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Home / Compositions / Orchestral / String Orchestra

String Orchestra

These works are for chamber-sized string orchestras or – in the case of the three central movements of Manhattan Epiphanies – seventeen solo strings.

Please click work titles for more information and resources (audio, sheet music, program note etc.) about individual works in this category.

Sleep (2015)

2 minutes
for string orchestra

More Info

Bright Shiners (2009)

5 minutes
for solo violin and string orchestra

Commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra to mark Richard Tognetti's 20th anniversary season

First performance by Pekka Kuusisto (violin) and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, City Hall, Newcastle, NSW, 12 March 2009

More Info

Sad Jigs (2005)

7 minutes
for string orchestra

This piece may also be played by a string quintet.

Commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra through Symphony Australia with funds from the Australia Council for the Arts

First performance of this version by Australian Youth Orchestra chamber orchestra directed by Helena Rathbone, National Music Camp, Llewellyn Hall, ANU, Canberra, January 2006.

More Info

The Past (1997)

18 minutes
For counter-tenor, flute (=boatswain's whistle) & string orchestra (also optional didgeridoo)

Text: Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal (formerly Kath Walker) and Capt James Cook

Commissioned by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with the support of the Music Board of the Australia Council.

First performance by Russell Harcourt (counter-tenor), Lorna McGhee (flute and boatswain's call), William Barton (didgeridoo), Camerata of St John's conducted by Federico Mondelci, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Riverway Arts Centre, Townsville, Queensland, 4 August 2009

More Info

Manhattan Epiphanies (1994-99)

32 minutes
for string orchestra

i Motherwell at the Guggenheim

ii Rothko I

iii Utopia Parkway: 13 Cornell Boxes

iv Rothko II

v Blue Poles

N.B. Movements may be performed separately.

i. solo violin and string orchestra

ii. 5-5-3-3-1

iii. 5-5-3-3-1 and toy instruments

iv. 5-5-3-3-1

v. string orchestra

The whole piece may be played by 17 solo strings, but larger forces may be employed in the two outer movements.

Commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra

First performance of Rothko I & II by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Roger Smalley, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 25 September 1994.

First performance of Utopia Parkway by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the composer, Huntington Festival, Huntington Estate Winery, Mudgee, NSW, 1 December 1994.

First performance of Blue Poles by Canberra School of Music Chamber Orchestra conducted by Tor Fromyhr, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, October 2002.

First performance of Motherwell at the Guggenheim by Christina Katsimbardis (violin), Australian Youth Orchestra (NMC), conducted by John Harding, Llewellyn Hall, Australian National University, Canberra, 17 January 2004.

More Info

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