Overview

__Life:__ - Nigel Westlake is an Australian composer, performer and conductor.He produces contemporary music - Nigel Westlake initially developed an interest in music when he was a child. Nigel was taught clarinet by his father. At age 17

- His interest in compositions dates back to the 70’s and he has since written music for  radio, circus, TV & film.  - As a composer for the screen, his film credits include the feature films Paper Planes, Miss Potter, Babe, Babe: Pig in the City, Children of the Revolution, and the Imax films Antarctica, Imagine, The Edge and Solarmax, among others. __Awards: __ __Music characteristics:__ - Concert Music - He has a wide range of genres, including theatre, concert hall, film soundtracks, works for soloist, chamber ensembles and orchestra.

- In Westlake's Australia inspired pieces of music, he includes samples of various insect and other sounds of rural life. - Uses a lot of rests when all instruments break and then come back in in melodic ways.

- Instruments include: Flute, Piccolo, Oboe, Bassoon, Trumpet, Trombone, French Horn, Marimba, Timpani, Suspended Cymbals, Floor Toms, Full Drum Kit, Cowbells. - Instruments play at forte, with many sudden complete cuts for a 4-beat rest, and then instruments come back at a forte volume. - E xtensive use of crescendos - Westlake uses instruments of varying pitch depending on the piece but there is generally an ostinato that is repeated and changed slightly throughout the song. - Westlake changes the duration of notes in his pieces depending on his instruments, for example a choir may have long notes whereas a marimba is harder to do notes that long and therefore are not as long. - The time signature is often hard to hear as he uses a lot of syncopation and rests.

- Westlake’s songs often have a quiet beginning, with few instruments and then slowly crescendo until they have a large amount of instruments playing at a high volume. - O ften uses one major instrument in each piece such as having a percussion song and a marimba song.

- He uses a plethora of percussion techniques to create very eccentric soundscapes.