2011 has been my most abundant year for composing !
I have been exploring all sorts of musical expression and really allowing my 'Classical' heart to unfold as it pours out of me.
I never really know how or why this happens, as I have hardly been exposed to true Classical music and great composers, and yet my very early pieces from around the age of 8 or 9 were very 'Classical' sounding and feeling. I suppose my greatest influence at that tender age was the records of Carl Orff - Music For Children Vol 1 & 2, of which my father gave me on cassette and I played every single night as I went to sleep for many many years and into my teens. I still have these very old cassettes and the original LPs.
European Folk, like German (my mother gives me) and Irish and Scottish tunes and melody, I have always been attracted to also, although not so easy for me to express left to my own musings, it doesn't 'flow' out of me like Classical does, but I so relish and ignite when I hear it all, like a genetic memory and I feel so natural playing it.
My music was once described as - "tapping into traditional Folk ancestry, and then bringing it to a whole new level" by the Laird of Lunga Estate, Scotland
and another "
"At times I feel hints of Arvo Part's minimalism and then feel Kate Bush peeking through.Very Beautiful" - Daniel Cullen- Entropik
I suspect those 'Carl Orff' nursery/folk/speach melodies and rhythms were why? and of course I loved Kate Bush.
Once I was into my teens, film music really grabbed my attention and the Australian Film composer Bruce Rowland was a great inspiration and I still today, notice how his piano style has influenced the way I approach my own improvisations.
More recently of coarse, Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard and many more modern composers for film/media greatly inspire me.
I will never forget being part of the production team for the Australian Debut of Richard Harvey & Ralph Stedman's 'The Plague and The Moonflower' 2003 tour.
I am thirstier now for exploring more of the classical realm and learn more of the 'mind', pattern and structure of what makes for a dynamic and intricate 'Symphonic' musical journey. All those colours and the landscapes it conjures. I can 'feel' it all and I so want to be able to convey that. Harmony being my most favorite thing, I have sung in many choral performances and adore harmonic parts and how they make us feel.
There is no escaping the music that comes through me, it is never really planned, the joy for me is the surrender to its unfolding.
I struggle then, to put it into a specific genre/style, it is simply born out of 'Octavia's Dreams' where it belongs?... I do not know?
Sometimes all the beautiful music around me is so overwhelming that I hardly feel worthy to be attempting to make any kind of sound myself in comparison? .... But the muse is so strong in me and my life would be so, so empty and worthless without any effort for me to create music each day. whether any other soul witnesses it or not, to me it's value is just as significant.
I love to express a sense of 'inspiration', 'hope' and comfort in my music, I feel this is of great value, even if just one person feels this when listening to my music. One soul is as important as 7 billion.
I adore the presence, beauty and soothing of the piano as a solo instrument, but it opens up so many possibilities, I hear more than just the notes I am playing, it is always so difficult for me to resist exploring and adding other instruments to it. I am enormously grateful to be born in this era of technology, so as a solo musician, I can do exactly that.
So 2012 will be full of music from me, as I share all the music that has come to my hands and heart this 2011.
I look forward to the sharing and hope one day it can inspire you in some way. In the way so much music has inspired me.
I believe more and more with every day, that 'Music' is 'Living'
Lissa
