Choosing one recipient of the 2MBS-FM Young Composers Award was too difficult for the judges late last year. So they split the prize. ERNEST WEISS reports.

Thomas Alva Edison's assessment of genius also applies to composing music, according to Jane Stanley and Paul Witney, the joint 1997 winners of the 2MBS-FM Young Composers Award.

Jane Stanley composed Whistling Kite on Yellow Water after her recent tour of the Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. The Yellow Water is a freshwater river in Kakadu around which all kinds of bird life flourish, including the eagle look-alike, whistling kite.

Jane explained that each instrument represents an element of the Yellow Water environment: the flute, bird life; the clarinet, the Yellow Water, the viola, sky and air; the cello, mysterious creatures below water level, such as crocodiles. "The inspiration came from the sounds I heard, mainly for the clarinet," Jane said, "but the piece developed as I worked on it, and the title came later".

Her work Drought, for clarinet and piano, was performed late last year in the Australian Women's Music Festival and then by the contemporary music group Coruscations in Sydney and Adelaide. The Sydney University Symphony Orchestra had previously performed an orchestral version.

Jane Stanley has just completed the third year of a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Sydney. She studied under Anne Boyd and Ross Edwards, majoring in composition. Now she is most interested in the craft, techniques and technical aspects of composition, the 99 per cent of perspiration needed to develop a piece from the one per cent initial inspiration. On completing her degree, Jane hopes to continue her studies for a master's degree and follow in her tutor's footsteps to compose while teaching.

Ernest Weiss, 2MBS-FM Program Guide, April 1998