The Glitter Gang (1973–74): A Microcosm of Malcolm Williamson’s Views on Social Inclusivity and His Australian Identity

Abstract

This article combines new research into the life and musical output of Australian expatriate composer and nineteenth Master of the Queen's Music, Malcolm Williamson (1931–2003). Focusing on one of his ‘cassations’ (mini-operas) for musically untrained children, The Glitter Gang (1973–1974), new conclusions are drawn about how this often controversial composer developed a philosophy of inclusiveness and expressed it through his music. The Glitter Gang was one of the few works that Williamson wrote about his homeland, Australia, and the first in which he expressed his views pertaining to the rights of indigenous Australians. This article examines the context in which The Glitter Gang was composed and shows how he projected his Australian identity and attempted to influence political discussion through this intriguing musical work. Detailed analysis of the score reveals that it is a deeply sophisticated composition, especially considering its intended performers, and demonstrates how Williamson retained his unique compositional voice in the cassations. Significantly, this research shows that like other works which were rejected by Australian audiences and critics in the 1970s, The Glitter Gang can now be reappraised as an important and innovative Australian composition.

Notes

¹ Williamson’s cassations include The Moonrakers (1967), Knights in Shining Armour (1968), The Snow Wolf (1968), Genesis (1971), The Stone Wall (1971), The Winter Star (1973), The Glitter Gang (1973–1974), La Tèrre des Rois (The Terrain of the Kings, 1974), The Valley and the Hill (1977) and Le Pont du Diable (The Devil’s Bridge, 1982). Simon Campion, Draft of Malcolm Williamson, CBE, AO (1931–2003): Complete Catalogue (Royston: Campion Press, 2008).

² Malcolm Williamson, The Glitter Gang: A Cassation for Audience and Orchestra (Piano), Vocal Score (London: Josef Weinberger, 1975). The analyses included here examine the full score as well, also published by Josef Weinberger and accessed through Hal Leonard Australia, Melbourne. Malcolm Williamson, The Glitter Gang: Cassation for Audience and Orchestra (London: Josef Weinberger, 1974).

³ Peter Cole-Adams, ‘The Expatriates: Feted Abroad; Ignored at Home’, Age (24 June 1972), 10.

⁴ Williamson’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1964–1965) was commissioned by Menuhin and the Bath Festival Society and premiered by Menuhin and the Bath Festival Orchestra. The Partita for Viola on Themes of Walton (1972) was dedicated to and premiered by Menuhin.

⁵ Malcolm Williamson, ‘Conversation with Malcolm Williamson’, interview by Hazel de Berg, transcript of sound recording, 8 October 1967, National Library of Australia ORAL DeB 290.

⁶ Ibid. Williamson’s work as a night-club pianist exposed him to the popular tunes of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and Leonard Bernstein.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Many of Williamson’s works use serial techniques, but very few use a twelve-tone row, and the techniques themselves were adapted to suit other compositional processes.

⁹ Paul Jennings, ‘Music is for Everyone’, Radio Times (30 October 1976).

¹⁰ See Michael Barkl and Carolyn Philpott, ‘Williamson, Malcolm’, Grove Music Online (Accessed 4 November 2014), 〈http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/30359; and Carolyn Philpott, ‘The Master and the Media: Malcolm Williamson in the Press’, in Musical Islands: Exploring Connections Between Music, Place and Research, ed. Elizabeth Mackinlay, Brydie-Leigh Bartleet and Katelyn Barney (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), 157–88.

¹¹ Josef Weinberger, Malcolm Williamson: (Born 1931): A Catalogue to Celebrate the Composer’s 50^th Birthday (London: Josef Weinberger, 1981), v.

¹² Malcolm Williamson, quoted in Jennings, ‘Music is for Everyone’. See Malcolm Williamson, Procession of Palms (London: Josef Weinberger, 1962).

¹³ Malcolm Williamson, Peace Pieces (London: Josef Weinberger, 1972); and Campion, ‘Draft of Malcolm Williamson’.

