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• Norris: 14 Islands; computer set 

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• Norris: 14 Islands; computer set 

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• Michael Norris: 14 Islands; audio 

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• Two works by Michael Norris 

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I’ve admired John Psathas’ music for years, for its incredible sense of energy, its ability to defy categorization, and its cultural pluralism. With 4BY4 (his first non-pitched percussion piece), John delivers on all counts … and then some. If David Weckl, Christopher Lamb, Steven Schick and Giovanni Hidalgo – all percussion virtuosi from widely different genres – were to have a jam session, I can’t help but think that it would sound something like 4BY4.

Each of the four players plays a drumset-like set-up; one player has two snare drums a hi-hat, a tambourine, and a cymbal, another has two congas and a hihat, and the remaining two have tom-based set-ups. However, what binds these four seemingly disparate voices is the kick drum, which all four drumsets have. At times, these four drums pound a relentless beat in unison, and at others they’re split into complex rhythmic counterpoint.

It is this, in part, that makes 4BY4 such a great piece and a perfect fit for this album. John manages to take culturally different instruments, each with different playing techniques, and link them together with a common element – the kick drum. It is cultural pluralism at its best, with each voice maintaining its unique sound and identity, but seamlessly integrated into a common whole.
- Omar Carmenates

• John Psathas: 4BY4; video 

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• Omar Carmenates: The Gaia Theory CD  Year: 2012 

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The title itself is a play on the words “fatality” and “tonality”, the two words and concepts colliding to form “[f]at[on]ality”. Similarly, the music presents two contrasting musical languages that intersect and compete violently for dominance. The first of these is a tonal language, represented by various types of (major/minor etc.) chords derived from four constituent triads of a twelve-tone row. The first phrase presents this language in conflict with itself, collapsing two triads into a hexachord at the punctuation points of the phrase. These chords then begin to extricate and extrapolate themselves, – beginning in the right hand at the start of the second phrase – under which the twelve-tone row (presented in the accelerating and decelerating lines of the first phrase) is fragmented and rhythmically manipulated. This twelve-tone row represents the second musical language, that is, a quasi-serial atonal language that is subjected to transformation by inversion, retrograde, multiplication etc. While on one level the music is concerned with the intersection and interdependence of these languages, it is also concerned with the dramatic consequences of that collision. The dynamic and rhythmic frameworks are somewhat extreme, providing a constantly surging, climactic structure that, in the end, resolves ambivalently. The inspiration for the piece came from a poetic doodle, reprinted below:

con.vent.shun

wanting to dis / dys
place / figure / function

this fatal tonality
tonal fatality
total finality
final totality

this [f]at[on]al entity

cacophonic / catatonic
coughed up and codified

maybe some kind of
superficial facticity / deep fiction
palimpsestic / incestuous

stasis / stagnation
repetitious f[l/r]agellation
sheer f[l/r]agrance

and you can’t get out

or in

• Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; computer-set 

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• Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; computer-set 

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• Alex Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; video 

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“Perhaps a lunatic is simply a minority of one.” – George Orwell, 1984

• Taylor: [inner]; computer set 

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• Alex Taylor: [inner]; audio 

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At APRA’s Silver Scroll Awards, the winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award receives a surprise rendition of their work. The 2012 winner, Alex Taylor for his [inner], has his work arranged and performed by Rhian Sheehan.

• Alex Taylor's "[inner]" arr. by Rhian Sheehan; video 

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In 1995 I was approached by the NZSO to write an overture to commemorate the recent death of New Zealand’s most famous war hero, Sir Charles Upham. Upham was famous for having won the Victoria Cross twice for bravery during World War II. He was, however, extremely modest when it came to discussing his achievements. Some years before his death it was suggested to Upham that he have a state funeral; he simply replied, “A bugle will do”. This comment seemed like a good starting point for my piece.

There are no bugles in the orchestra, but the opening section depicting the horrors of battle contains plenty of brass. Sub-titled Maleme and Ruweisat Ridge, the music is fast and furious, built from several motifs, and includes the opening rhythm for the most well known Maori haka (war dance), Kamate, kamate. The music builds to a climax, and the scene changes to a bleak Colditz Castle, where Upham was imprisoned during the war. While in prison he dreams of rural NZ, and the farm near Kaikoura called ‘Landsdowne’, where he eventually settled after the war. This brief pastoral section links into a coda celebrating the outbreak of peace. Motifs from earlier in the piece return but changed into brighter modes. ’

A Bugle Will Do was first performed by the NZSO in 1996 under Andrew Sewell, and was subsequently performed in the USA.

• Ritchie, A.: A Bugle will Do; computer-set 

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• Ritchie A.: A Bugle will do; facsimile 

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• Anthony Ritchie: A Bugle will Do; video 

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• Music by Anthony Ritchie 

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• Anthony Ritchie: A Bugle Will Do 

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• Hamilton: A Celtic Blessing; computer set 

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• David Hamilton: A Celtic Blessing; video 

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I did intend to sit down and compose an orchestral epic. I really, really DID, honest. Could I help it that as soon as I made that decision, the saxes started up a 1920s tea dance in my computer?! Only it’s not all sweetness and light and good ol’ days, in fact it sometimes gets a little murky in there, to say the least…

• Audain: A Charleston Kick With Steel Caps – alto sax quartet version; computer set 

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• Audain: A Charleston Kick With Steel Caps – alto sax quartet version; computer set 

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• Yvette Audain: A Charleston Kick With Steel Caps – alto sax quartet version; video 

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‘This musical supplication is inspired partly by the playing of world-renowned duduk player Djivan Gasparyan. It is a plea for a balm, a cool wind, to ease anguish and torment.’
– John Psathas, note on the score of A Cool Wind.

The composer writes: ‘In my past experiences collaborating with master folk musicians in Greece, I repeatedly came across the same answer when querying them on their ultimate aim when performing; namely that what they try to do is emulate the human voice, whatever the instrument they happen to be playing (even percussionists!) I think the inspiration behind this concept is one of eliminating the barrier between the impulse and the sound, to remove the instrument from the equation and – in the way of singing – articulate spontaneously. The duduk is one of the most remarkably voice-like instruments I have ever heard, and it is this quality which inspired me when writing.’

‘The title page refers to this piece as a supplication, and this is the best description of the overlapping inner parts that grow out of the opening few measures.’

• John Psathas: A Cool Wind; video 

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• Chris Cree Brown: Artists Prepare - documentary; video 

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