An extraordinary evolution

When we first spoke to Olivia back in 2019, she had just started composing Stratus. Two years in the making, Olivia reflects on the composition process.

Stratus is inspired by the concept of a sound mass, with later development inspired by the image of a stratus cloud. Strings were the starting point for Olivia when composing the piece. “It starts with this very airy, glassy sound in the strings and that gradually clarifies.”

Considering the instruments available was key for Olivia when concepting the work.

“Having the orchestra, the possibilities are immediately endless. I was thinking about the extremes you can go to, the number of voices that are playing at once. Having a mass of sound to having isolated sounds dotted around the space. Those extremes really interested me which led to the idea of the sound mass.”

The piece was originally planned to premiere in 2020’s Morning Symphony: Dvořák’s Symphony No.8 and Gil Shaham Plays Brahms. However with the year’s concert program severely disrupted due to COVID, the premiere was postponed, creating a unique opportunity for Olivia.

At WASO’s first full rehearsal in early August after months of isolation, Olivia workshopped the piece with the orchestra; a rare opportunity for a composer.

Usually the first time Olivia hears her compositions is when they are first played on stage. The play-through by the orchestra at rehearsal was the first time Olivia – or anyone – had ever heard the piece.

“As they started to play, the nerves relaxed and I thought ‘Ok, I can work with this. This is good, there’s material here.’”

After the rehearsal, Olivia was able to reflect on what she had heard, and consider it in a new light, which evolved changes to the piece. Olivia describes the process as “a blessing and a curse, having so much time to write a work. You go through many stages of reflection, but don’t want to change your ideas too much.”

With the work originally notated in three parts, transitions and more material were added after the rehearsal, bringing the piece together into a “continuous sound”.

Stratus was generously commissioned by WASO Patron Prue Ashurst, who also attended the rehearsal workshop. “I was moved by the evocative orchestral textures and colours Olivia created with this work. I am very honoured to support Olivia with this commission and to see her star rise in the orchestral sphere of the musical world.”

With Stratus now completed, Olivia is moving on to new composition works, including writing music for the short documentary Off Like Flies (directed by Melanie Branson), and producing both photographs and music for a large scale, six-hour immersive audiovisual installation piece, Gradient.

Upon reflection, Olivia has come to be aware of just how isolated the process of composing is. “What I reflected on in my process and in being a musician was what was lacking, and that was actually performing with other people and playing an instrument again. I think that’s really important to being a good composer and understanding sound. I’ve recognized that’s something I want to start doing again.”

“When you’ve only got yourself to bounce back ideas on, there’s always the risk that you’ll be regurgitating the same ideas, or stunt any kind of potential to discover new things.”

With the piece finally premiering this week, Olivia is “excited and obviously a little bit nervous to hear it.”

“It’s certainly been a unique experience having this amount of time to write a single piece. It’s something I’ve nurtured for a year and now let go.”

Stratus will premiere this week as part of Asher Fisch conducts Elgar and Romance and Mystery and was commissioned for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra by Prue Ashurst. Learn more about commissioning new work and the WASO Song Book here.