¹⁴ Deborah Smith, ‘Master Musick’, National Times (11 July 1982), 17.

¹⁵ Following on from this, Williamson composed With Proud Thanksgiving (1995) for orchestra to celebrate fifty years of the United Nations and dedicated this work to the former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson (1916–1995). Williamson also expressed his concern for the natural environment through several compositions, including his Symphony No. 3 (The Icy Mirror, 1972) for soprano, mezzo-soprano, two baritones, chorus and orchestra, which sets a specially commissioned dramatic poem by Ursula Vaughan Williams that explores themes relating to the despoliation of nature, and through his protest over the damming of the Franklin River in Tasmania, which had ramifications for the project to record and broadcast his Symphony No. 6 in 1982. See Belinda Kendall-Smith, ‘Pitch Processes in the Major Symphonies of Malcolm Williamson’ (PhD thesis, University of Queensland, 1994), 162–3; and Carolyn Philpott, ‘Sacrificing a Symphony: Malcolm Williamson’s Protest Against the Franklin Dam and the Implications for the World’s First “Transcontinental” Symphony’, Social Alternatives 33/1 (2014): 7–15.

¹⁶ See Philpott, ‘Master and the Media’, 180.

¹⁷ He also wrote pieces for student ensembles, such as Symphony No. 7 (1984) for string orchestra.

¹⁸ Each book is named after a famous city: Sydney, Naples, London, Paris and New York, respectively. See Carolyn Philpott, ‘An Australian Composer Abroad: Malcolm Williamson and the Projection of an Australian Identity’ (PhD thesis, University of Tasmania, 2010), 134–52.

¹⁹ Malcolm Williamson, Travel Diaries: Sydney (London: Chappell, 1962).

²⁰ For example, Julius Caesar Jones (1965) includes five principal roles for children to perform. See Malcolm Williamson, Julius Caesar Jones (London: Josef Weinberger, 1965). See also Malcolm Williamson, The Happy Prince (London: Josef Weinberger, 1965) and Malcolm Williamson, The Red Sea (London: Josef Weinberger, 1972), which are children’s operas that were written for specialist music groups and not intended to be part of the cassations.

²¹ William Littler, ‘Australian Composer’s Work Carries Impact’, Toronto Star (10 February 1971).

²² Williamson quoted in Michael Oliver, ‘Here and There’, no source or date given, 1012, available from Josef Weinberger archive, London (Accessed 26 June 2006).

²³ Malcolm Williamson, ‘English Sinfonia 1978–79’ pamphlet, available from Josef Weinberger archive, London (Accessed 26 June 2006).

²⁴ Williamson stated: ‘When my own three children were small I made tiny little operas for them with tiny little stories, with chairs and table as scenery—pieces lasting only five or six minutes. The first was called The Snow Wolf and I have used it in my work ever since’. Dorle Soria, ‘Malcolm Williamson: The Master of the Queen’s Musick is a Man of “Unexpected Passions”’, Musical America (October 1984) 6–8 and 34–5.

²⁵ The Stone Wall (1971) premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, while The Glitter Gang itself premiered at the Sydney Town Hall.

²⁶ Williamson, Glitter Gang (1975), 14. The Valley and The Hill (1977), commissioned for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, is Williamson’s least typical cassation because it was designed to be performed by hundreds of school children in the streets of Liverpool and has a duration of about an hour, meaning that the given definition of ‘one hour to rehearse’ does not apply.

²⁷ Ian Lawrence, Composers and the Nature of Music Education (London: Scolar Press, 1978).

