FLINDERS QUARTET
Elizabeth Sellars • violin
Wilma Smith • violin
Helen Ireland • viola
Zoe Knighton • cello

AGATHA YIM, POLYPHONIC PICTURES filming and editing
ABC CLASSIC Producer • Jennifer Mills / Engineer • Niyi Adepoyibi

Filmed August 2025 in the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, Wurundjeri Country/Southbank

This project was made possible through support from Creative Victoria, The Ian Potter Foundation, and FQ’s Fifth String donors

MELODY EÖTVÖS (b.1984) and RISHIN SINGH (b.1985)
The Unspoken Eight (composed 2024)
Commissioned by Flinders Quartet with the support of Kim Williams AM and FQ Syndicate #6

In the world of chamber music, collaboration is often physical: shared rehearsal space, face-to-face discussion, spontaneous experimentation. But what happens when two composers on opposite sides of the world create a piece together without ever meeting, speaking, or even exchanging emails in the usual way?

The Unspoken Eight is the result of just such a collaboration - a musical correspondence between Melody Eötvös (Melbourne) and Rishin Singh (Berlin). The concept: one composer writes a section and sends it on, the next responds, then returns serve, like a compositional tennis match. But there’s a twist. No direct communication outside the score. No phone calls, no Zooms, no texted clarifications. Just music.

The result is a kind of double portrait, with distinct voices overlapping, diverging, and reweaving. It’s also a meditation on communication itself. What do we say when we can’t speak? How do we express intent, disagreement, affection, or surprise through notes on a page?

The piece’s title, The Unspoken Eight, reflects both the number of sections and the nature of the collaboration. There’s a freshness and unpredictability to the music, a sense of ideas unfolding in real time. It’s not always polite; at times, the music pushes and challenges itself. But like all good friendships, it grows in complexity the longer it’s sustained.

For us as performers, learning this piece has been like decoding a private exchange. There are phrases that feel like questions hanging in the air, and others that feel like sudden, joyful recognitions. Bringing this work to life has reminded us how much trust and generosity exist in musical friendships… even those that begin in silence.