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Chris Gendall  

dita

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 2002
for solo percussion

Anthony Ritchie  

Echoes

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 2009
for Javanese gamelan ensemble

  • Instrumentation
    Gender (1 part)), Saron (3 parts), Gambang, Bongang, Panerus, Bongang, Kenong, Kempul, Kandang, Kecer
  • Programme Note

    Echoes was written for the Puspawarna Gamelan Group at the University of Otago. I have long enjoyed the sounds of the gamelan, and welcomed the invitation by Dr Shelley Brunt to compose something for Puspawarna. Although I knew some rudimentary things about the instruments, composing this piece gave me the opportunity to learn a great deal more. Being able to play a little in the ensemble was invaluable, as was advice provided by leader Joko Susilo, Shelley, Chris Watson (Mozart Fellow at Otago University) and one of my students, Ali Churcher, who coincidentally was writing a piece for gamelan at the same time.

    Echoes is the first piece I have written without using a piano at all to compose. Having been to a gamelan rehearsal I found a tune popping into my head during a walk to the dairy. I developed this tune on the computer (using vibraphone sounds to represent the gamelan), layering it into a canon, or round. Two further tunes appear, based on different home notes, but all the tunes use the same pelog scale. They are decorated and varied, before the opening tune returns like an echo at the end. The idea of echoes is also evoked by the canons, and the ringing sounds of the gamelan itself. Echoes have a spiritual significance, I think; sound waves return to a listener in the same way memories flood the brain when triggered by something special happens. They induce a reflective state.

  • Availability

Chris Gendall  

Hand to Hand

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 2005
for percussion sextet

  • Instrumentation
    Percussion 1: Vibraphone, 2 bongos (approximate pitch), bass drum, tambourine, cabasa; Percussion 2: Tokere (small log drum), bass drum, large tam-tam, cabasa, sizzle cymbal, china cymbal; Percussion 3: 5 Tom-toms (approximate pitch), 2 bongos (approximate pitch), large tam-tam, triangle; Percussion 4: Bass drum, 2 congas (approximate pitch), large tam-tam, snare drum, ride cymbal, splash cymbal; Percussion 5: High woodblock, cabasa, 2 roto-toms, tambourine, bass drum; Percussion 6: Large tam-tam, bass drum, tambourine, cabasa, crash cymbal, china cymbal, splash cymbal, sizzle cymbal
  • Programme Note

    Composed at the request of Ney Rosauro, ‘HAND TO HAND’ is a direct acknowledgement of the influence of certain popular music styles in my music. These are however rather subtly articulated: only occasionally breaching the musical surface to be quickly re-assimilated into the texture. ‘HAND TO HAND’ was commissioned by the University of Miami Percussion Ensemble with funding from Creative New Zealand.

  • Availability

David Downes  

Painting with Breath

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2000
for 4 performers with six long bamboo garden stakes and other percussion

Gareth Farr  

Pukul

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 2003
for percussion quintet

Claire Cowan  

Skip

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 2004
for two percussion

  • Instrumentation
    for two skipping ropes, two whistles, one water bottle, with ambient bird noises and optional video background park footage
  • Programme Note

    Two fearless percussionists duel with skipping ropes and whistles, creating rhythms and improving their cardiovasular fitness simultaneously.

  • Availability

David Sanders  

Two Speckled Frogs

Duration: 07' 00" Year: 2001
for Africo-Cuban percussion and Kendang