Jon Rose

Jonathan Anthony Rose (born 19 February 1951) is an Australian violinist, cellist, composer, and multimedia artist. Rose's work is centered in the experimental music known as free improvisation, where he has created large environmental multimedia works, built experimental musical instruments, and improvised violin concertos with accompanying orchestra. He has been described by Tony Mitchell as "undoubtedly the most exploratory, imaginative and iconoclastic violin player who has lived in Australia". on scholarship. He discontinued formal violin lessons at the age of 15. Rose studied and performed in a range of genres in Australia and the United Kingdom during the 1970s, including Italian club bands, country & western, bebop, and new music.

Rose has worked as a composer with various ensembles and organizations including Ensemble Offspring, Tura New Music, Decibel, Speak Percussion, Soundstream, the NOW now Festival, and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Some of Rose's compositions for orchestra include Violin Music in the Age of Shopping (1994 1996), which involved the recomposition of a myriad of genres for choir, string orchestra, band, soloists, and sampling (usually by Otomo Yoshihide In Violin Factory (1999) an orchestra plays satiric string music in the context of mechanical production and reproduction. Performed in Österreichische Rundfunk Concert Hall, Vienna (1999) and at Wogarno Station in Western Australia (2001), the satire was the result of Rose's experiences at two violin factories in China. Charlie's Whiskers (2004) for string orchestra, piano, saw, and live sampling, pays tribute to composer Charles Ives. Rose's Internal Combustion (2008) is a concerto for amplified orchestra, solo improvised violin, and video. An accompanying video quotes Rose's previous work, such as him riding his custom built bicycle powered violin and a violin being played with ping pong balls. It was performed at The Berlin Philharmonic by ensemble Unitedberlin with a commission from the MaerzMusik festival. The Auctioneer Says (2012) is orchestrated for cello, viola, alto saxophone, electric bass, percussion, and video, with Rose playing an auctioneer. It was commissioned by Decibel New Music in Perth. Ghan Tracks (2014) combines multimedia performance, installation, live radio, and a documentary. Commissioned by Ensemble Offspring, it was performed by them, Speak Percussion, and actors collaborating with the Creative Audio Unit of Radio National at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Rose's Picnic at Broken Hill (2015) was commissioned by Soundstream, and uses a pitch to MIDI application. Rose transcribed the piece for piano as the musical contours of a pair of 1915 suicide letters read in Urdu. These were penned by a pair of cameleers accused of attacking a train of picnickers in protest of the Allied campaign at Gallipoli during the First World War. Each hand of the pianist performs a separate re enacted letter.

Rose has used the medium of live radio broadcasts to present original content influenced by historical musical figures and topics. These productions include broadcasts for radio stations such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the BBC, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Saarländischer Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Radio France, Rai Radio 3, Österreichischer Rundfunk, and Sender Freies Berlin (SFB). Paganini's Last Testimony (1988) for ABC, which envisions the famous violinist as a celebrity faith healer. The Mozart Industry (1993) for Saarländischer Rundfunk, which explores the posthumous industry of Mozart. The Long Sufferings of Anna Magdalena Bach (1998) for ABC, inspired by the life and work of J. S. Bach's second wife. Skeleton in the Museum (2003) for ABC, a portrait of pianist/composer Percy Grainger that won the 2004 Karl Sczuka Preis. Syd and George (2008) for SFB, concerns the relationship between a lyrebird ("George") and his researcher, Syd Curtis. Lyrebirds are expert mimics, and Rose's score for string quartet draws on imitation as an organizing principle. Salvado (2009) for BBC, which dramatizes the story of the establishment of an Aboriginal string orchestra by a Spanish priest in 1846. Not Quite Cricket (2012) for BBC, which re examined the first Aboriginal cricket tour to England in 1868. Ghan Stories (20142015) for ABC, which tells of the Old Ghan railway built from Port Augusta to Alice Springs between 1878 and 1929.

Rose's improvisational work led to his building of custom instruments. As a luthier, Rose has built new string instruments and modified conventional ones, as well as repurposed other everyday items. His early instrument building in the 1970s and 1980s incorporated wind, water, and wheels to activate and/or modulate the sound of an array of string types, from violin gut strings to fence wire. his amplified 19 string tenor cello, which was built in 1981, and his Whipolin, a seven string disembowelled cello fitted with wheels that are bowed similarly to a hurdy gurdy. From 1985, Rose worked in conjunction with engineers at the Studio for Electro Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam to develop a series of interactive MIDI bows (and amplified bows) under the title Hyperstring Project. He uses various controllers in his MIDI bows, mounted on both his wrist and on the bows themselves. One controller measures bow pressure and another measures bow arm movement and speed, while foot pedals are played by both feet independently. In this way, Rose is able to simultaneously play multiple lines of melodies and polyrhythms by means of different controllers which measure the physicality of his high speed improvisation.

New York Times music critic Stephen Holden observed the wide range of Rose's improvisations, from late Romantic tonal solos to freeform explorations. Rose's 27 March 1986 performance at New York City's Experimental Intermedia Foundation featured Super 8 films that Rose shot in the Australian outback consisting of "rapid jump cut editing and sped up footage", which Holden described as "the most audacious music improvisations" and "the evening's most ambitious work". "Jon Rose is the Thomas Edison of the vibrating string", wrote Ken Waxman in Jazzword. According to Graham Strahle, Rose has established a reputation as a musical larrikin, observing that Rose has been "pushing boundaries in improvisation and technology for years as a violinist, composer and general musical provocateur, coming up with such wry inventions as the interactive MIDI violin bow and Fence Project – they rival Percy Grainger’s wacky Kangaroo Pouch Tone Tool for unbridled creativity." Gail Priest from RealTime described Rose's embrace of the Australian landscape in his various musical activities as "Australia made extraordinary". In his review of the CD Futch for The Squid's Ear, Kurt Gottschalk called Rose "a tireless conceptualist, making music out of political borders and rewriting economics and history like a viol centric Marco Polo".

In 2006, Rose was awarded the David Tudor Composer in Residence at Mills College and completed a lecture and concert tour of various University of California system campuses that same year.

+ Select discographyLPYearTitleLabelNotes1978Solo Violin ImprovisationsFringe Benefit1979Decomposition1984TangoHOT1987Forward of Short LegDossierVivisectionAufRuhrCDYearTitleLabelNotes1989Paganini's Last TestimonyKonnex1990Die Beethoven KonversationenExtraplatte1991Slawterhaus LiveVictoThe Mozart Industry; Saint JohannaExtraplattePulled MusclesImmigrant1992Violin Music for RestaurantsReR1993Brain Weather: The Story of the RosenbergsThe Virtual ViolinMegaphoneMonumentalIntakt1994Violin Music for SupermarketsMegaphone1995Eine Violine fur Valentin: A Homage to Karl ValentinNo WaveViolin Music in the Age of ShoppingIntaktTatakiuriCreativeman Disc1996Exiles 1MegaphoneTechno mit StörungenPlag Dich NichtPerksReR1997://shopping. live@victoChina Copy1998The Fence1999SlidingSonic Factory2000The Hyperstring ProjectReR2001The Violin FactoryHermes DiscorbieTransgenic NomadSonoreThe KryonicsEmanemStrungSublingual2002TemperamentEmanemGreat Fences of AustraliaDynamo House2003The People's MusicReRFleischSaucerlike2004Double IndemnityHermes Discorbie2011FutchJazzwerkstatt Berlin2012RosinReR2013ColophonyCreative Sources2015Tuning OutEmanem