First Person Margaret Brandman Catherine Peake talks to Margaret Brandman about her music
For Australian composer, performer, and educator Margaret Brandman, 2021 has been a year of noteworthy events, not the least being her recent 70th birthday. But there have also been musical highlights; performances, awards, new compositions, and travel – via Zoom at least, if not via an actual plane. Earlier this year Brandman was the recipient of the Best Foreign Composition award for her symphonic tone poem Spirit Visions, conferred by the Artemis Women in Action Film Festival in Los Angeles. Brandman says that she first composed the piece for two pianos which she later orchestrated.
Based on an expansive theme that came to Brandman as she was improvising on the Sydney Town Hall pipe organ, Spirit Visions interprets the sounds of the organ with its changing stops that inspired both the melodic content and orchestration. With the Covid restrictions meaning she could not be there in person, Brandman engaged with the recording of Spirit Visions by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra using technology, overseeing the recording remotely. The subsequent June release of Spirit Visions on the CD Polarities Vol. 2 is a testament to overcoming the restrictions of Covid. (See Paul Cooke’s Polarities Vol. 2 review in the current edition of Fine Music Magazine).
In discussing Spirit Visions, Brandman says, “The exciting, syncopated dance-like rhythms played by the marimba create an irresistible urge to dance – at times you may think you are visiting Mexico or Cuba!” She comments that while influenced by many styles she has a particular feel for Latin-American music. The Latin American influence is an integral part of others of her pieces, such as Warm Winds in Havana written for saxophone quartet. Brandman is also currently working on a suite of eight Latin-American works, commissioned by Australian violinist Vov Dylan for his ensemble, the Quintet from the Palace Orchestra. The suite will be part of a stage production incorporating music and dance, with her music ‘weaving a storyline through the work’.
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