By:

• Dorothy Ker

Duration:

05' 00"

Instrumentation:

3333; 3131; perc (4 players), harp; strings (20.10.8.6). Percussion 1: 3 sus. cym., glock., maracas, rain stick, tub. bell Percussion 2: 3 tam tams (sm, med, lge), 3 triangles, 3 large wood drums (free-standing), 5 wood blocks, glass chimes, bamboo chimes, nipple gong Percussion 3: timp (28"), metal chimes, 4 cowbells, snare drum, rain stick Percussion 4: bass drum, 5 toms, 2 timbales, 4 temple blocks, referee's whistle, rain stick;

Availability

• This work has 2 scores

Programme Note

This work employs the device of a passacaglia, ie a recurring harmonic sequence, in this case linked to a talea – a rhythmic ostinato – of expanding and contracting durations and dynamics. The phasing of chord sequence and talea, their being different in length, results in an ‘elliptical’ profile of the sequence that draws focus to a different part of it each time it comes around. As it passes it draws in fragments of its transformed self, as well as other cyclic events, giving a continually renewed range of contrasting colours from the the orchestra, the predominant opposition being, as the title suggests between ‘dark’ and ‘light’ timbres: the process of the work in broad terms is a transformation from the one state to the other. The work was inspired by the New Zealand painter Colin McCahon’s ‘Northland Panels’.

Difficulty:

Advanced

Influences:

• Sculpture/ painting

Performance History

	28 Nov 1998	Performed in a rehearsed reading by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marc Taddei as part of the NZSO-SOUNZ Readings
		Marc Taddei    New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Awards

• NZSO-SOUNZ Readings (1998)
  

  Darkness and Light was performed at the NZSO-SOUNZ Readings in November 1998