²⁸ See James Humberstone, ‘Cassations: Malcolm Williamson’s Operas for Musically-untrained Children’ (PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, 2013), 9–10. This has implications not only in learned music ability but also in physical restrictions such as vocal range. See Clifford K. Madsen and Katia Madsen, ‘Perception and Cognition in Music: Musically Trained and Untrained Adults Compared to Sixth-grade and Eighth-grade Children’, Journal of Research in Music Education 50/2 (2002), 111–130; Patricia J. Flowers, ‘Music Vocabulary of First-grade Children: Words Listed for Instruction and Their Actual Use’, Journal of Research in Music Education 46/1 (1998), 5–15; Mary Goetze, Nancy Cooper and Carol J. Brown, ‘Recent Research on Singing in the General Music Classroom’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 104 (1990), 16–37; G.F Welch, ‘Singing and Vocal Development’, in The Child as Musician, ed. Gary McPherson (London: Oxford University Press, 2006), 311–330; and Gerhard Böhme and Gisela Stuchlik, ‘Voice Profiles and Standard Voice Profile of Untrained Children’, Journal of Voice 9/3 (1995), 304–307.

²⁹ Hugo Cole, ‘Children's Opera’, Grove Music Online (Accessed 29 May 2009), 〈http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/O901058.

³⁰ Genesis (1971) includes percussion parts, and The Winter Star (1972) has six vocal parts and percussion/keyboard parts. The Valley and The Hill has a dozen parts.

³¹ For more detail, see Humberstone, ‘Cassations’, 121–2.

³² F. Wuyts et al., ‘Normative Voice Range Profiles of Untrained Boys and Girls’, Journal of Voice 16/4 (2002), 460–465.

³³ Belinda Kendall-Smith identified similar procedures in Williamson’s First and Third Symphonies. See Kendall-Smith, ‘Pitch Processes’, 80 and 323.

³⁴ Payne described this stylistic inconsistency as ‘a bewilderingly varied experience, represented in a bewilderingly eclectic manner’. Anthony Payne, ‘Review: Malcolm Williamson's Second Symphony’, Tempo 91 (1969), 22–25.

³⁵ The Glitter Gang itself received several more high-profile performances in addition to the many classroom performances it received. See Jill Margo, ‘Why Life is Movement to the Musick Master’, Sydney Morning Herald (18 March 1983), 40; W.L. Hoffmann, ‘Courtauld recital series begins on Sunday’, Canberra Times (8 June 1984), 15; and Kenneth Hince, ‘Symphony Series is Timely’, Age Melbourne (25 March 1991), 14. While the cassations did draw some negative press, they drew much that was positive. In ‘Composer Tries Out Music on his Children’ (Sydney: Australian Music Centre), Mollie Lyons wrote ‘So successful is he with his children’s pieces that he was mobbed by hundreds of youngsters when his work “The Moonrakers” was performed for the first time at the Brighton (England) Festival.’

³⁶ Williamson even had most of the cassations’ texts translated into languages other than English (primarily French and German), in order to make the works accessible to an even larger number of people. Two of the cassations (La Tèrre des Rois and Le Pont du Diable) were, in fact, originally written in French and were later translated into English by the composer. Simon Campion, email message to Carolyn Philpott, 25 September 2014.

³⁷ Malcolm Williamson quoted in Jill Sykes, ‘Composer Bangs the Big Drum’, Advertiser (18 August 1973), 27.

³⁸ Malcolm Williamson, Abbotsford, Victoria, to Marion Foote and family, NSW, Australia, 20 July 1982, available from Papers of Malcolm Williamson, National Library of Australia MS Acc04/159; and Michael Barkl, ‘Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Accessed 24 June 2014), 〈http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/89839.

³⁹ Jill Margo, ‘Why Life is Movement’.

⁴⁰ Malcolm Williamson, ‘The Search for Tactile Response to Music in the Non-verbal Child’, paper presented to and published by the British Society for Music Therapy (2 February 1984).

⁴¹ For example, it is consistent with Daniel Stern’s ‘Affect Attunement’, which underpins the musical interactions of current practising music therapists. Daniel N. Stern, ‘Vitality Contours: The Temporal Contour of Feelings as a Basic Unit for Constructing the Infant’s Social Experience’, Early Social Cognition: Understanding Others in the First Months of Life (Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999), 67–80.

⁴² See Tim McDonald, ‘Controversial Composer Out of Tune with the Establishment’, Guardian (Accessed 23 March 2016) (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/mar/04/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries).

