InsideOut (2026)
Concerto for Amplified Classical Accordion & Orchestra
Duration: 22’
Commissioned by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
17 & 18 July 2026, James Crabb and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey - World premiere
Program Note
1. Stretch
2. Squeeze
3. Engine Room
InsideOut is built around the idea of the accordion as a portable orchestra: a soundmonger capable of enormous range. I like to think of the work as a series of musical nesting dolls, in which the orchestra is continually unpacked from within the accordion itself - from the inside out. The accordion is the orchestra, and the orchestra, the accordion. This is both literal and fantastic. I imagine the orchestra as physically inhabiting the chambers of the instrument, while thinking of the accordion as the heart and lungs of the orchestra, powering it. Inside the concert hall, perhaps we - the audience, are inside one of these chambers too. Rhythms, textures, colours, and articulations initially heard in the solo part, are absorbed and exploded into the orchestra, and vice versa. In this way, the work poses the question of ‘who dreamed who?’, synonymous with Lewis Carroll’s Alice books:
‘So, I wasn’t dreaming, after all,’ she said to herself, ‘unless – unless we’re all part of the same dream. Only I do hope it’s my dream, and not the Red King’s!’
Of course, this all happens within a soundworld that is very me - bringing together threads from rock, jazz, grunge, electronica, bluegrass, and anything in-between. Each of the three movements are shaped by a creative premise or challenge. Hearing the accordion up-close, I’m struck by what a visceral sound the instrument produces. I experience the vibrations and resonances as not unlike an overdriven electric guitar. For this reason, ‘Stretch’ uses Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze’ chord, an E7#9, as its starting point, which is continually stretched and contracted throughout. ‘Squeeze’ opens with an orchestration challenge: what happens if I begin with four French horns and the accordion? How might the accordion camouflage in and out of the brass sound? And the third, ‘Engine Room’, was borne from the words ‘Grungy and Glitchy’ scribbled on a piece of paper – a way of combining the very lowest and highest ranges of the instrument.
There are moments influenced by hurdy-gurdies and synthesiser drones, Hammond organs and saxophone multiphonics, interference beats and rocked-up pipe organs. This is not to say that the accordion sounds just like these things, but rather that the chameleon-like nature of the instrument lends itself to conjuring up a myriad of characters and colours. Across the work, there’s an emphasis on the accordion standing out, being extroverted and bombastic one moment, and then blending in, disguised, the next.
Writing this work for James Crabb, one of the foremost classical accordionists in the world, has been an absolute delight. I’ve imagined his character as one of a mad scientist, continually performing experiments in his petri dish, the orchestra. I hope you enjoy hearing this extraordinary instrument in action as much as I have in writing this piece!
Dates & Tickets
17 July, James Crabb and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey, Adelaide Town Hall, SA, 7:30pm – World Premiere
18 July, James Crabb and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey, Adelaide Town Hall, SA, 6:30pm
25 September, James Crabb and Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Umberto Clerici, QPAC Concert Hall, QLD 7:30pm
26 September, James Crabb and Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Umberto Clerici, QPAC Concert Hall, QLD 7:30pm
1 October, James Crabb and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey, Federation Concert Hall, TAS, 6pm
13 November, James Crabb and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey, Winthrop Hall, WA, 7:30pm
14 November, James Crabb and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey, Winthrop Hall, WA, 7:30pm