Compositions
Meredith Connie : Artist Statement
A performing artist who works with composition, performance and multi-media, Meredith Connie works to navigate and interpret the natural world, often through site specific works. This may involve field recordings, composition and recording, perhaps also the inclusion of storytelling, or a particular text or image to embed the work within the larger context of country. Her aesthetic has grown from her profound and early connection to the nylon string guitar and a love of a sound world without traffic noise. Meredith loves collaborating, prioritizing chamber compositions and working with other artists across different mediums and platforms.
New Full length recording of compositions by Meredith Connie:
Undomesticated Pockets: Evocations of Wild Places.
Can be found on all standard streaming sites:
https://modernclassicalx.lnk.to/UndomesticatedPocketsEvocationsofWildPlaces
Limited Edition CD available for purchase here:
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/2UHCAQTNG34UQ
A Panoply of Grey for solo guitar and guitar and loop station, in five movements
A joyous and sometimes humorous celebration of Alpine National Park, Victoria.
After H.D. for soprano and guitar and soundscape in two movements
Fleeting impressions and images, with Soprano Christelise de Graaf
Quarantine Station Variations for solo guitar and soundscapes, in seven movements
A musical depiction of the history and buildings of the Old Quarantine facility in Point Nepean National Park, Victoria
Old Fella Bunyip for guitar quartet, in four movements
The legend of the Bunyip from a child’s perspective, from fear and anticipation to the comfort of sleep.
Perilous Parapet for solo guitar and soundscape, in three movements
A response to the erosion and beaty of Discovery Bay Coastal Park, Victoria.
What did those drunken sailors do?
Cicada Daimonion for percussion, guitar and soundscape, in three movements
Based on the story from Plato of how intoxication with music turned ancient beings into Cicadas, featuring recordings from Bongil Bongil National Park, NSW. With Percussionist Dan Richardson.
2023: Stratification
The town of Oatlands, Tasmania, it’s history and environs shaped this work which features guitar, loop station, field recordings, body percussion and reed organ.
It asks questions about a shared brutal past.
Supported by the Midlands Heritage projects.
2022: Tymbal for Percussion, Guitar and Loop Station
2022: Evening excerpt from work in progress, voice, found sound and electronics.
2022: Guitar and Loop Station: A Panoply of Grey
A musical exploration of the colours and textures of Alpine National Park, the highest part of Great Dividing Range in the state of Victoria.
2021: Solo guitar and found sound
Quarantine Station Variations:
Each movement depicts a particular place - a building or a landscape within Nepean Point National Park, telling the story of a new immigrant (The Ragged Lady) and the journey that immigrants took when sequestered at the old Quarantine Station. Found sound from each location is an integral part of the performance.
2021: Mezzo Soprano and Guitar song Cycle: Songs of Inanna
2021: Guitar Duo: Sessile Conversations
2021: High Voice and Guitar Orchestra: Better (by Regina Spektor)
2021: Guitar Solo: Yhi
The febrile and ever-changing energy of the sun
2021: Manipulated Guitar, found sound and voice: Everything is Cancelled
lockdown in the vicinity of the Melbourne General Cemetary.
2020: Voice and Guitar: Spare a Candy Mountain Dime
Re-imagined songs from the era of the Great Depression (in four movements)
2020: Guitar orchestra: Big Fella Bunyip (in four movements) commissioned by the Victorian Guitar Orchestra
2020: Guitar and Piano: Seen/Unseen. Prize Winner, Matt Withers Australian Composition Competition.
2019: Original Score, performance work by Jane Refshauge: Act I: A Tragicomedy.
2019: String Orchestra: Forest Song, commissioned by Ranges Strings for the Victorian Community Orchestra Project.
2019: Soprano, Guitar and Violin: An Unconcern So Sovereign, poetry by Emily Dickenson
2018: Trumpet and Guitar, Blue Salsa: commissioned by Duo Beyond Limits
2020: Narrative Guitar: Somnambulant Green
Five movements that traverse song, poetry and guitar, in a journey of transition over a very strange year.
2017: Solo Guitar:
If I Could I Surely Would for Solo Guitar in Three Movements.
Each movement takes its name from the lyrics of a song used as a reference point and a melodic touchstone, drawn from American Folk Music, inspired by and dedicated to Pete Seeger.
2016: Connections and Commotions: Guitar Trios for Intermediate Players
A collection of trios aimed at exploring a range of techniques and concepts of musicianship, annotated with suggested teaching points. For those who use the Suzuki methods, the trios are appropriate for those at the end of Book 3 moving into Book 4.
2015: Guitar Trio, Mosquito Stomp
Composed for the Student Guitar Ensemble at the 17th Biennial Suzuki Association of the Americas and was premiered there. Free score available.
2015: Guitar Trio, Tiddalik, in Five Movements
Commissioned for the Annual Symposium of New Music for Young People (Rivers Conservatory, Massachusetts), it was premiered there in April 2016. This work for guitar trio takes elements from the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime story of Tiddalik, a Giant Frog. The story itself is simplified and fragmented by the titles of the five moments.
An arrangement of Tiddalik for wind trio, revised in 2020:
2014: Guitar, Viola, Cello, Seattle colors: Grey, Blue, Green.
Explores the landscapes of Seattle and creates soundworlds that exploit the overlapping ranges of the instruments, bringing them together and stretching the distances between them. Premiered in April 2015 at TESS music school in Norwalk CT, USA.
2014: Lemon Grove for Trumpet and Guitar
Was reviewed in the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild, and was noted to be “a playful and evocative interplay between the two instruments …The work has moments of tension, which are quickly dissipated, like an animated conversation between two old friends”. Full transcript available here.
2013: In the Wild
For narrator and guitar explores the poetry of David Elliott and is a series of short character pieces describing various animals in musical language. It was a featured composition for the Contemporary Music Festival in 2015 of Weston MA, at which she was also a clinician.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Many scores are available for purchase through the Australian Music Centre. Please contact her if you would like to know more about her compositions.