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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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“The systems they learn are nothing but skeletons to them…” – John Ruskin Arrows of the Chace (1880)

Ruskin’s words suggest that rigorous formulae, valuable as a starting point, may be overwhelmed by the vigor of life itself. bone-flower takes its name from a dialect word for daisy, a humble bright flower growing on the bones of the dead. Soon we’ll all be pushing up the daisies.

• Palmer: bone-flower; computer-set 

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• Palmer: bone-flower; computer-set 

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• Palmer: bone-flower; computer set 

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• Mix-up - various works by Juliet Palmer 

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• SOUNZfine Volume 3 

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• Princeton: bone-flower (Palmer) and other works  Year: 1996 

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• Piper: Dance of the Sidhe; computer-set 

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• Piper: Dance of the Sidhe; computer-set 

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This work for orchestra and organ was commissioned by Uwe Alexander-Grodd and the St. Matthews Chamber Orchestra and premiered in November 1996. Based on Maori themes, it is in three movements.

• John Wells: Organ Concerto (organ part) - hardcopy score 

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• Wells plays Wells 

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“Sparkling parted tongues of flame crackling forth from the apostles’ heads, their mouths spouting languages intelligible to all”. Music can be a kind of ‘outpouring’, a creative combustion that we try to make intelligible with words. The piece begins as a steady, simple walk – like strolling down an old wooden pier. The boards creak, nails shake loose, the whole rickety structure shudders and quakes. Right at the end of the wharf, where the water laps the wood, there’s a barnacle – beautiful, ugly, and stubborn all at the same time. How can this small creature cling to one place for its entire life?

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• Palmer: Parted Tongues; computer-set 

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• Parted Tongues- Juliet Palmer 

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• Works by Palmer and Holmes 

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Based on his grandmother’s diaries, the premiere of Philip Brownlee’s opera was reviewed by Alan Wells in The Listener. “Here, recorded natural sounds were juxtaposed with live ensemble, taped oral history and its artistically sung rendition, and youthful experience with aging memory.”

• Brownlee: Phyllis Remembers; computer set 

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• Brownlee: Phyllis Remembers; facsimile 

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• Dixon: Raga Rewa; computer set 

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This 4 movement suite, including the ‘Crowd Scene’, ‘Jaunty Tune’, ‘Lovers’ Tune’, ‘Courtly Scene’ was written as incidental music for a production of the Merchant of Venice. There are stylistic references to the English Renaissance music, and the instrumental parts are accessible for the average player.

• Parsons: Recorder Suite: Scenes from the Merchant of Venice; computer set 

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• Parsons: Recorder Suite: Scenes from the...; computer-set 

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Music plays with time in so many ways – bending it, compressing it, folding it, expanding it… What role can silence play in this game of temporal illusion? Apart from its obvious potential as a kind of temporal/sonic punctuation, breaking up the apparently continuous flow of time, silence is pregnant with the potential for reflection – reflection on what has come before and on what may be yet to come. Taken to an extreme, silence can introduce a kind of entropy into a piece – a long silence can fracture a piece so severely that it functions as an open door, inviting the listener to wander off, away from the world of the composer. But silence is much more than just the absence of sound. It has a ritualistic aspect. Think of the minute of silence dedicated to the dead, think of the silence of meditation and prayer that takes us beyond the noise and continuity of quotidian existence. Perhaps music can be a metaphor for silence on this level. Perhaps the whole musical work can function as an extended metaphorical silence interrupting our everyday concerns, inviting reflection, turning down the internal dialogue and fading out the conceptual grid.

• Hall: silence rained down, quenching time's fire; computer-set 

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• Neville Hall: silence rained down, quenching time's fire 

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• Neville Hall: Selected Works 

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• Hall: silence rained down, quenching time's fire 

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