Tuatara

About

As part of the 1998 Sunday Concert series of the Wellington Chamber Music Society, Gareth Farr and pianist Dan Poynton presented a concert of music for percussion and piano, which had the unifying theme of the New Zealand forest. The concert hall was decked out with potted plants and giant fern fronds for the occasion, and the eclectic programme included the new arrangement of Poyton's Moa and the specially-composed companion-piece, Tuatara. Each was named after a creature unique to New Zealand's native fauna - the moa was a giant, flightless and now extinct bird, and tuatara is a remarkable reptile, thought to be a species which has existed since the time of the dinosaurs.

Tuatara is based on two musical ideas which are heard concurrently at the beginning. A jaunty, angular, syncopated theme in the piano part is set against the marimba's running semiquavers. The musical argument of the work is entirely derived from these two ideas, which are exchanged between the instruments and subjected to development by variation. The percussion part is enhanced through the addition of tom-toms and cymbals as the work proceeds.

from Tangaroa - Trust Records