Transformations behind the scenes

Transformations will be the sixth album released on the VDB's own in-house recording label.

Established in 2025, the VDB label is our creative home for our expanding discography and digital activity. It allows us to share music on our own terms, directly with listeners who care deeply about historically informed performance, artistic excellence and bold musical storytelling.

VDB Artistic Director, Julia Fredersdorff, writes:

"Transformations was conceived working alongside bass-baritone Andrew O'Connor, as a dialogue between the devotional music of 17th-century Germany and two newly commissioned works that reimagine and recontextualize this rich musical heritage. 

At the heart of the album lies a carefully curated selection of works for baritone by 17th Century German composers such as Heinrich Schütz, Franz Tunder, Nicolaus Bruhns, and Dieterich Buxtehude—composers whose music explores profound themes of faith, readiness, and human vulnerability.

We have invited two extraordinary Australian composers to create contemporary responses to this baroque repertoire: 

Brooke Shelley's work Et Versa Est Victoria takes Schütz's deeply moving Fili mi, Absalom—a father's lament for his son—as its point of departure. Shelley's piece begins in close conversation with Schütz before dissolving into entirely new musical territory, embodying the very concept of transformation that gives the program its name. 

Alice Chance's Au Nord draws on a more philosophical inspiration from one of the program's central works, Mein Herz ist bereit (My heart is ready), exploring the tension between preparedness and the unexpected paths life presents and our courage to keep searching for things that may be difficult to attain.

In curating Transformations, Andrew and I have shaped the program as a journey through multiple dimensions of change. We move chronologically from the 17th century into the present, whilst the tonal and textural landscape shifts from the introspective gravity of the opening works toward the brighter, more optimistic character of the second half. This gradual transformation in instrumentation and affect creates an overarching arc that mirrors the individual transformations within each commissioned piece—whether textual, musical, or philosophical. 

The result is an album that is itself a transformation, offering listeners a meditation on how we inherit, honour, and reimagine the artistic voices of the past."

I was thrilled to be asked to write a companion piece to a work by Heinrich Schütz. Why? First of all, German baroque music is stunning - especially the vocal music (I’m a little biased). Secondly, writing companion pieces to renaissance/baroque music is an indulgent privilege - learning directly from the masters themselves - like opening the back cover of a work of art composed hundreds of years ago to see what’s inside; rather akin to when I was young and used to pull calculators apart to see how they were made.

Schütz’s Fili mi Absalom is a setting of a mournful, grieving text from the second book of Samuel (Chapter 18, verse 33). Rather than try to put a positive spin on this, I chose to set text following on in Chapter 19, verse 2: And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people: for the people heard say that day: The king grieveth for his son. 

In continuing along the grief curve, I tried to make the music wallow in mourning and crying (hence the descending ‘flowing tears’), anger and disbelief, finally moving to acceptance via harmonic repetition and a clichéd ending. 

Harmonic repetition – a chord pattern, if you like – for me creates a sense of calm. The repetition enables you to know what’s coming. The clichéd ending – something I usually try to avoid, if possible – is an attempt the illustrate the fact that we all know how it ends – in death. And hopefully it’s a tidy one at that: V-I!

Au Nord is a piece about yearning. When Julia Fredersdorff approached me with the idea to record a new work alongside the Buxtehude cantata Mein herz ist bereit, with text from the Psalm meaning ‘my heart is ready’, it prompted me to reflect on situations where our heart is ready for something and yet, for whatever reason, we don’t get it.

In late 2025, I was very fortunate to undertake the All That We Are residency thanks to the Peggy Glanville Hicks Trust. I set aside the week to compose this piece. Unable to resist the beauty and drama of the surrounding landscape, I found I spent a lot more time trudging through the bush than at the studio desk. While walking on paths like the Tangara trail, I could often see the sparkling Pipe Clay Lagoon through the trees. However, as much as I wanted to go there, the paths remained stubbornly parallel. Seeing those aquamarine hues through the scraggly cage of layered tree branches, I found I had been given the perfect parallel for the yearning I wanted to express in the music.

We all follow paths which are perfectly sensible and deemed right by our entourage. Much of the time, following these paths leads to attaining many of our society’s indicators of success. We ‘head north’ in the widely accepted sense. But perhaps there is another north. A truer, more personal one, belonging to an inner compass. Perhaps it’s one we’d prefer to ignore, thereby avoiding the risk of heartbreak if we can’t get there.

In terms of the lagoon, I did eventually get there and dip my fingers in the cold, crystal water. I relished my time at the edge, watching birds and collecting oyster shells. The scene was all the more beautiful for the many unsuccessful attempts I’d made to get there.

I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Julia and Van Diemen’s Band, as well as the inimitable Andrew O’Connor who have been so open to my ideas and the spirit of the work. This is my first time writing for piccolo violin and I can’t imagine a better instrument to evoke those hyperreal, luminous glimmers I saw through the trees.

Van Diemen’s Band is supported by Arts Tasmania. Commissioned works by Alice Chance and Brooke Shelley were supported by Create NSW / NSW Government. Alice Chance's work was developed with the kind assistance of the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Trust and All That We Are.

The Transformations album will be produced with the generous support of our donor community. If you'd like to support the album creation, please visit our campaign page to find out more.