Annual List of Works: Australian Music Centre

Title
We welcome summer

Composer
Clare Maclean born: 1958, nationality: Australian.
Address: 16 Illawong Ave, Kingswood Park, NSW 2747, Australia
http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=241

Genre
Choral

Instrumentation
SSAATTBB a cappella

Year of composition
1996

Duration
4 min., 50 sec.

Place of premiere performance
St James Church, King St, Sydney, Australia.

Date of premiere performance
1996-05-11

Performers
The Australian Voices

Score
Publisher: Morton Music (+ PO Box 1652, Toowong Qld 4066, Australia)
URL: www.mortonmusic.com.au
E-mail: graeme@mortonmusic.com.au
Edition-No.: MM 410
Price:AUD6.00

Recording
Included on CD titled: The Listening Land.
Record company: The Australian Voices (TAV The Australian Voices, PO Box 462, Palmwoods, Qld 4555 AUSTRALIA)
URL: http://www.theaustralianvoices.com.au/
E-mail: admin@theaustralianvoices.com.au
Edition-No.: VOICESCD002
Performers: The Australian Voices; conductor: Graeme Morton.
Price:AUD25.00

Motivation

This work was chosen because of its strongly Australian nature – its focus on summer, and sunlight, is very Australian, and yet it has other layers of meaning. Clare Maclean has composed many choral works, and has received a number of commissions. Cartoonist Michael Leunig, who wrote the text, is something of an Australian popular hero. The whimsical but poignant nature of his observations reflects an important aspect of the Australian psyche. This work has been performed by several well-known Australian choirs.

Programme note
The source of the text for We Welcome Summer is unusual: a book of prayers written by an Australian newspaper cartoonist whose work is syndicated in a number of publications. It may be read on several levels and in several contexts. The Australian sun with its harshness and brilliance is the subject of several major artistic works including the famous ballet Sun Music by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. Many Australian painters have commented on the characteristic ‘light’ of the Australian landscape, a light expressed in many twentieth century paintings.

We Welcome Summer is a choral paean to the rich, hot, burning vibrant beauty of summer and the light of the sun. It may also be viewed as an Epiphany anthem, welcoming light to the world. Significantly, Epiphany occurs at the height of the southern hemisphere summer.

Composer Biography
Clare Maclean was born in New Zealand in 1958. She studied composition with Gillian Bibby in Wellington, NZ, and with Peter Sculthorpe in Sydney, Australia; at that time she also sang with the Sydney Chamber Choir and has written several pieces for them. This experience, particularly with the renaissance repertoire, influenced her writing style, which often uses modal tonalities and contrapuntal textures. She has been commissioned by a number of choirs in Australia and by the St Louis Chamber Chorus in the United States.
Maclean has been teaching part time at the University of Western Sydney for several years. She began a Doctorate in Creative Arts in composition there in 2004, which involves writing both choral and instrumental works. She lives with her husband John Carroll and family in Penrith, NSW.