⁴³ Malcolm Williamson quoted in Phillip Truckenbrod, ‘Aussie Composer Writes for Multi-Faceted Man’, Music in Jersey, no date given, available from Josef Weinberger archive, London.

⁴⁴ Malcolm Williamson quoted in Jennings, ‘Music is for Everyone’.

⁴⁵ Melbourne Sun (January 1962).

⁴⁶ Thérèse Radic, ‘Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson’, The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, ed. Warren Bebbington (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997), 592.

⁴⁷ Malcolm Williamson quoted in ‘Malcolm Williamson Castaway by Roy Plomley’, broadcast 12 June 1976 (Accessed 19 August 2013), 〈http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway.

⁴⁸ ‘Malcolm Williamson on Writing Music’, Times (19 August 1965); and Philpott, ‘An Australian Composer Abroad’, 131.

⁴⁹ Malcolm Williamson quoted in ‘Success for Australian Composer’, The West Australian (11 November 1966).

⁵⁰ Carolyn Philpott, liner notes for Williamson: The Complete Piano Concertos, Piers Lane

(piano), Howard Shelley (conductor and piano) and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Hyperion Records CDA68011/2, 2014, CD, 3.

⁵¹ In Malcolm Williamson: A Mischievous Muse, Meredith and Harris assert that The Glitter Gang was premiered in the same concert as a performance of Williamson’s Third Symphony (The Icy Mirror); however, in actual fact The Icy Mirror was performed on 14 February 1974 as part of the first of the five concerts scheduled during the 1974 Sydney Proms series, whereas The Glitter Gang was not heard until the final night of the Proms on 23 February. Anthony Meredith and Paul Harris, Malcolm Williamson: A Mischievous Muse (London: Omnibus Press, 2007), 262; Lindsey Browne, ‘Proms Spark a Guessing Game’, Sydney Morning Herald (6 January 1974), 60; and Roger Covell, ‘Light Finish to Proms’, Sydney Morning Herald (26 February 1974), 7.

⁵² Malcolm Williamson, Hertfordshire, to Bessie Williamson, Australia, 20 February 1985, available from Papers of Malcolm Williamson, National Library of Australia MS Acc04/159.

⁵³ This is evident in his letters held at the National Library of Australia, MS Acc04/159.

⁵⁴ Meredith and Harris, Malcolm Williamson, 258. Hazel Reader was Chairperson of the 1967 Canberra Spring Festival Committee and the Festival had witnessed Williamson conducting his first cassation, The Moonrakers (1967) for audience and orchestra, to great success. See Roger Covell, ‘A Tiny Work of Joy’, Sydney Morning Herald (3 October 1967).

⁵⁵ Campion, ‘Draft of Malcolm Williamson’.

⁵⁶ See Philpott, ‘An Australian Composer Abroad’, 369–70.

⁵⁷ Williamson, Glitter Gang (1975).

⁵⁸ Williamson, Glitter Gang (1975), preface.

⁵⁹ Philpott, ‘An Australian Composer Abroad’, 243.

⁶⁰ See Henry Reynolds, The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European Invasion of Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006), 187–9; Fred Cahir, Black Gold: Aboriginal People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850–1870 (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2012) (Accessed 20 October 2014), 〈http://press.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/Black+Gold/9891/ch01.html#toc_marker-3; Michael Cannon, Black Land, White Land (Melbourne: Minerva, 1993), 1–2, 247 and 250; and Stuart Macintyre, A Concise History of Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 86–7.

⁶¹ See, for example, Henry Reynolds, Aborigines and Settlers: The Australian Experience, 1788–1939 (North Melbourne: Cassell, 1972); Henry Reynolds, Frontier: Aborigines, Settlers and Land (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987); Henry Reynolds, Dispossession: Black Australians and White Invaders (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989); and Cannon, Black Land, White Land.

