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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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This piece was inspired by a most mundane and unremarkable occurrence that you may well ignore – like a flick of lights. Was it a signal, or was it accidental. If it wasn’t an accident, what would have happened if I responded. Maybe something wonderful, maybe not. Was it meant for me? Was it meant for anyone? Could things have gone sour? All these things plunge through the mind, but no one will ever know.

But even after it is shrugged off, the bitter sweet sound of opportunities lost sing on.

A Flick of Lights is in a single movement primarily for solo bass clarinet, but with two other hidden parts for effect. The hidden parts (clarinet and soprano) can be included in the programme (as in first performance) or excluded from the programme (as in second performance) if a surprise for the audience is desired. Hidden parts should be or should sound distant.

• Young, A.: A Flick of Lights; computer-set 

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• Young, A.: A Flick of Lights; computer-set 

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The overall conception of the piece is underpinned by an evolving, wave-like movement – continuous cycles stretching/compressing/proliferating. There is a strong connection to the sea, as in [… and…11], composed in 2002. A passacaglia of seven chords, gradually permutating until they eventually assemble into reverse order, form the ground or ‘canvas’. The various textural and linear surfaces of the piece all emerge from this ground as reflections, extensions, compressions, or distillations of the core material. Quarter-tones (division of the chromatic scale into 24 tones instead of the usual 12) enrich and intensify the harmony while rendering it more tactile and less pitch-defined.

Review:

“The 7-minute a gentle infinity…is both atmospheric and deft in Ker’s handling of a large orchestra, subtly dynamic (not least in the use of percussion), edgily communicative, and vibrant in its imagery; a piece full of good things, arguably cut off prematurely. Conducted by Pavel Kotla, the LSO once again suggested that Ker (in attendance) is a composer to watch out for.”

-Colin Anderson, www.classicalsource.com

• Dorothy Ker: a gentle infinity - hardcopy score 

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• Dorothy Ker: a gentle infinity - downloadable PDF 

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• Dorothy Ker: a gentle infinity - hire set 

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This album was inspired by the poem “To L.H.B.” by Katherine Mansfield that was the first poem set.

• Bell: A NZ Journal: Songs for Solo Voices; computer set 

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• Bell: A NZ Journal: Songs for Solo Voices; computer set 

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• Michael Bell: To L.H.B.; audio 

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“I enjoyed playing the first performance of ‘An Irksome Vengeance’ with Yvette. The piece explores quite complex rhythmic patterns at a high level of expertise, calling to mind jazzy and folk-type drive with well-executed lyrical connections. The audience seemed to relate warmly to the work, so I think it is well deserving of future airings." – Katherine Hebley, cellist, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and 175 East

This piece was largely informed by my involvement in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Remix the Orchestra courses, during which fascinating syntheses of classical and hip-hop musics are created.

I have an all-encompassing view of music and have never shied away from influences outside the ‘classical’ genre: in this short work can also be heard a fleeting post-grunge-informed bassline and maybe, even, a slight tinge of progressive rock.

It recently occurred to me that many of us have a rap song from our formative years to which we know, if not ALL the words, at least most (often entirely despite ourselves!). Upon rediscovering Monie Love’s It’s a Shame (chorus originally recorded by the Spinners and written by Stevie Wonder), the phrase ‘an irksome vengeance’ jumped out at me from the lyrics.

Upon catching up with a former mentor prior to the composition of this work, I was reminded of the concept of a ‘groove-based’ piece, and to this end I have tried not to let the basic pulse abate for too long at a time, so as to create as much continuity as possible.

Yvette Audain

• Audain: An Irksome Vengeance; computer-set 

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• Audain: An Irksome Vengeance; computer-set 

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• Yvette Audain: An Irksome Vengeance 

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The Carmina Gadelica, known in Gaelic as Ortha nan Gaidheal, is a six-volume collection of orally-transmitted prayers, poems, blessings and other material, collected by the folklorist Alexander Carmichael in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the second half of the nineteenth century. Carmichael subsequently translated this material, and edited the first two volumes. The death dirge An Tuiream Bais was published in the third volume, edited by Alexander’s grandson, James Carmichael Watson. I have set the first, fourth, fifth and sixth verses in the original Gaelic language.

• Shortis: An Tuiream Bais; computer-set 

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• Shortis: An Tuiream Bais; computer-set 

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• Carol Shortis: An Tuiream Bais; audio 

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Anastasis is an exploration of musical contrasts where chamber music elements of intimacy and social interplay are juxtaposed with the colour and power of a full symphonic orchestra. Baroque Concerto Grosso traditions form the conceptual basis of Anastasis: instrumental divisions within the orchestra, like the wind sections, are exploited, and new instrumental groupings have been created using combinations of individual players across the ensemble. Elements from the twentieth century Concerto for Orchestra form have also been utilised, particularly the focus on the diversity of instrumental colour, extended instrumental range and virtuosity, and the array of dynamic and textural possibilities.

“Anastasis, our first taste of the APO’s resident composer, Chris Adams, proved to be a most attractive score.

Adams knows where and how to uncover unexpected colours in a piece that enjoys jolting us with huge orchestral shouts in among more subdued, almost filigree passages.

The second movement unfolds, with woodwind patterning, from lounge-laden harmonies and Adams nods to all manner of musics throughout the piece, right through to its conga-line finale.

It is an appealing score that deserves a life beyound this single performance."

William Dart, NZ Herald 7th September, 2009
For the full article please click here

• Adams, C.: Anastasis; computer-set 

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• Adams, C.: Anastasis; computer-set 

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• Adams, C.: Anastasis; computer-set 

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• Chris Adams: Anastasis - Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra 

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• Brownlee: As if to catch the fleeting tail of time; computer-set 

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• Brownlee: As if to catch the fleeting tail of time; computer-set 

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• Philip Brownlee: As if to catch the fleeting tail of time; audio 

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• Philip Brownlee: As if to catch the fleeting tail of time; video 

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• Philip Brownlee: As if to catch the fleeting tail of time 

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• Two pieces by Philip Brownlee 

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• Adams, C.: Athena's Nymphs and the Downfall of Troy; computer-set 

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• Adams, C.: Athena's Nymphs and the Downfall of Troy; computer-set 

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Much of my work is a marriage (or balancing act) between the Western art music tradition and my own position in time and place. Along with many forms, I have had a love for sacred choral music from Mediaeval times through to the present, but in not being a Christian, I have felt a reluctance to set text in which I don’t fully believe.

In reading the work of spiritual author, Eckhart Tolle, I have discovered a new connection with biblical texts. Tolle quotes the line “Be still, and know that I am God” in his book A New Earth, as an example of a universal truth that is at the heart of all religions and belief systems. In this text “God” may be seen as the Christian God, an omnipresent spiritual dimension or the universe personified. This line, and the rest of the text, is from Psalm 46. In setting this text I have found an opening into the world of sacred choral music that aligns with my own beliefs.

Anthony Young

• Young, A.: Be Still; computer-set 

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• Young, A.: Be Still; computer-set 

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• Anthony Young: Be Still; audio 

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• Works by Anthony Young 

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