BY ANGUS MCPHERSON
Solomon John Frank is making a name for himself as one of Sydney’s promising young composers. As the winner of the 2015 Willoughby Symphony Orchestra/Fine Music 102.5 Young Composer Award, his piece Spectre was performed by the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra as part of its Myths and Legends concert. He describes what it was like to have his work performed: “It felt pretty fantastic. It makes you feel privileged to have the opportunity to do something like that. New orchestral pieces don’t get played very often, so it felt really good”.
Solomon’s inspiration for Spectre came from the film music of John Barry, who composed the soundtracks for many of the classic James Bond films. As such, the work is full of tension, intrigue and drama. Solomon sat in on the orchestra’s rehearsals in the lead up to the performance.
“They were all really fantastic players, and Steven Mould, the conductor, picked up on all the nuances in the music. I was surprised by how many things he picked up that even I wouldn’t have picked up on,” Solomon says.
Working with the orchestra allowed Solomon to experience first-hand the subtleties of orchestration, texture, and the importance of score presentation.
“I learnt a lot of very specific things – like that I overestimated the agility of the bassoon, and that I’m not very good at string bowings, so I’m working on that. Score presentation is far more important than any one can stress. I tried to pay attention to detail this time around, but you can never quite get everything. You really have to go through it with a fine-toothed comb.”
Solomon is reaching the end of his first year studying composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He explains that the instrumentation and orchestration classes provide a good foundation for composition, but stresses the importance of being able to find and work with performers.
“I think organisational skills and people skills are far more important than people realise in terms of this career, this vocation. You’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t know anyone.”
Solomon grew up watching the Star Wars films, and cites John Williams as the reason he is a composer today. Since studying at university, however, his tastes have diversified.
“I’ve kind of stepped away from that mainstream film composition, to a certain degree, and more into the art music field,” he muses.
Since his recent competition win, Solomon has been keeping busy, writing for a range of instruments and combinations.
“This semester, I’m writing for horn quartet, and that’s been an interesting experiment. Horns have a really fantastic sound. I learnt from Spectre how powerful they can be. I’m trying to work on my string writing, but my mind doesn’t think in strings quite yet. There are always things in the pipeline. Judy Deacon, who runs Fine Music’s Young Virtuoso competition, has asked me to write a piece for some of the finalists. I’m quite excited about that – it’s my holiday project.”
Solomon says he is also working on a personal project.
“I’m writing a musical about Gina Rinehart called Mine’ I’ve had it in the works for a long time. It’s a bit of a relief working on that compared to the heavy art music we look at university.”
Solomon is unsure where his career will take from here, but he knows writing music is his passion.
“I’d love to continue writing my musical, I’m having fun with that. I just really want to write music.”
The Willoughby Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Spectre will be broadcast on Fine Music 102.5 in 2016.
Image supplied. Credit: Hamish Heath
