Concert #5 – Absent Other
Saturday 15th December, 6-7pm
356 Bowen Terrace, New Farm QLD 4005
Adult $25 / Concession $18 / Student $10
PROGRAM
Kate Moore – Sensitive Spot
Damien Ricketson – Some Shade of Blue
Samantha Wolf – Chroma
Lisa Cheney – When We Speak
Please join the artists for a complementary glass of bubbles and sumptious nibbles after the event*
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ARTISTS
Alex Raineri (artistic director / piano)
Lachlan O’Donnell (violin)
Katherine Philp (cello)
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Featuring four Australian works for solo instrument and tape, this program explores the relationship between live-performer and the ‘absent other’ of the pre-recorded electronic counterparts.
Kate Moore’s Sensitive Spot “observes tempi, in particular the slight variations and gradations of one person’s personal perception of metric timing resulting in an intricate tapestry of interwoven rhythmic patterns and three-dimensional acoustic space. In Sensitive Spot, many takes of the same piece are recorded and overlaid, pinpointing a musical phenomena that would normally be associated with error, the inability of any human to have an exact sense of metronomic timing. In this case it is used to create something that aspires toward beauty.” (Kate Moore)
Damien Ricketson’s Some Shade of Blue is a slow song-like violin solo set over a resonant aura provided by electronic means. It is a microtonal work based on a 19-notes-per-octave just intonation system. The metaphor of colour is associated with the evolving and growing palette of intervals heard as the work unfolds. The slow intense ascent of the melodic line shadows the violin solo in the final movement of the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen: a composer whose use of pitch is intrinsically tied up with colour. The colour blue is often used to symbolise eternity, the end-point for Messiaen’s quartet.
Chroma (noun): purity or intensity of colour. Commissioned by Alex Raineri in 2017, Chroma explores various modes of interaction between live acoustic piano and pre-recorded fixed media. The piece consists of four conjoined sections: Spark, Flicker, Ember, and Ash. The other-worldly pre-recorded material is drawn entirely from various extended techniques on an acoustic grand piano. Samantha Wolf is fast becoming one of Australia’s leading composers of her generation and this work illustrates the capacity for her identification as one of Australia’s most colourful and inspired composers.
Another vibrant voice in the young generation of Australian composers is Lisa Cheney, who’s opera The Owl and the Pussycat recently premiered at the Commonwealth Games to critical acclaim. For solo cello and tape, the composer writes; “When We Speak seeks to comment on broader issues surrounding gender inequality and these considerations on my compositional practice. Throughout the work the interweaving of many ‘voices’ is present in: my own musical language, the music and speech of respected Finnish composer, Kaija Saariaho and the expression of the live cellist and their own literal voice. This, at times semi-improvised cello part, weaves its way through an atmospheric soundscape challenging and questioning the role of the live musician to blend in, fight against or rise above the sound world.”