⁶² It is apparent from Williamson’s letters that he had an ongoing interest in Australian literature and had stayed in touch with issues pertinent to Australians through journals such as Quadrant. Papers of Malcolm Williamson, National Library of Australia MS Acc04/159.

⁶³ Cole-Adams, ‘The Expatriates’.

⁶⁴ Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (Sydney: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Commonwealth of Australia, 1997), 22 (https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/bringing-them-home-stolen).

⁶⁵ Ibid., 22–9.

⁶⁶ Ibid., 29.

⁶⁷ Larissa Behrendt, ‘The 1967 Referendum: 40 Years On’, Australian Indigenous Law Review 11 (2007), 12.

⁶⁸ John Chesterman, ‘Defending Australia's Reputation: How Indigenous Australians Won Civil Rights, Part Two’, Australian Historical Studies 32/117 (2001), 213.

⁶⁹ For example, the establishment of the Aboriginal tent embassy in 1972: see Gregory Cowan, ‘Collapsing Australian Architecture: The Aboriginal Tent Embassy’, Journal of Australian Studies 25/67 (2001), 30–6. Also, later, Whitlam’s ‘hand back’ to Lingiari in 1975: see Jenny Hocking, ‘Post-war Reconstruction and the New World Order: The Origins of Gough Whitlam’s Democratic Citizen’, Australian Journal of Politics & History 53/2 (2007), 223–35; and Alfred Michael Dockery, ‘Culture and Wellbeing: The Case of Indigenous Australians’, Social Indicators Research 99/2 (2010), 315–32.

⁷⁰ A.E. Woodward, Aboriginal Land Rights Commission. First Report July 1973 (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 1973); and A.E. Woodward, Aboriginal Land Rights Commission. Second Report April 1974 (Canberra: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1974).

⁷¹ Woodward, Aboriginal Land Rights Commission. Second Report, 131–2.

⁷² Malcolm Williamson, ‘A Composer’s Heritage’, Composer (Spring 1966), 71–2.

⁷³ As pianist Antony Gray writes, ‘[The Glitter Gang] was to be one of the earliest sympathetic statements on Aboriginal land rights. It was written to be performed in Australia, in full knowledge of the political climate’. Antony Gray, liner notes for Malcolm Williamson: Complete Works for Piano, Antony Gray (piano), ABC Classics 472902-2, 2003, CD.

⁷⁴ Humberstone, ‘Cassations’, 78–87.

⁷⁵ See Kendall-Smith, ‘Pitch Processes’, 13. In addition to the analysis of Kendall-Smith mentioned here, see Phillip Gearing, ‘Malcolm Williamson’s Organ Symphony: An Analysis of Serial Technique’ (Master’s thesis, University of Southern Queensland, 1989); and Stephen Walsh, ‘Williamson the Many-sided’, Music and Musicians 13/2 (1964–1965), 26–9 and 55.

⁷⁶ The following information was recorded: the key or mode of each section (if unclear or highly chromatic, this is noted), harmony, any use of modulation, metre, phrase length, tessitura of each part and overall range. Given that Williamson’s ambition to write for musically untrained children is core to the composition of this repertoire, other musical elements (such as use of ostinato, sequence and instrumental doubling) that would aid a young performer were also noted. While rhythmic features were noted, there is little use of syncopation in any of the cassations.

⁷⁷ See Philpott, ‘An Australian Composer Abroad’, 185–238; and Amanda Card, ‘Violence, Vengeance and Violation: “The Display,” A “Powerful Dramatic Work, Intended to be Very Australian”’, Australasian Music Research 4 (1999), 77–94.

⁷⁸ This is a similar technique to the bitonality Williamson utilized in the cassation Genesis. See Humberstone, ‘Cassations’, 70 and 73.

⁷⁹ This is consistent with other sections where vocal doubling is missing in the published version with piano reduction: at letters D and E the undoubled vocal lines in the Australians’ and Europeans’ parts are doubled in the original orchestration, just as the Outlaws’ line is at letter Q and the Australians’ line before letter T. Williamson, Glitter Gang (1974).

⁸⁰ Williamson, Glitter Gang (1975), i.

