Work
Learning to nudge the wind
for orchestra
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About
Aotearoa is a long narrow land surrounded by sea and buffeted by the wind. We who live here learn to know the direction of the prevailing winds and to track the changes in the sky and on the water. As a child visiting grandparents in Wellington I was mesmerised by the evanescent sweep of wind and wave patterns on the harbour surface as gusts blew silver and black across the water. I listened to the adults talk; they spoke of ‘southerly changes’, of ‘squalls’, and of the wind ‘going around to the south’. A new language that conjured images of a dynamic interchange with the wind. The line ‘learning to nudge the wind’ is taken from a Cilla McQueen poem, and captures for me that relationship. ‘Learning to nudge the wind’ was written for St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra and had its first performance in May 2010.
Commissioned note
Commissioned by St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra
Difficulty note
good community orchestra with good wind players
Contents note
a single movement work
Text note
The title of this work is taken from the poem 'Quark Dance' by Cilla McQueen
Performance history
16 May 2010: Performed by the St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra conducted by Michael Joel at St. Matthew's in the City, Auckland
Performed by the Wellington Chamber Orchestra conducted by Michael Joel, in 2010
Performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with conductor Hamish McKeich in June 2012