Matt Keegan

Music Hub

  • About
    • About Matt Keegan
    • Press Pics & Articles
    • Discography
    • Equipment
  • Bands
    • Ensembles Currently Featuring Matt Keegan
    • Matt Keegan Trio
    • The Three Seas
    • Vienna Dreaming
  • Original Music
  • Horn Section
  • Electric Sax
  • Teaching
    • Teaching Philosophy
    • CV
    • Lessons
    • Charts and Resources
    • Sax Choir
    • Terms and Conditions
  • News & Gigs
  • Store
  • Contact

Vienna Dreaming


Composed and arranged by Matt Keegan

Produced by Matt Keegan & Richard Belkner @ Free Energy Device Studios

Performed by Sydney City Electro Acoustic Ensemble

Mary Rapp – Cello

Dave Rodriguez – Guitar & FX

Hanna James – Double bass

Miles Thomas – Drums & percussion

Matt Keegan – Saxes, Clarinets, woodwind synths, keyboard synths

Special Guest: Matt McMahon – Piano and synth

 

VIENNA DREAMING is a suite of music I have composed and dedicated to my great grandfather, Heini Portnoj (1895-1984).  Heini grew up in Vienna and was a working musician and composer  in the great music city before his career was cut short by the rise of the Nazi’s.  As an Austrian jew his life was also in danger.  Thankfully he managed to escape the city with his wife Annie and her child Elizabeth, my maternal grandmother.  They ended up as refugees in Australia’s Tatura internment camp and at the conclusion of the war Heini went on to have a successful career as a pianist, accompanist and operatic singing coach here in Australia.

I was commissioned to compose this music to commemorate Heini’s life by my Aunt and family historian, Julia Trainor.  I was afforded some time as an artist in residence at the musicians cottage at Bundanon Trust to work on this music.

I decided to write in the style of program music and deliberately used a combination of acoustic and electronic instruments to create an other worldly dream like atmosphere.  I was keen to keep the music in an ethereal realm and have endeavoured to evoke general feelings and imagery rather than try to recreate specific sounds of the past.

 

 

THE VIENNA DREAMING STORYBOARD

Vienna Overture

An old man sitting by himself in a large chair gazing out the window on a rainy afternoon.  Strains of distant music float through his mind and he is transported to a world he once knew. Suddenly we are in old Vienna but we drift away all too soon.

The Femina

A dreamlike impressionistic view of couples dancing in the once grand Viennese club where Heini was the musical director for 9 years.

Annie 

Love at first sight in the city of music – an accompaniment to meeting his wife for the first time.

Foreboding 

Confused feelings as things change for the worse in the city.  The coda shifts abruptly to a reflective mood as the feeling that the city has changed forever sinks in.

Escape

Time to leave Vienna.  Reflections on how it must have felt to flee the city he loved.

The Not Knowing

A stark and soulful expression of the thoughts and feelings Heini must have had about the many family members and friends that were lost forever in the war.  He never found out their fate.

 

Join mailing list

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Featured Track

Search

About Matt Keegan

One of Sydney’s most in demand Saxophonist, Matt Keegan regularly performs throughout Australia and around the world. 

Read more...

Quick Links

  • Saxophone Teacher Sydney
  • Horn Arrangements
  • Jazz Band Leader Sydney
  • Saxophone FX pedals

 

Follow Matt Keegan

  • 
  • 
  • 

Copyright © 2013 - 2016 • Matt Keegan • Legal Disclaimer • Website by Phase Creative