⁸¹ Glenn E. Schellenberg, ‘Simplifying the Implication–Realization Model of Melodic Expectancy’, Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14/3 (1997), 295–318.

⁸² Eugene Narmour, The Analysis and Cognition of Melodic Complexity: The Implication–Realization Model (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

⁸³ See Humberstone, ‘Cassations’.

⁸⁴ Schellenberg, ‘Simplifying the Implication–Realization Model’, 309.

⁸⁵ Humberstone, ‘Cassations’, 45. Operas for adults by Williamson that were analysed for comparison include The Growing Castle (1968), The Happy Prince (1965) and Julius Caesar Jones (1965).

⁸⁶ Schellenberg, ‘Simplifying the Implication–Realization Model’, 311.

⁸⁷ Narmour, Analysis and Cognition of Melodic Complexity.

⁸⁸ Carol L. Krumhansl, ‘Music Psychology and Music Theory: Problems and Prospects’, Music Theory Spectrum 17/1 (1995), 53–80.

⁸⁹ Covell, ‘Light Finish to Proms’. Covell also rather appropriately describes The Glitter Gang as an ‘Australian ecological parable’ in this review.

⁹⁰ Hince, ‘Symphony Series is Timely’.

⁹¹ Ibid.

⁹² For example, Carolyn Raney observed in 1973: ‘Williamson is far too skilled a composer to write in banalities just because he is writing for non-musicians. … Musically then, his mini-operas are absolute gems. Educationally they are skilled evocations of scripture and drama to draw even the most inept student into an artistic experience. There is a third factor in the successes of Malcolm Williamson—his rare wit. With gentle humor, his works on a child’s level can also attract and hold the interest of a sophisticated audience’. Carolyn Raney, ‘Malcolm Williamson’, The A.G.O.-R.C.C.O. Magazine (February 1973), 36–9.

⁹³ John Lade, ‘Williamson Travels’, The Musical Times 103/1438 (1962), 858.

⁹⁴ See Philpott, ‘An Australian Composer Abroad’, 273–91.

⁹⁵ These are The True Endeavour (1988) and The Dawn is at Hand (1989). See Philpott, ‘An Australian Composer Abroad’, 294–343; Philpott, ‘Master and the Media’, 157–88; and Philpott, ‘Sacrificing a Symphony’, 7–15.

⁹⁶ Barkl and Philpott, ‘Williamson, Malcolm’; and Philpott, liner notes for Williamson: The Complete Piano Concertos, 4.

⁹⁷ For example, Chandos has released a new series of recordings dedicated to Williamson’s orchestral music (CHAN 10359, 2006; and CHAN 10406, 2007), Naxos has produced a compact disc of Williamson’s choral music (NAXOS 8.557783, 2006), Lyrita has re-released two recordings of orchestral and piano music with the composer as soloist (Lyrita SRCD.280, 2007; and Lyrita SRCD.281, 2007) and Hyperion has released a new double CD set of Williamson’s complete piano concertos (CDA68011/2, 2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carolyn Philpott

Carolyn Philpott is a research coordinator and lecturer in Musicology at the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Music, within the Tasmanian College of the Arts. Her research focuses on twentieth-century music and intersections between music, place and the environment. She has published articles in leading scholarly journals in the fields of music and polar studies, including Organized Sound, Popular Music, The Polar Journal and Polar Record, and she has contributed to articles published in New Grove Online (Oxford Music Online) and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. She is current Secretary of the Tasmanian Chapter of the Musicological Society of Australia, a position she has held since the Chapter's formation in 2007.

James Humberstone

James Humberstone is a lecturer in Music Education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of Sydney. His output ranges from analytical and musicological work on experimental music and music for children to research in music education, especially around the use of technology. He recently contributed a chapter to the new OUP Handbook of Technology and Music Education, launched by the University of Sydney's first MOOC “The Place of Music in 21st Century Education”, and has an even bigger non-traditional research output as a regularly commissioned composer for children and professionals alike.