It took about three years, more than 200 pages of music and too many notes to count for Warrnambool's Dr Ken Stott to complete the rare feat of composing a symphony.
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And after months of rehearsals, the 45-minute Symphony of the Passion will be performed by the Warrnambool and Hamilton symphony orchestras this weekend.
Warrnambool orchestra president John McInnes said it was a "rare honour" to get someone to write a piece of music for an amateur orchestra.
"Professional orchestral players spend most of their life playing long established works. In fact I once heard orchestras described as glorified cover bands," he said.
Dr Stott said writing a symphony was a lot of work.
"For several weeks at a time I would put it to one side in frustration. I couldn't get it right," he said.
"I was thinking today how many notes I actually wrote because everyone has to put in individually.
"The score is pretty big. It's a big A3 score with about 200 pages of music.
"Brewing up inside me for many years has been a wish to do a solid piece of music, something quite profound on the passion story."
Dr Stott said each of the movements represented an aspect of the passion story - the entry into Jerusalem, the last supper, the crucifixion and then the final movement deals with the resurrection and the ascension.
"It is a sacred work but it's written for a secular audience," Dr Stott said.
Mr McInnes described it as "very dramatic stuff".
About 50 musicians are involved in the performance which includes internationally celebrated harpist Vanessa McKeand, and sopranos Christine Heald, Louise Keast and Anita Senior.
Brewing up inside me for many years has been a wish to do a solid piece of music, something quite profound on the passion story.
- Dr Ken Stott
It is not the first major work Dr Stott has written. In 2014 he wrote a cantata which was performed in Warrnambool and featured a full orchestra, pipe organ, soprano soloists and a 100-voice choir.
He said that while he had written choral music, chamber music, modern hymns and organ music before, it was after he retired from his job as provost at the Univesity of Southern Queensland in 2012 that he had time to compose longer pieces.
Dr Stott said not many people have written a symphony, those that do were usually from the city and were professional composers who were well-known on the circuit.
"For someone who lives in the regions to write something is very unusual. This may be the first symphony to be written in Western Victoria," he said.
"More importantly, the first symphony to be performed by community musicians."
Dr Stott wrote the music for about 15 different orchestral instruments from flutes to oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, percussion and five stringed instruments.
A pipe organist himself, Dr Stott completed professional music training at college after finishing school.
He then spent his career working in physical education and exercise physiology in England before doing two masters and a doctorate in the management field and going to work at a Singapore university.
The symphony will be performed at Hamilton Lutheran Church on Saturday at 7pm, and Warrnambool's Anglican Church at 2.30pm on Sunday. Adults $30, concession $25.
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