Composer/arranger Joe Twist is one of the most in demand music creators in Australia and abroad, straddling film music and concert music arenas. Twist has a wealth of experience in choral music as both a singer and composer, receiving numerous commissions and performances of his music from choirs in Australia and around the world, including The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Chanticleer, Voces8, The Idea of North, The Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, L.A. Choral Lab, Sydney Chamber Choir, The Australian Voices, Gondwana Voices, Adelaide Chamber Singers, and many others. In 2024 Twist’s landmark LGBTQIA+ rights oratorio Watershed: The Death of Dr. Duncan received rave reviews following its Opera Australia season in the Sydney Opera House.
Twist has received wide acclaim for his music for film and television including the successful animated series Bluey, as well as arrangements and orchestrations for many major motion pictures produced in Hollywood. He has created music for many renowned international artists and ensembles such as Moby and The Wiggles.
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Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep |
A lovely setting of this beloved text by Mary Frye, which speaks comfort as it were, beyond the grave. For unaccompanied SATB choir, Joe Twist wrote it for Graeme Morton and the National Youth Choir of Australia. Highly recommended.
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Hombres, Victoria, Victoria (from Three Motets after Victoria) |
The third of Joseph Twist’s “Victoria Triptych”. Suitable for concert use, and liturgically especially at Christmas. The recording (below) is by the Choir of St James Church, King Street, Sydney. A pronunciation guide is also here.
Victory, mankind! Because against all of hell, The crying of a tender child ensures our glory. Available in the set of Three Motets after Victoria, found here – not available singly. |
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Lament |
New Digital Release – digital copies are now available from Morton Music, just email admin@mortonmusic.com for more details or from RSCM Music Direct (UK) via the Other Countries link. Lament is a piece for mixed choir and cello. The text comes from the 17th-century oratorio ‘Jephte’ by Giacomo Carissimi. The words are those of anguish, for Jephte promised to sacrifice the first thing he laid eyes upon if he returned victorious from war. He fulfilled this vow, even though this happened to be his only daughter.
The recording is of the Brisbane Chamber Choir, for whom the piece was written. The cellist is Gwyn Roberts.
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Lamentation of Jeremiah (from Three Motets after Victoria) |
The second of Joseph Twist’s “Victoria Triptych” this piece quotes from Victoria’s Lamentation, adding new modern elements clothed in a rich, plaintive harmonic language. Suitable for concert and liturgical use, and making musical references to Victoria’s Lamentations throughout. Available in the set of Three Motets after Victoria, linked here – not available singly.
To listen to Lamentation of Jeremiah on SoundCloud, click here. |
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On The Night Train |
Composer Joe Twist writes, On The Night Train sets the scene of a train dashing through the Australian bush at dusk, as described by Henry Lawson’s graceful poetry. The emptiness of the Australian outback is represented by long, sustained pitches in the opening and closing sections of the work, above which a simple, folk-like melody is sung. This melody is also used throughout a rhythmic contrasting section where the singers create the impression of a moving train with ‘scat-like’ nonsense syllables and whispered vocal effects.
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Rain Dream |
A highly imaginative choral piece for SSAA choir and piano. In it a young child who lives in the dry central Australian outback and has never seen rain dreams of what it would be like to be in a thunderstorm. The work eventually becomes a sort of rain dance with chanting of “Wandjina”, an Australian Aboriginal rain spirit. Recording by Gondwana Voices, January 2013 at Verbrugghen Hall (Conservatorium of Music in Sydney). |
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St James’ Service |
COMING SOON to Morton Music – digital copies will be available from Morton Music, just email admin@mortonmusic.com for more details or from RSCM Music Direct (UK) via the Other Countries link. St James’ Service – Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis Dedicated to Warren Trevelyan-Jones and the Choir of St James’, King Street, Sydney. This piece was commissioned by a Benefactor of St James’ Church, to celebrate the Bicentenary of St James’, the inauguration of the new Dobson pipe organ in St James’ Church and performed on the 24th July, 2024 to mark the Benefactor’s 75th birthday.
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Three Motets After Victoria (Victoria Triptych) |
New Digital Release – digital copies are now available from Morton Music, just email admin@mortonmusic.com for more details or from RSCM Music Direct (UK) via the Other Countries link. This “Victoria Triptych” was written in 2011, the 400th anniversary of the death of the great Spanish polyphonist, Thomas Luis de Victoria. For unaccompanied SATB choir, and with divided parts, these wonderful Latin motets remind us that the great motet tradition is still vibrant and flourishing. The individual titles are: Click the links above for score previews and recordings of each movement. Recordings feature the choir of St James King Street, Sydney (one of three commissioning choirs).
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Ubi Caritas |
New Digital Release – digital copies are now available from Morton Music, just email admin@mortonmusic.com for more details or from RSCM Music Direct (UK) via the Other Countries link. “Where charity and love are, God is there.” Composer Joseph Twist writes… A commemoration of Jesus Christ for Holy Thursday, for me, the Ubi Caritas has a few significant dimensions; the warmth of Christ’s love, the adoration and mystery of the holy spirit, and the idea of an ‘inclusive, universal’ celebration. Accordingly, my Ubi Caritas reflects this through contrasts in harmonic language, at times chromatic or mysterious, at other times diatonic or pentatonic, reflecting Christ’s love, as well as the influence of modal harmony from Eastern Europe and Africa. Similarly, contrasts in rhythm and texture are incorporated. The calm, sparse music which bookends the work is countered with rhythmic, syncopated music in a kind of ritualistic exultation.
To listen to Ubi Caritas on SoundCloud, click here. |
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Versa est in Luctum |
Number one of Twist’s “Victoria Triptych”. My harp is tuned for lamentation, and my flute to the voice of those who weep. Spare me, O Lord, for my days are as nothing (trans. Miguel Iglesias) Available in the set of Three Motets after Victoria, linked here – not available singly.
To listen to Versa est in Luctum on SoundCloud, click here. |
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Winchester Service |
New Digital Release – digital copies are now available from Morton Music, just email admin@mortonmusic.com for more details or from RSCM Music Direct (UK) via the Other Countries link. Winchester Service – Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis These canticles, suited for mixed voices and organ, premiered on May 6 2023 in the Winchester Cathedral. Joseph Twist comments, “It fascinates me that the words of the Magnificat were considered by some to be so radical that they were banned in some parts of the world. Believed to be the words of Mary, phrases like “filled the hungry,” “exalted the humble and meek” and “the rich sent empty away” resonate with me, and I believe they resonate with many people today just as they have for centuries, despite the bans. There is also a great sense of storytelling to the text, as these phrases take us from one idea to the next, ultimately offering a sense of peace and contentment, then reaffirmed by the uplifting words of the Nunc Dimittis. I’ve endeavoured to convey this story with music that rises and falls, contrasted by more static choral sonorities and underpinned by a gentle perpetuum mobile organ accompaniment. At the conclusion of each canticle, “Amen” takes us to a place that is vast, peaceful, and celestial. It is my hope that these canticles may offer a uniquely Australian response to a text that has echoed throughout churches and cathedrals for centuries. Winchester Cathedral Choir Recording of Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis – Conducted by Andrew Lumsden and Organist Claudi Grinnell Magnificat: Nunc Dimittis:
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