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“The sanskrit equivalent for initiation is abhisheka, meaning ‘sprinkle’, ‘pour’, ‘anointment’. And if there is pouring, there must be a vessel into which the pouring can fall. So at last we might really give up all these complications and just allow some space, just give in. This is the moment when abhisheka – sprinkling and pouring – really takes place, because we are open and are really giving up the whole attempt to do anything, giving up all the busyness and overcrowding. Finally we have been forced to really stop properly, which is quite a rare occurrence for us.”

(Taken from Chogyam Trungpa’s Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, from album Nederlands Blazers Ensemble: Zeibekiko, NBECD014).

The composer writes: ”Drafted immediately after reading a book by the Buddhist guru Chögyam Trungpa, Abhisheka was my first-ever attempt at writing music with space in it. Until this piece, practically everything I had written was ultra-caffeinated, fast, full of notes, and murder on performers. But having been (albeit temporarily) inspired by the great truths and peace in Trungpa’s writing, I found myself navigating slower passages of musical time, as well as exploring the microcosm of inner space between the even intervals of our chromatic tuning system.”

Abhisheka by John Psathas was chosen for the list of string quartets in 2000 for ‘IAMIC Sounds of the Year’. The composer has also prepared versions of Abhisheka for mixed chamber ensemble, this version performed by Manos Achalinotopoulos, Vangelis Karipis and Nederlands Blazers Ensemble at Paradiso, in Amsterdam in 2004, and for string orchestra (2008).

Programme note from the New Zealand String Quartet’s 2012 New Zealand at Kings Place concert.

• Psathas: Abhisheka; computer-set 

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• Psathas: Abhisheka; computer-set   Year: 2000 

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• John Psathas: Abhisheka; video  

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• John Psathas, RNZB: Abhisheka (part 4 of 4); video 

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• John Psathas, RNZB: Abhisheka (part 3 of 4); video 

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• John Psathas, RNZB: Abhisheka (part 2 of 4); video 

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• John Psathas, RNZB: Abhisheka (part 1 of 4); video 

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• Psathas: Eight Works 

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• John Psathas: Abhisheka 

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• John Psathas: Rhythm Spike  Year: 1999 

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• Sound Barrier  Year: 2006 

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• notes from a journey  Year: 2010 

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• Fanfares for a New Millennium  Year: 2000 

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This song cycle for soprano and piano has texts by the composer in Maori and English.

“Awa Herea memorably evokes the physical appearance of symbolic significance of these braided rivers… cosmic weather-driven energy.” (Covell, Sydney Morning Herald).

“Its pace was shrewdly varied and the music encompassed a range of styles – from sung declamation to florid lyricism – without incongruity.” (Jack, Independent).

“The cycle displays all the characteristics of her [Gillian Whitehead’s] mature work. The vocal line is at once exultant and contemplative, the piano writing incisive or lulling; the formal shaping novel yet accessible. It is a memorable piece, filled with the energetic spirit of the natural world and finding through that spirit its own serenity.”

• Whitehead: Awa Herea; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Awa Herea; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Awa Herea; facsimile 

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• NZIAF: Gillian Whitehead Portrait; part 2 

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• Waikohu: Mere Boynton and Friends 

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• Tracey Chadwell's Songbook  Year: 1995 

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• Ears Wide Open Taringa Areare Education Resource CD  Year: 2000 

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A “deconstruction/recomposition” of a fifteenth century carol for 3 soloists and choir on the martyrdom of St Stephen. This dramatic work has become a standard text for study in schools through New Zealand. It has been recorded by the New Zealand National Youth Choir.

• Body: Carol to Saint Stephen; facsimile 

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• Jack Body: Carol to St Stephen  

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• Visions: New Zealand Choral Music 

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• Visions: New Zealand Choral Music 

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• New Zealand National Youth Choir: Te Roopu Rangatahi Waiata o Aotea Roa  Year: 1992 

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• McLeod: Childhood; computer-set 

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• McLeod: Childhood; facsimile  Year: 1988 

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• Jenny McLeod: Childhood 

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• Jenny McLeod: Childhood 

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• Prisms - The Bach Choir 

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• NZ Flora Series Vol 4  Year: 1985 

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• Prisms - The Bach Choir  Year: 1985 

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• NZ National Youth Choir on Tour North America  Year: 1994 

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• Tower New Zealand Youth Choir: Winds that Whisper  Year: 1998 

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• Judy Bailey: Children's Suite 

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• Bailey: The Spritely Ones  Year: 1998 

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• Ears Wide Open Taringa Areare Education Resource CD  Year: 2000 

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Composed at the 1984 Cambridge Summer School, Clouds over Pirongia is a short delicate piece which uses a wide variety of metallic percussion instruments. The resonant sonorities were suggested by various cloud formations over nearby Mt. Pirongia.

• Rimmer: Clouds over Pirongia; facsimile 

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• Ears Wide Open Taringa Areare Education Resource CD  Year: 2000 

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• Sound Barrier  Year: 2006 

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• Psathas: Drum Dances; computer-set  Year: 1998 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 4); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 3); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 2); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 1); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances 

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• Psathas: Eight Works 

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• The Next Step; First Steps CD 

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• John Psathas: Rhythm Spike  Year: 1999 

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When I arrived at the Royal College of Music in London, in September 1937, and was accepted as a student by Vaughan Williams, he put me through routine disciplines of writing fugues and part-songs, and then one day said: “Isn’t it time you composed something?”

I accepted the challenge and produced by Drysdale Overture, with its nostalgic memories in a musical language which rather disconcerted him. Still more did it upset Sir George Dyson, who brilliantly realised my rough orchestral score on the piano and then said: “Don’t bring me another manuscript like that.” He did, however, give it a reading rehearsal with the RCM first orchestra, and I took steps to improve my musical handwriting.

In those far-off heady days, Hans Keller’s “functional analysis” had hardly impacted on the RCM – we students ignorantly and derisively called it “sweet FA”. And so I may hardly provide an “analytical synopsis”.

With my meagre knowledge of classical forms, I thought that proper overtures should have a solemn introduction, with motifs recalled later in various structural guises, and that they should have a contrasting “second object” – hence my nostalgic oboe tune, with fitting Scottish inflections. Curiously, what might have been a routine “development” turned into a sunlit rondo, nostalgic of childhood happiness.

I’m left with that lovely Mark Twain image of Jim and Huckleberry drifting on their barge down that great river, looking up at the stars and wondering “whether they was made, or only just happened”.

Douglas Lilburn
14 October 1994

• Lilburn: Drysdale Overture; computer-set 

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• Douglas Lilburn: Drysdale Overture; audio 

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• Alfred Hill and Douglas Lilburn- Wellington Chamber Orchestra Vol. 2 

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• Landscapes: New Zealand Orchestral Music 

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• Douglas Lilburn: A Song of Islands  Year: 1987 

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• Lilburn: Prodigal Country  Year: 1987 

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• Lilburn: Prodigal Country  Year: 1987 

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• Douglas Lilburn: Orchestral Music  Year: 1995 

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• Douglas Lilburn: Orchestral Works   Year: 2004 

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• Island Song  Year: 2010 

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• Margetic: Dubina; computer-set 

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• Karlo Margetic: Dubina; audio 

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• NZCT Discovery Concerts 2006 Study Guide CD  Year: 2005 

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