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Chris Adams  

In Memoriam

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 2005
for orchestra

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John Rimmer  

Manukau Refrains

Duration: 13' 00" Year: 2007
for three percussionists and orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    2222;2200;3 perc;harp;strings perc 1: timp, large susp. cym., snare,guiro,large log drum, small rain stick perc 2: marimba, medium suspended cymbal, snare drum, guiro, medium log drum perc 3: vibraphone, small suspended cymbal, snare drum, guiro, small log drum
  • Programme Note

    ‘Manukau Refrains’ is a delicate, colourful piece for 3 percussionists and community orchestra inspired by images of wading birds (‘manukau’), shifting patterns of water and sand in an environment teeming with life. In performance, the percussionists are spaced apart with the timpani in their usual position at the rear of the orchestra and the marimba and vibraphone in front of the orchestra. Each percussionist also plays a variety of small non-tuned instruments such as guiros, small drums and Pacific log drums. After a soft introduction, the ‘refrain’ begins as a short rhythmic pattern played by the timpani and is extended on each of its repetitions. Gradually instruments from the orchestra are drawn into this activity which accelerates as the piece progresses. The music builds to a climax followed by a short coda which reminisces on the mood of the opening.

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Gillian Whitehead  

the improbable ordered dance

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 2000
for full orchestra

Audio Sample
  • Instrumentation
    3334, 4331, hp, pf, timp, perc. 3 players (resaresa (rainstick), 7 roto-toms, xylophone, vibraphone, claves, metal chimes, tamtam,bass drum,tapped stones, 5 suspended cymbals, flax bundle, 5 woodblocks, guiro) strs.
  • Programme Note

    In his 1974 collection ‘The lives of a Cell’, Lewis Thomas wrote a memorable essay devoted to the spectrum of sound made by all living creatures. He believes that as well as producing sounds in every possible way to send messages to their own kind, all creatures have the urge to make some kind of music. The rhythmic sounds emitted by all creatures might, Lewis suggests ‘be the recapitulation of something else – an earliest memory, a score for the transformation of inanimate random matter in chaos into the improbable ordered dance of living forms.’ It was this essay, together with my fascination in the rediscovery of the part of Auckland I knew as a young child, that have shaped this piece.

    The basis of the piece is the twelve possible three-note groups which function to form molecular structures – harmonic, textural, gestural, melodic – some simple, some complex, often symmetrical. The piece could be regarded as part of a classical tradition, in that it focuses primarily on balance of pitch and orchestration rather than on gesture or programmatic elements, and places the instrumental writing well within the range of the instruments rather than exploiting their extremes.

    The improbable ordered dance is in a single movement and begins with a ghostly chant-like melody over a drone; this recurs in different forms several times during the piece. A transition section based on transformed sounds of nocturnal birds leads to a metrically free ‘dawn chorus’. The following chorale-like passages and the rapid sections that follow are part of a restless upward-moving continuum which can never settle nor ever finish. The later sections of the piece recycle, combine and finally dissipate the earlier material.

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