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clarinet in A (doubling E flat, C or B flat), bass clarinet, horn, bass trombone, cello, double bass

Many painters — most notably Francis Bacon — have produced series of satellite “studies” around one subject. While these works are complete and interesting in their own right, they also function as commentaries and footnotes on each other, and on the cluster of preoccupations they share, as much as on the “main” paintings for which they are nominally studies. Composers do this sort of thing less often, but it was with this idea of a study in mind that I set out to write a miniature “clarinet concerto” for Gretchen Dunsmore and 175 East some eight years ago.

The piece makes use of the contrasts between the generally light and lithe clarinet writing and the weightier interjections of the ensemble, and the repeated attempts of the soloist to escape the “gravitational pull” of the ensemble could be seen as one narrative strand in the work.

While a study for voicing doubts is a complete composition it was also a testing ground for ideas which have been incorporated into Rank and File Movements, a much larger clarinet concerto for Gretchen, which will be finished in early 2010.

James Gardner

• Gardner: a study for voicing doubts; computer set 

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• 175 East Vol. 8 

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• James Gardner: Selected Works 

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2(picc)3(ca)3(bass cl) 3 (cb); 4331, harp, 2 perc: glockenspiel, 3 high roto-toms, large suspended cymbal, vibraphone, crash cymbals, 4 concert tom toms, bass drum, tubular bells and tam-tam; strings

My first foray into orchestral writing. Octatonicism abounds! Dedicated to my Dad on his 60th birthday. Adversaria was workshopped by the Auckland Philharmonia, conductor Marc Taddei in 2001.

• Watson, C.: Adversaria; computer-set 

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• Watson, C.: Adversaria; computer 

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• Watson, C.: Adversaria 

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flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, bass trombone, cello and bass

There are two main forces shaping this work, which could be thought of as an “internal” force and an “external” force. The internal force is a process of growth that begins with a complex event heard towards the end of the composition. Variations of this event fan out in all directions across the work’s temporal space, ensuring that every event has a relationship, however distant, to every other event. The detailed crafting of each event, with its constant microscopic fluctuations in pitch and timbre, reflects the detailed activity in a spectral analysis of the title of the piece, a line from one of Ezra Pound’s ‘Cantos’. This analysis is expanded to have the same duration as the composition, so that the entire work is, on one level, an elaboration of a few seconds of spectral activity. The harmonic content of the spectrum is not, however, reflected in this rendering, but rather the morphology, with its evocative twistings, compressions and expansions. The harmonic organisation forms a third structural layer. It originates in the first five odd numbered partials of the natural harmonic series, built on the log ‘G’, an octave below the bass clef. Each partial forms the centre of a narrow band of pitches, from which the “melodic” material is drawn. Ultimately, however, the resulting contrapuntal writing is largely submerged in the surface timbral activity, as the other two structural layers tear at and distort its fabric.

• Hall: and the snow's lace is spread there...; facsimile 

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• Neville Hall: and the snow's lace...; audio 

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• Two Works by Neville Hall 

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SSAATTBB

• Becker: Cancer Two - "T'amo mia vita"; facsimile 

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• Becker: Cancer Two - "T'amo mia vita"; facsimile 

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• Farquhar: Chaconne; computer-set 

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• Farquhar: Chaconne; computer set 

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The derailleur is that piece of bicycle componentry which crudely knocks the chain from one sprocket or chain-ring to another, resulting in a higher or lower gear. The sensation experienced on a rider’s first encounter with the derailleur is strange: one finds oneself pedalling more or less to cover the same distance, but, once one is aware of the derailleur’s benefits, the feeling is one of control over gradient, surface and the elements. The derailleur is directly analogous in music to the phenomenon of metric modulation, a device pioneered in complex forms by Elliott Carter. In derailleurs, metric modulation is used in tutti passages to express ritardando and accelerando with a jumpy, cog-changing precision. Solo sections stand in contrast by allowing individual players the freedom to impose their own subjectivity on the concepts of slowing down and speeding up.

derailleurs was premiered at the Nelson Composers Workshop in 2001. It was awarded First Prize in the Young Composers Competition at 2002 Asian Composers League in Seoul, Korea and received a concert performance by Stroma in Auckland in 2003.

• Watson, C.: Derailleurs; computer-set 

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• Watson, C.: Derailleurs; computer-set 

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• Chris Watson: Derailleurs; audio 

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Violist stands in the middle and in front of the ensemble and is ringed by the other players (seated)

Written for one of the New Zealand String Quartet’s immensely valuable composer workshops at Victoria University’s School of Music, distal was my first attempt at the use of aleatoric elements in composition. The violist moves to the front of the performance space, ringed by the other quartet members and plays a traditionally-scored virtuosic solo from start to finish, while the trio members play overlapping, looping fragments, where individual choices can be made with regard to register, dynamic and speed of execution according to closely defined parameters. At various moments the soloist and trio converge, providing fleeting glimpses of rhythmic coherence, before withdrawing back to strange and unpredictable realms.

• Watson, C.: Distal; computer-set 

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• Watson, C: Distal; computer-set 

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3223+alto clarinet and bass clarinets; 2 alto saxophone, 2 tenor sax, baritone sax; 4431; euphonium, timpani, 4 percussions- chimes, triangle, cymbals, 2 snare drums, bass drum, glockenspiel, vibraphone.

• Audain: Earthbound Wings; computer-set 

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• Audain: Earthbound Wings; computer set 

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• Audain: Earthbound Wings; computer-set 

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• Audain: Earthbound Wings 

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• Lardelli: Eidolon; computer-set 

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• Four Works by Dylan Lardelli 

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• Dylan Lardelli 

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• Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 7 - Emerging Composers  Year: 2003 

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3332 2330 timpani, 2 perc (hi-hat, sizzle cym woodblock, ratchet, castanets, 4 tomtoms and snare drum), strs

• de Castro-Robinson: Flourish; facsimile 

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