connect with an audience, so she asked me to mathematically work out that melody to be not in 5 but in 4.”
“It just reminded me of how wonderful the collaborative process is when two artists get together from different mediums and collaborate to come up with something that’s different to what we both would’ve done.”
As he notes about his work on the Legend of the Guardians soundtrack, that trust between creatives can be hard-won.
“The main melody was quite a rousing, Celtic melody, and I played it on piano as I often do, and they weren’t sure at first, until they heard it performed by the live orchestra. Sometimes it is a long journey to develop the trust in the people you collaborate with.”
This is understandable, given the crucial role a score plays in crafting the physical and emotional role of a film — something David is eager for audiences to experience on the concert stage, rather than the silver screen.
“I hope they get swept up in the spirit of the story that’s being told by the music. In a sense, it’s like hearing an opera without the opera singers — you’re hearing the bedrock of the storytelling that the music provides without the visuals,” he says.
“I hope that it brings back memories and transports them into the spirit of the film, with all the silliness of Strictly Ballroom and all the drama and the dark humour of The Dressmaker. I hope they enjoy being lost in those emotions.”
Experience these cinematic suites from David Hirschfelder (arr. Jessica Wells) in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra program Metropolis: Sounds of Cinema, 7.30pm August 21 in Hamer Hall.
READ NEXT: We chat with the composer and Foley artist about the world premiere performance of a new concerto in Metropolis: Sounds of Cinema.
Images supplied. Featured image of David by Debra Hirschfelder.
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