1.
Introduction
2. The Musical Environment
3. Loudness and Dynamics
4. Crescendo and Diminuendo
5. Sound Envelopes
6. Foreground - Background
7. Listening Structures
8. Notating Sounds
9. The Listening Space
10. Radio Composition
11. The Design Team
Richard
Vella
Jon Drummond
Greg White
Raffæle Marcellino
Kari Hanet
Leigh Hobba
Richard Vella is a composer, teacher and publisher. He has composed music for a wide range of contexts and styles, including music for film, opera, fashion parades, dance, stage, multimedia, sound installations, vocal, chamber and orchestral genres and computer music. Much of his music has been commissioned and performed by leading performers and ensembles around the country. His most recent compositions have included the premiere of his Trombone Concerto by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, music for the film Parklands, which premiered at the 1996 Sydney Film Festival, and music for a new interactive CD-ROM entitled Shock. Richard also designed and composed the sound environment for the Convict Ship and Rainforest installation in the Bicentennial First State 88 exhibition, Darling Harbour, Sydney.
Richard is founding artistic director of Calculated Risks Opera Productions, a performance company specifically dealing with the many roles music and sound can have in the performance and multimedia context. Calculated Risks has premiered two of his major works, Tales of Love in 1991 and The Last Supper in 1993. Both these works have toured nationally and internationally. Following its fourth production this year at the New Music Festival in Hobart, The Last Supper is being adapted for a broadcast video.
In 1996 he was appointed Professor of Music at La Trobe University, Victoria and is currently Visting and Consulting Professor of Music for the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, Hobart. Between 1992 and 1996, Richard designed and directed an inter-disciplinary music program at Macquarie University, which was housed within the School of Mathematics, Physics, Computing and Electronics. It was in this capacity as director of music at Macquarie University that he devised an innovative postgraduate program in which interdisciplinary reserach in music and science could be studied. He has advised many institutions on the future role and uses of music, including the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music and Macquarie University.
Richard directs the music publication program with the Performing Arts Publisher, Currency Press, Sydney. In this capacity he has introduced a wide range of publications on Australian music including music for piano, guitar, tuba, violin, double bass, recorder, clarinet, flute, and organ. He has introduced scholarly publications and cultural histories on music. He is currently researching and implementing digital music publishing projects.
