It’s not often that I find myself with an “ear-worm” after attending a concert of contemporary classical works. In my experience, catchiness isn’t exactly new music’s strong suit.
Yet it has been about a week since I heard Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra play Nautilus, by the Scottish composer Anna Meredith – and I can’t get the sound of the thing out of my head. Indeed, this short piece is one of the most intense and arresting “orchestral" works I’ve ever heard. It wears its debt to 1970s minimalism as a badge of honour – but it also embraces such disparate influences as film music, pop dance music and the sheer brutality of the Rite of Spring.
I put the word “orchestral” in quotation marks because Nautilus began its life as an electoacoustic work, in 2011, and was later arranged for orchestra by Jack Ross, ten years later.
On YouTube, I found a video of the original version, in all its synth-y glory, as well as the live orchestral performance by Esprit.
But wait – there’s more! I also found a marching-band version, which has to be seen and heard to be believed.
You’ll find links to all three versions, below.
© Colin Eatock 2025
Yet it has been about a week since I heard Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra play Nautilus, by the Scottish composer Anna Meredith – and I can’t get the sound of the thing out of my head. Indeed, this short piece is one of the most intense and arresting “orchestral" works I’ve ever heard. It wears its debt to 1970s minimalism as a badge of honour – but it also embraces such disparate influences as film music, pop dance music and the sheer brutality of the Rite of Spring.
I put the word “orchestral” in quotation marks because Nautilus began its life as an electoacoustic work, in 2011, and was later arranged for orchestra by Jack Ross, ten years later.
On YouTube, I found a video of the original version, in all its synth-y glory, as well as the live orchestral performance by Esprit.
But wait – there’s more! I also found a marching-band version, which has to be seen and heard to be believed.
You’ll find links to all three versions, below.
© Colin Eatock 2025
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