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Dugal McKinnon  

Blue Kisses Green

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1999, r. 2000
for six-channel tape and orchestra

Michael Norris  

Chrysalis

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1996
for flute and tape

John Rimmer  

Composition 2

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1968, r. 1969
for wind quintet and electronic sounds

John Rimmer  

Composition 3

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1973
for harp and electronic sounds

John Rimmer  

Composition 4

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1972
for flute and electronic sounds

John Rimmer  

Composition 5

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1971
for percussion and electronic sounds

John Rimmer  

Composition 6

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1972
For piano and electronic sounds

John Rimmer  

Composition 7

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1973
for bassoon, piano and electronic sounds

John Rimmer  

Motet for Hildegard

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 2008
for soprano, oboe and electronic sounds

  • Programme Note

    In composing Motet for Hildegard, I imagined Hildegard von Bingen communing with nature while singing her song O Virga Mediatrix (O branch who mediates for us) to the universe above. She listens to the planets as they emit their ‘Harmony of the Spheres’ with certain pitches from her song. The nearby Rhine echoes parts of her song in its occasional turbulent displays. She hears a sequence of notes from her song in the strange resonances of an angelic choir and also in an eastern reed instrument. Then she listens to the morning stars singing and is reminded of a passage from the Book of Job. Finally she hears her own voice in the quiet eddies of the river.

    The electronic music is based partly on tiny fragments of pre-recorded soprano voice and oboe which are resonated and also split into many grains of sounds. In contrast, the ‘harmony of the spheres’ timbres appear as simple granulated sine tones which move in elliptical orbits..

    In the middle of these textures Wendy Dixon’s original recording of Hildegard’s song appears phrase by phrase after which the live soprano and oboe become increasingly florid in keeping with the ornate nature of Hildegard’s song O Virga Mediatrix.

    Other medieval aspects are enhanced by intervals such as the perfect 5th sounding at the ends of phrases, by the harmonic style of organum in the opening and closing phrases of the voice and the oboe and also by the structural use of Golden Section and Fibonacci proportions.

    The process of basing a piece on an existing song seemed to parallel the work of 15th and 16th century composers who often based their sacred pieces – Motets and movements of the Mass on existing plainsong, hence the title of this piece.

    Motet for Hildegard was first performed by Wendy Dixon, soprano and Diana Doherty, oboe in the Recital Hall East, Sydney Conservatorium on 7 December 2008.

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John Elmsly  

Nocturne

Duration: 13' 00" Year: 2005
for bass clarinet, gentle percussion and soundscape

  • Instrumentation
    Percussion - for any number of players with free choice of instruments. 'Pitches' are suggestive only.
  • Programme Note

    For several years I had been promising Andrew a new piece for bass clarinet, and previously worked in Vancouver with Barry Truax’s POD system to produce some intriguing granulation files derived from notes played by Andrew. These languished unused until 2003 when I heard some wonderful frogs singing in the middle of the night at Chulalongkorn University of Bangkok, and managed to get some recordings. These two sources, plus some transformed temple bell recordings and a mad chorus of police whistles in evening traffic, provided the source material for the soundscape. I began writing the music for bass clarinet around this soundscape.
    Much of the bass clarinet part is composed using a synthetic scale which is different in each octave. Although the end result is an arbitrary invention which pleased me, the original inspiration came from exploring the relationship between the Thai seven note scale and pentatonic scales. I had originally been thinking that Thai percussion instruments might be appropriate for the percussion part, but have since decided that the any available instruments may be used. The first performance used a mixture of ‘junk’ percussion (e.g. bowls, cans and flower pots) and bongo drums, but any experiments are welcome.

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