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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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• Fanfares for a New Millennium  Year: 2000 

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This song cycle for soprano and piano has texts by the composer in Maori and English.

“Awa Herea memorably evokes the physical appearance of symbolic significance of these braided rivers… cosmic weather-driven energy.” (Covell, Sydney Morning Herald).

“Its pace was shrewdly varied and the music encompassed a range of styles – from sung declamation to florid lyricism – without incongruity.” (Jack, Independent).

“The cycle displays all the characteristics of her [Gillian Whitehead’s] mature work. The vocal line is at once exultant and contemplative, the piano writing incisive or lulling; the formal shaping novel yet accessible. It is a memorable piece, filled with the energetic spirit of the natural world and finding through that spirit its own serenity.”

• Whitehead: Awa Herea; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Awa Herea; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Awa Herea; facsimile 

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• NZIAF: Gillian Whitehead Portrait; part 2 

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• Waikohu: Mere Boynton and Friends 

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• Tracey Chadwell's Songbook  Year: 1995 

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• Ears Wide Open Taringa Areare Education Resource CD  Year: 2000 

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• Camm: Cinderella; computer-set 

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• Psathas: Drum Dances; computer-set  Year: 1998 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 4); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 3); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 2); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances (mvt 1); video 

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• John Psathas: Drum Dances 

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• Psathas: Eight Works 

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• The Next Step; First Steps CD 

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• John Psathas: Rhythm Spike  Year: 1999 

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• Meridan: Firecracker; computer-set 

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• NZ Women Composers Vol. 2 

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• Fanfares for a New Millennium  Year: 2000 

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• Gareth Farr: From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs - hardcopy score 

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• Gareth Farr: Orchestral Music  Year: 1997 

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• Symphony of Sails  Year: 2002 

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• Gareth Farr: From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs  Year: 2009 

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Literally, ‘Horizon in the Ear’. A title intended to gently direct attention towards the possibility of a soundscape in which the organism, listening and/or embodied in the sounding materials of the work, is positioned in labile relationship to a horizon. ‘There would appear to be a landscape whenever the mind is transported from one sensible matter to another, but retains the sensorial organisation of the first, or at least a memory of it. The earth seen from the moon for a terrestrial; the city for a farmer. ESTRANGEMENT would appear to be a necessary precondition for landscape’. (Jean Francois Lyotard, The Inhuman: Reflections on Time. Trans. Geoffrey Bennington and Rachel Bowlby. Polity Press: Cambridge, 1991, p.183). Horizont im Ohr was composed in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham, and is dedicated to BEAST.

• New Zealand Sonic Art 2000  Year: 2000 

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• David Downes: Death Defying  Year: 1997 

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• Ears Wide Open Taringa Areare Education Resource CD  Year: 2000 

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• Sound Barrier  Year: 2006 

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I – On the magical island of Bali, flowing gamelan melodies intertwine with the sound of the “suling” (Balinese bamboo flute) to form rich colourful tapestries. The marimba and flute start out as one, their sounds indistinguishable. Bit by bit the flute asserts its independence, straying further and further from the marimba melody. An argument ensues – but all is resolved at the climax.


II – The haunting sounds of the Japanese “shakuhachi” flute float out over the warm echoes of the rolling landscape.

III – Complex rhythms and South Indian scales set the two instruments off in a race to see who can outplay the other. The marimba is set in a three bar cycle of 5/4 + 5/8 + 5/6 but the flute plays a different cross rhythm each time, returning to the marimba’s pattern at the end of every cycle.


from Tangaroa – Trust Records

• Farr: Kembang Suling; computer-set 

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• Gareth Farr: Kembang Suling (pt 1); video 

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• Gareth Farr: Kembang Suling (pt 2); video 

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• Gareth Farr: Kembang Suling (pt 3); video 

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• Kembang Suling  Year: 1996 

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• Gareth Farr: Chamber Music  Year: 1997 

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• Gareth Farr - Tangaroa  Year: 2008 

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