• Harlen’s Dream: the boy who loved to sing

    Typically, I like to keep my professional ‘artist profile’ rather short and sweet, but I thought I would elaborate a little into my history as a performer-composer in this less formal setting. My personal history as a performer-composer ventures well into childhood. Since picking up the guitar at the age of nine, it wasn’t before long that I was composing pieces for myself and performing these original works in public concerts organised through my primary and secondary schooling. I don’t recall ever being encouraged to compose, though I was always inspired by music teachers. One particular teacher who may have inspired me to compose was my primary school classroom music teacher, Michael Leadabrand. In addition to his usual teaching duties, he directed the school recorder ensemble. His original compositions made up the entire repertoire of the ensemble. New works were plentiful. We could expect at least one new wonderful work per month or so and every two years the school would stage a musical complete with original music by Michael Leadabrand performed by the recorder ensemble with vocal soloists and/or combined choir.

    I sought specialist music training in my secondary schooling. I received formal classical music instruction and was introduced to a wide range of style of music-making in the many ensembles and groups I rehearsed and performed with, including choirs, string orchestras, guitar ensembles, concert (wind) bands, jazz bands and a recorder consort in addition to playing in symphony orchestras outside of school.

    I became acquainted with some of the earlier music notation software programs, such as Encore, in my teens. Such music notation programs facilitated and encouraged me to explore composition further. I started making arrangements of pre-existing works for the ensembles that I rehearsed with at school and this led to writing many original compositions for guitar, and chamber groups involving violins and other string instruments.

    Writing music became a favourite hobby of mine. I could even go on to say that I was obsessed with composition. Composition took more of an official role when I began tertiary music studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) where I found myself surrounded by composers. In fact, certain units within the course require that all students compose works in specific styles and/or genres. In the final year of my undergraduate degree, I took a composition elective and this is where my skills as a composer developed to the next level.

    In the period between completing my undergraduate degree and commencing postgraduate studies, I focussed solely on the composition and performance of new works. My aesthetic as a musician is to express something honest to an audience, to communicate something personal, and to speak a language that I can clearly articulately. I’ve found, for the most part, that it’s only through the performance of original compositions that I can achieve and fulfil this aesthetic.

    Since the year 2007, original compositions are made a feature of in almost every concert programme. Though it must be said, I am a product of the age in which I live. I was raised and trained in a musical environment where it is expected that a young musician will learn the great works of the masters, that a student will learn technique as expressed through studies and didactic works in the great methods of master instrumental technicians.

    I do still perform the works of others, I do occasionally transcribe or arrange pre-existing works and I do delve into and practice the techniques devised by those who have come before me. I still organise my concerts into the moulds set by performers of the past. However, I feel as if my music is with the times. My music is a reflection of my life and therefore it is influenced by the past as well as being able to look towards the future. My compositions have always met a good reception. This inspires me to continue down a path that is scarcely trodden by the majority of mainstream performers of the classical guitar.

    As long as I have a song in my heart I will continue to sing.
     June 9th, 2010  Duncan Gardiner   24 comments

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