Nigel+Westlake+Listening+Task

__**Nigel Westlake**__

Nigel was born on the 6th of September, 1958 in Perth, Western Australia. He pursued an early career as a clarinetist, bass clarinetist and saxophonist and continued touring Australia playing in different orchestral ensembles.

Nigel is an Australian composer who composed musical pieces for many films including, "Babe, Babe - Pig in the City, Children of the Revolution, A Little Bit of Soul, The Nugget and the Imax films Antarctica, Imagine, The Edge and Solarmax." Westlake played and composed many genres including chamber music, soloist, orchestral, theatre and fusion bands and says he was influenced by electronic music. At the end of year ten, Westlake left school to play freelance clarinet and continued his career from there. He is a minimalist composer and his music style is distinctive and is defined by lively rhythms and is evidently passionate music. He began professionally training in music and clarinet and began his professional interest in composing around 1970. Westlake still continues to create work and was inspired to continue his music after his son, Eli was murdered in 2008.

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 * Song Analysis:**

__Wooden Ships- Instrumentation__ Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, bassons, horn,marimba, harp, guitar, strings, trumpet, trombone, timpani - In this piece there are ostinato patterns and unexpected harmonies. -The piece begins softly and slowly, with guitar and strings playing softly. Gradually instruments are played a little louder (crescendo) and more instruments play until the flute plays a solo. Strings crescendo and suddenly drop out at 1:26. From 1:55 minutes into the piece, the guitar played unexpected, dissonant chords in a solo. Brass instruments begin to accompany strings, following with the guitar beginning to play at 2:23 where the melody is repeated. The piece ends with a decrescendo of mainly guitar, flutes and strings.

__Penguin Ballet- Instrumentation__ Oboe, clarinet, flute, harp, guitar, stings, trombone, horns, timpani, glockenspiel, cymbal, snare, bass drum, marimba -In this piece there is a wide use of percussion and ascending and descending runs -The music begins with a soft, slow harp solo and is joined by the guitar and strings. The strings play quickly and jump to high notes. At 0:48 seconds into the piece, the overall tone of the music becomes eery and mysterious. This is created by the strings and guitar playing much lower and slower with longer notes. At 1:01 the pace is fastened and the instruments play higher, quicker, shorter notes. At 1:23 the repetitive melody is played again mezzoforte and at 1:34 the eery tone begins again with the instruments playing much lower. They play quickly, but the notes are much longer. At 1:45 there is percussion playing as the tone becomes lighter and less tense. This is started by an ascending run played on the glockenspiel. At 2:02 the tone is entirely changed. Instruments play louder, quicker and higher and there are more instruments playing. This only lasts for a few seconds before each instrument plays a fast, high pitched solo.The repeated melody (chorus) is not played again until 2:52. Building up to this, each instrument plays high pitched dissonant chords until 2:36 when the the lead up to the chorus (pre-chorus) is played placido. The piece ends with strings and harp quickly getting slower.

media type="custom" key="25384808" Westlake's contemporaries from the twentieth century include:
 * American c omposer John Cage is named one of the most influential American composers from the twentieth century. He was well known for experimenting with music and for constructing a prepared piano by placing altered objects in between the strings, such as screws and coins.
 * Igor Stravinsky was another composer from the twentieth century pianist and composer. His music was stylistic and he was well known for pushing the boundaries.
 * Aaron Cop land was an American composer who composed ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, vocal work, opera and film scores.

Bibliography: //John Cage,//7th March 2014, retrieved 13th March 2014 

//Aaron Copland,// 14th March 2014, retrieved 13th March 2014 

//Nigel Westlake,// 2014, Move Records, 12th March 2014 

//Nigel Westlake: Represented Artist,// 2014, Australian Music Centre, 9th March 2014 //

Ian Cuthbertson, February 18th 2011, 'Composer Nigel Westlake's requiem for murdered son', The Australian, retrieved 16th March 2014 

//Antarctica,// 12th of March 2001, retrieved 17th March 2014 