In Conversation with Australian composer Olivia Bettina Davies.
Davies was commissioned by the ACO to compose Trace, which was played by ACO Collective on their tour of regional New South Wales and Victoria earlier this year.
Composers spend a long time alone with their ideas, their starting points, an obsession over every note on the stave. But eventually, the music has to leave the page.
For Melbourne-based composer Olivia Bettina Davies, that moment is always charged with anticipation. “I’m always really nervous before the first rehearsal,” she says. “It doesn’t get easier.” And then, something happens in the room when the musicians connect bows with strings. “The music becomes this living thing.”
No new music ever comes to life by itself; every new work commissioned by the ACO is realised thanks to the belief and backing of generous donors who recognise the power and importance of new works.
Davies’ new work Trace, which was commissioned by the ACO for ACO Collective, began with its titular word. The act of tracing, drawing a line again and again, became a concept echoing the movement of a bow across a string.
From there, the piece expanded, drawing inspiration from the intricate, minimalist paintings of Agnes Martin - works that feel intuitive and delicate, but are built with extraordinary care and precision. For Davies, composition gets better in the flesh. “It’s always better working directly with the musicians,” she says. “Their interpretation is what shapes the music, and when we are all actively part of it, it becomes a collaboration”.
In rehearsal, the piece begins to shift, shaped by the personalities and sound of the players. With ACO Collective, where ACO musicians perform alongside the next generation of Australia’s professional string players, that sense of shared authorship is multiplied.
“It just feels special to be a part of a project that has far-reaching and long-term benefits,” Davies says. “To be a small part of something that has this depth… it’s really nice to be part of it.”
But as the music takes on more voices: first the musicians, then the audiences that hear it, Davies begins to let go of control and doesn’t prescribe a particular feeling for audiences to take away. “Of course, I always hope that the music will resonate in some way, or you’re at least left feeling intrigued,” she says. But beyond that, she tends not to prescribe too much. “At this point, I let go”.
Each listener brings something different to a piece of music, their own memories and associations. Even in early performances of Trace, Davies has noticed how varied those responses can be. “There are many different interpretations and visual impressions,” she says. “There does seem to be a through-line, but each listener’s experience is entirely their own.”
And so, the act of listening becomes another form of creation. The musicians and audience engage in a conversation of sorts, and something new is born. That idea feels particularly resonant for a piece that doesn’t stay in one place, or perform to a single audience. As part of ACO Collective’s national tour, Trace travelled to audiences across the country, including regional communities where access to live performance is often more limited.
“We tend to take for granted the access that we have (in the city),” Davies says. “So it’s really nice to know that my music is going to these places.”
For Davies, these opportunities are part of a much bigger ecosystem, one that supports not just individual composers or works, but the future of Australian music itself. To the donors who make this possible, she says thank you. “You are actively helping to support and nurture Australian culture, and we do need that support now.” She supposes that without those pathways to performance, “there’ll be less of our own voice in our music… we’ll rely more on inherited or imported narratives.”
Instead, projects like this create spaces for new work to be heard, shared and shaped by professional musicians and the audiences they garner, not just in capital city concert halls, but across the country. And somewhere along that journey, perhaps in a town hall far from where the piece was written, someone else might be listening closely, and feeling inspired to compose.
“There’s definitely room for you,” Davies says to aspiring composers in Warrnambool, Orange or Wagga Wagga. “Don’t underestimate your unique voice.”
By then, Trace will have already taken on a life of its own, carried into the world by those who helped realise it, and all those who hear it.
To help us open doors to new music, support the ACO with a tax-deductible donation today.
