The Magazine of St Aloysius' College â¢ 'Men for Others' â¢ Issue XLVII ...

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drama (cont'd) James Fitzgerald as Hamlet the Great Dane. Samuel Morrison performs his version of Othello the Moor of Venice. The Complete Works of Shakespeare – Abridged The Year 11, 2008 production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare – Abridged proved to be an immense success. Combining the talents of the director, Mrs Heidi Quinn, and half of the 2008 Year 11 Drama class, culminated in a three-night run of entertainment and laughs. The difficulty of the play’s physical demands and the orchestration of a large cast were soon overshadowed by the (surprising) co-operation of all cast members. Adrian Forrest utilised his comic abilities when portraying Juliet, Tybalt and a rapper. Similarly, Charlie Newton manifested his powerful voice when capturing the audience in the opening scene, as well as through many costume changes. Alexander Cubis provided a running commentary on the production through his character of The Narrator. As a different cast of three was involved for each of the different portrayals of Shakespeare’s plays – ranging from Romeo and Juliet to Julius Caesar – the audience experienced the offerings of the College’s dramatic powerhouses. Samuel Morrison was a crowd favourite, portraying both a rap artist and a crazed gridiron player. Sean Hurley and Jonas Tobias displayed their ability for comic timing and slapstick performance to make even the simplest lines amusing. This was continued with the American speaking Ciaran Tobin who managed to speak with a ‘perfect Scottish accent’ as the ill-fated Macbeth. The conclusion of the performance was marked each night with an abridged version of Hamlet which contained puppets, swords, water and lots of props. James Fitzgerald was convincing as the Prince of Denmark, Joseph McKenzie debuted with a major role in a drama production and Nicholas Plummer surviving a dozen or so costume changes in five minutes. With the combination of quick pace, energy, action, confidence, enthusiasm and of course, humour, The Complete Works of Shakespeare – Abridged set a high standard. Deserved congratulations must go to everyone involved and in particular to Mrs. Quinn for surviving the rehearsal process with all of us. Alexander Cubis (Year 11) “Shakespeare didn't write Hamlet did he?” Performing Macbeth, the cursed play. St Aloysius’ College A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 aloysiad / page 40
Joel Vouzakis and the ‘Overture for Australian Youth’ Joel Vouzakis (SAC 2007). Recently Joel Vouzakis (SAC 2007) was awarded First Place in The National Songwriting Competition for Secondary Schools sponsored by the Australian Children’s Music Foundation. Joel’s composition entitled Overture for Australian Youth was chosen from a field of several thousand entries from across the country as the best instrumental composition in the Open Age Division. High praise was heaped upon the work by the panel of judges. This is a great honour for Joel who is pleased to receive the $750 in prize money (with an equal amount to be donated to the College Music Department). These funds will be used to establish an annual St Aloysius’ College Composition Competition. The College congratulates Joel on his win! What follows is a fascinating insight into the creative process of one of our musicians. The account is written by Joel’s father, Mr Tasso Vouzakis, and backgrounds the musical success of his talented son and the process of composing the winning piece. Joel was raised surrounded by music: everything from Renaissance Dance to Elvis Costello. Even as a baby he would happily eat only while listening to Clannad. With an obvious musical aptitude he has become an accomplished pianist, playing double bass for the College Orchestra. Joel is also pretty handy with guitar. Multi-skilled, he typically plays electric bass when ‘jamming’ with his musical friends. The College Music Programme offered Joel many musical opportunities from instrumental lessons to ensembles and music tours, and a great class room music programme. Joel naturally took advantage of this wealth of offerings. He studied Music as an elective subject and went on to HSC Music Course 2 and Extension Music in the 2007 HSC. Joel demonstrated an early natural aptitude for composition utilising the computer, music keyboard and various forms of software. When given his first version of Sibelius (notation computer software) it was soon obvious that composition would become one of his great musical strengths. The opportunity to enter a national composition competition occurred in mid 2007 and Joel thought that he might have a chance; his music teachers had all praised his skills in this area. He had the experience and the skills. Intrigued by the interplay of different instruments, Joel has always been thrilled by the different sounds which an orchestra can produce. He decided to enter the section of the competition which would allow him to write for a full symphony orchestra. When asked what he likes about the art of music composition, Joel’s answer is telling: “It gives me the chance to produce a tangible version of what I hear in my head”. So Joel approached the task of writing this piece as if it were something akin to a film score. (This is an area which he would like to explore after his studies). Joel decided to write a piece called ‘Overture to Australian Youth’. The idea of a piece in the style of a film score gave him the vehicle to express numerous ‘youth’ themes in the one work. This meant he could imagine various ‘scenes’ in the music as if in a movie and write a score that supported and reflected each of these. In the end, the original work contained so many scenes and themes that it became too long and had to be edited. As with life in general, Joel notes that his ‘Overture to Australian Youth’ encompasses the full range of emotions: the hope of setting out in life, the beautiful ideals and heroic vision for the future, the energy and motivation, the inevitable romantic connection, the disappointments and recovery, and the buoyancy of success in achieving of personal goals. Joel notes that dealing with so many instruments in the orchestra presents its own set of challenges and opportunities, something that he finds particularly exciting and motivating. “All of these instruments have not only to play in harmony but they have to work together. That is, not just playing different parts which are a third apart but you need to either change the rhythm or play in contrary motion with the pitch.” He notes, “I selectively chose the instruments and their combinations in order to achieve a timbre or sound quality suitable to the theme being developed. For example, it was important for the number of the brass (instruments) to be balanced with the amount of woodwind. Otherwise it would have overwhelmed and skewed the effect away from what was needed.” “Because of the large scale of the work, it was actually difficult to keep in harmony given the number of different instruments operating... especially the large homophonic chords that were being produced with so many sections playing at once. Within that, a further difficulty was encountered in having to change harmonies around in order to achieve variety, for example, moving in contrary motion.” Finally, when commenting on his approach to composition Joel notes, “For me, I’m interested in chord progressions and harmonies. These seem to come first and relatively easily, the melody which is typically implied comes afterwards.” It all sounds so simple when you know how. The depth of the talent of our music boys never ceases to inspire. We wish Joel the very best for his obviously very bright future in music composition. Mr Michael Hissey Director of Music St Aloysius’ College A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 aloysiad / page 41
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Page 9 and 10: number of initiatives have been pla
Page 11 and 12: junior school sport Magis and Gonza
Page 13 and 14: Chia (Year 3) and Nicholas Agosta (
Page 15 and 16: from the senior school Smiles of Ho
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Page 23 and 24: 2020 Summit, Canberra 19 and 20 Apr
Page 25 and 26: senior school sport Summer Season R
Page 27 and 28: Grammar School team. Other teams th
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Page 31 and 32: Part of the Aloysius’ crowd at th
Page 33 and 34: Nicholas Plummer, Harry Power and M
Page 35 and 36: The production of Tommy proved to b
Page 37 and 38: The Three Tommys (Peter Slaven, Joh
Page 39: stuffed in a fridge for a third of
Page 43 and 44: almost thrown to our own devices to
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Page 49 and 50: 9B: David McClatchey (SAC 2006) 9C:
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Page 55 and 56: win on Sovereign and Line Honours i

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