The music is accessible but vital, richly coloured with a true, distinctive gift for melody, and somehow fresher than most current European writing. THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Carl Vine
Carl Vine

Carl Vine’s music is easy to approach and usually straightforward to comprehend. Its surface is often simple, disguising inner complexities arising from the contemplation and rigorous filtering of a multiplicity of stylistic choices. His earliest work was at the cutting edge of the experimental, electronic and aleatoric musical techniques of the 1970’s which were supplanted in the 1980’s by a more inclusive aesthetic consciously developed from historical models.

Carl refers to melody as ‘the closest thing to direct communication without actually speaking’, and takes obvious sensual delight in certain harmonic progressions that permeate his work. He refers boldly to recognisable musical idioms, but often juxtaposes styles to produce unexpected syntheses by turns both ironic and reverential.

Carl has referred to his mature music as ‘radically tonal’, ‘neo-post-modern’ and ‘post-garde’, but in reality, it defies simple categorisation and popular trends. He rarely uses art by others – poetry, pictures, novels – as starting points for composition, preferring his music to stand on its own terms, relying solely on its internal points of reference.

Musica Viva’s 2009 National Concert Series will feature five of Carl’s works:

Kremerata Baltica will perform Smith’s Alchemy (2001). This arrangement for string orchestra of Vine’s third string quartet is named in honour of the Smith Quartet (now defunct) who commissioned the original work and the sense of aural alchemy that infused its composition.

Piano Sonata no 3 (2007) will be performed by Katia Skanavi. This is the least manifestly virtuosic of Vine’s three sonatas for solo piano. Its four conjoined movements carry the listener across terrain alternately strange and familiar weaving a drama rich with symbolism but typically free of explicit narrative.

The Elias String Quartet will perform String Quartet no 4 (2004). The Takács Quartet premiered this work, commissioned for Musica Viva by Geoff and Vicki Ainsworth, in 2004 to celebrate Carl’s fiftieth birthday. Its restless yet formal structure orbits a sombre chorale that evolves into a pensive conclusion.

String Quartet no 5 (2007) will be performed by the Tokyo String Quartet. This work was commissioned for the Goldner String Quartet and Musica Viva by Kenneth Tribe, AC and was premiered at the Huntington Estate Music Festival in November 2007. Its single five-part movement is decidedly informal and closes, uncharacteristically, with an undisguised musical joke.

The Jerusalem Quartet and Zvi Plesser will present the world premiere performances of the String Quintet (2008-09), commissioned for Musica Viva by Julian Burnside, QC.

Carl Vine first came to prominence as a composer for dance, especially through collaborations with Graeme Murphy and the Sydney Dance Company on works such as the now legendary Poppy (1978). He has written music in most other conceivable forms: stage and screen, pure electronic, choral, orchestral and chamber music.

His music is performed regularly around the world, his piano music is staple fare at piano competitions throughout North America and more than 50 different commercial recordings contain his compositions. The West Australian Symphony Orchestra will premiere his seventh symphony in November 2008 and all of his most recent chamber music will be heard in Musica Viva programs throughout 2009.