Philip Bračanin

Australian composer and musicologist

Bračanin's studio in Brisbane, Australia

Philip Bračanin is an Australian of Croatian parentage. From the age of six, he received piano lessons, and subsequently studied music and mathematics at the University of Western Australia, where he was awarded MA and PhD degrees for analytical studies of contemporary music. Emeritus Professor Bračanin retired in 2008 from the University of Queensland, where for nine years he was the Dean of the Faculty of Music, and for ten years, Head of the School of Music.

His music has been recorded in Australia, Germany, Finland, and in the former Yugoslavia, and performed in Australia, Europe, Korea, Malaysia, Canada and the USA.

Bračanin’s concerto for guitar described by Gramophone as “a superb neo-classical Guitar Concerto” received the 1995 APRA Music Award for the most performed contemporary classical composition.

Included amongst Bračanin’s works are numerous chamber pieces (including three string quartets), solo song cycles with both piano and orchestral accompaniments, choral works, concerti for piano, violin, viola, cello, oboe, clarinet, trombone, guitar, didjeridu, two double concertos, one for guitar and oboe, and the other for guitar and vibraphone/marimba and two for orchestra. He has also written twelve symphonies, including a choral symphony (Symphony No. 2), which is included in the ABC's The Classic 100 Symphony set of Australia's favourite symphonies.

In 1988 Bračanin was composer in residence at the Anglo-Australian Music Festival in Birmingham, England. In 1991, he fulfilled a similar role at the Bournemouth International Festival, at which two of his works were performed, including a festival commission. In May 1995, his first Symphony was premiered by the Pusan Philharmonic Orchestra in Busan, Korea, and in September his Choral Symphony (Symphony No. 2) was premiered. Additionally, in 1995 his Guitar Concerto won the APRA Award for the best Australian Classical Composition. In 2014 he was composer in residence at the Rottingdean Spring Music Festival, Brighton, England where three works were performed and his oboe concerto Shades of Autumn, was premiered.

Philip Bračanin’s scores are available worldwide via the Australian Music Centre.

You can contact Philip directly by email at the following address:
p.bracanin@uq.edu.au

Bračanin's guitar concerto "is a remarkable work that might have been composed by some Soviet-era protégé of Prokofiev."

Alistair Noble, 2015, ABC Classics

"Philip Bračanin is one of Australia's greatest composers."

Tzadik, Blogger

"I find that this music can transport you to a world of bright sunlight, wide landscapes and a riot of colours."

Readings.com.au

"Bračanin, who always seems so fascinated by time, demonstrates superbly here his musical gift, which is perhaps to make that very same time stand still."

"Choral" Symphony - Blogspot Review

"The Bračanin is the treat here, and Tyrell shines on this showcase, giving a tricky piece a bright, clear reading with plenty of melodic beauty (not easy!)."

Amazon (U.S.) Review

"5 out of 5 stars - Don't miss this recording."

Amazon (U.S.) Review

Symphony #2 "Choral"

Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Brisbane Chorale

Werner Andreas Albert, Conductor

Margaret Schindler, Soprano

Movement 1 - Andante con tempo rubato

Duration - 12'46

Guitar Concerto

Karin Schaupp, Guitar

Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Ronald Spigelman, Conductor

Movement 3 - Allegro vivace

Duration - 5'31

Clarinet Concerto

Floyd Williams, Clarinet

Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Richard Mills, Conductor

Movement 2 - Allegro assai

Duration - 9'12

Violin Concerto

Dene Olding, Violin

Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Stuart Challender, Conductor

Movement 3 - Allegro molto

Duration - 4'08

Trombone Concerto

Warwick Tyrrell, Trombone

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas Braithwaite, Conductor

Movement 1 - Allegro assai

Duration - 3'40

Movement 2 - Lento doloroso

Duration - 3'51

Centenary Overture

Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Werner Andreas Albert, Conductor

Allegro vivace

Duration - 10'43

Concertino for Piano and Strings

Gergely Boganyi, Piano

Kapubandi Orchestra Helsinki

Benjamin Vary, Conductor

Allegro assai

Duration - 3'30

Andante doloroso

Duration - 5'08

Allegro assai

Duration - 6'08

Cello Concerto

Tibor Boganyi, Cello

Kapubandi Orchestra Helsinki

Benjamin Vary, Conductor

Movement 1 - Andante cantabile e grazioso

Duration - 8'33

Tre Effetti Musicale

Outi Svoboda, Flute

Paul Svoboda, Guitar

Movement 1 - Allegro assai

Duration - 2'37

Movement 2 - Lento doloroso e lusinganda e tempo rubato

Duration - 4'16

Movement 3 - Allegro vivace

Duration - 1'59

This is my double concerto for guitar and marimba/vibraphone composed for Craig Ogden (guitarist) and Paul Tanner (percussionist).

This video is a performance by Jonathan Fitzgerald and Paul Tanner with the Perth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sara Duhig in 2022.

This is the second oboe concerto I have written. The first was commissioned by Anthony Camden, former principal oboe of the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 2003, the German conductor Werner Andreas Albert, approached me to write a concerto for oboist Lajos Lencses and double winds chamber orchestra.

In 2014, a reworked version with string orchestra was premiered at the Rottingdean Festival, England with oboist Alun Darbyshire and the English Concert Orchestra.

It was recorded in November 2022 with Oboist Anne Gilby and the strings of the Perth Symphony Orchestra directed by Sara Duhig.

Dance Gundah is a concerto wherein cultures combine. It brings together the primeval earthiness of the didjeridu, nurtured through an oral tradition of some forty thousand years, and the majesty of the symphony orchestra, founded only some two hundred and forty years ago.

Recently, the didjeridu's traditional role as an accompanying instrument for singers and dancers in sacred and secret ceremonies has been extended into the popular music arena. Now Dance Gundah propels it into coexistence with classical music in partnership with the symphony orchestra. Its many voiced sounds and attendant emotional states are blended within the orchestra and contrasted with it, in much the same way as a solo instrument in a typical concerto.

In composing this concerto, I was mindful not to compromise the dignity or integrity of the two musical cultures. Rather, my aim was to create a viable synthesis of them and, in so doing, bridge and reconcile their musico-cultural divide in the making of a work that is truly multicultural.

Such recently established bands as Yothu Yindi (which includes Anglo-Celtic Australian musicians) have incorporated the didjeridu as a lead and rhythm instrument lending emphasis to these bands' Aboriginality. Yothu Yindi is a great band with a worthy political message.

My aim with Dance Gundah is to affect a fusion wherein Aboriginal Australian and European Australian musics resonate in music of international goodwill, preserving both the spiritual expression of the didjeridu and the cultural associations of the polish and precision of the symphony orchestra.

Cast in the Western tradition of a three-movement concerto (fast, slow, fast), Dance Gundah occupies a unique position in the history of both Occidental and Australian Aboriginal music.

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