Video Information

• Choir: The Australian Voices
• Piece: Tra$h Ma$h
• Composer:  Gordon Hamilton
• Conductor:  Gordon Hamilton
• Voices:  The Australian Voices
• Genres: Pop/Rock, A cappella, Classical, Mash
• http://www.theaustralianvoices.com
  
  From the composer, Gordon Hamilton: during my piano studies, one of my favourite pieces was Michael Tippett's Second Piano So...  morehttp://www.theaustralianvoices.com
  
  From the composer, Gordon Hamilton: during my piano studies, one of my favourite pieces was Michael Tippett's Second Piano Sonata, which uses his disjunct mosaic form: instead of music flowing, through a logical sequence of harmony, melody and tempo, he (and other composers, including Stravinsky, Messiaen and my own teacher Butterley) created tiny fragments of music -- totally contrasting in character -- which cascade into each other: an aural mosaic.
  
  Tra$h Ma$h is a piece made up entirely of musical quotes lifted directly from modern pop songs and mashed together using the Tippet technique (perfect for our 21st century attention spans!)
  
  Deep down, I love trashy pop, and the singers in The Australian Voices are mostly under 21. We had a whole lot of parties to find the best (and worst) songs of 2011 to mash together in a kind of 60's disjunct treatment of pop, chopping it up and sticking it back together in a way that was never intended. I think it can be ridiculous and transcendent at the same time.
  
  I include a fragment of Eric Whitacre's Sleep, which everyone knows as the composition from his "Virtual Choir 2.0" online performance (borrowed with affection, Eric!).
  
  I didn't actually compose a single note of this piece. I still think of this as my composition... Why? Well, I sometimes like to think of the composer in its etymological meaning: com-pose (together-put). Tra$h Ma$h draws into question what words like "pop", "classical", "composer" and "choral" mean.
  
  Thanks for the following people who helped put all of this together...
  
  Director: Elena Schak
  Conductor/Composer: Gordon Hamilton
  Director of Photography: Miki Clarke
  Sound Engineers: Matt Hitchcock & Adam Friend
  Word Consultants: Gordon Hamilton, Scott Griffin, Katie Valenta, Elena Schak, Martin Cardell, Laura W...    less