Work
Onaia
for violin, cello and piano
About
Onaia stream (near Rotorua/Te Puke) passes through a narrow gully, where it is possible to wade barefoot through the shallow waters, going deeper and deeper into the high banks and ancient foliage, for several hours. Onaia is not a depiction of that place (nor a journey through it) but a translation of its energies. The sounds are not from there but make a visceral connection to it, playing with patterns and resonances, and with various qualities of surface and touch. The piece falls in pitch from extreme height to the deepest available pitch, a musical journey that might be understood as the unravelling of a single, stratified, spectrum of texture and resonance.
Commissioned note
Onaia is a co-commission from Fidelio Trio and NZTrio, with funding provided by Creative New Zealand. It was composed while Dorothy was in residence at the Lilburn House in Wellington, NZ, while on Study Leave from the University from Sheffield in 2013-2014.