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John Psathas - Helix (2007) - 20'
Archon: metron
The biggest nothing of them all
Tarantismo
Helix, for piano trio, was commissioned by NZTrio with funding from The University of Auckland. It was composed in 2006.
I Wayane Gde Yudane - Entering the Stream (2009) - 10'
The composer writes:
Entering the stream
as if a point of no return has been reached
as light illuminating a moment of darkness
or sound log passed into silence
no trace remains, no desire or need
the stream holds life in its sway
constant flow, forever in a state of
flux, of uncertainty, our thoughts
and senses grasp the music
our craving devours beauty
yet the moment of realisation
is when time receds
as fast as we think
we have possessed it.
So, enter the stream
for you will never
be the same again
you were never
the same
ever.
Grateful thanks to NZTrio for commissioning this work, to Creative NZ for the funding to make that possible, and to Jack Body for being part of the process.
Eve de Castro-Robinson - At water's birth (2008) - 10'
The composer writes: “The title and words used in the piece are lifted from the long poem Archipelago by Denys Trussell:
At water’s birth/the light deluge, /amen of stars/losing energy/earthwards
At the joining/of elements/the sea and/the eye of/the fish holding/the world/in its glance.
this liquid rhythm/ of space, this/blue turning/of the world/s water
archipelago
floating/in the light/s deluge/of the world/before its word.
I have found Trussell’s poetry particularly inspiring for music. this liquid drift of light for piano (2000) was also to do with water-related imagery. There is a concern with ecology, geology, mythology and identity in the poems, which acts for me as a springboard to musical utterances of a ritualistic type - hence the vocalisations, whistling, and other heightened sonorities which pervade the work. The meandering sections of the music suggest a relationship with the forces of water, its depth, currents and undercurrents. The rhythm of the words too, is reflected in those of the music.”
At water’s birth was commissioned by NZTrio, with funding from Creative New Zealand.
Phil Dadson - Firestarters [zones of darkness and unexpected light] (2008) - 25'
The composer writes: There is an improvisatory impulse at the root of the work that involves the performers embracing and engaging with a process, a language, a degree of risk, and the ability to fly.
The success of the ‘firestarters’ hinges precariously on just this, and for me that’s an exciting and essential element.
Detailed instructions, including a somewhat prescriptive methodology and a set of invocations, chart the territory for a series of dialogues, much like a set of rites might pave the way for unpredictable arisings. There’s an obvious analogy here with mapping uncharted terrain. Equipment, maps and road code are provided. The performers embark, interpreting directions according to their lights, taking the audience with them for the ride. Similarly, the ‘firestarters’ might be understood as channels or invocations towards dialogues with an ‘other’ dimension. Basic rules of language, vocabulary and syntax are established with the details of communication entrusted to the trio.
Phil Dadson is represented by Starkwhite, Auckland.
www.sonicsfromscratch.co.nz
Musheng Chen (China) - Gusu melody cappriccio (2009) - 10'
Gao Ping - Su Xie Si Ti (Four Sketches) (2009)
The composer writes:
The work has 4 short movements each with a subtitle -
1. Xiao (Boisterous)
2. Cuo Diao (Split Melody)
3. Dui Wei (Counterpoint)
4. Shuo (Shining)
As the movements are short and concise, they possess one single mood, and often one single musical idea. They are like snapshots of moments in memory. In fact, some of them are indeed musical translations of scenes from my experience, for example, Counterpoint was inspired by seeing a village funeral procession in rural China. The family members of the deceased progressed slowly, interrupted by frequent kneeling down and crying (which can be both a formal part of the ritual and an expression from the heart), while a band of very odd mixture of Western and Chinese instruments (such as a trombone and a Suona, a Chinese double-reed instrument) led the way by playing very upbeat happy music. It is not surprising as funerals in China are referred to as “the White Happiness”, while weddings are the red counterparts. In my music, the two moods are in counterpoint creating a synthetic mood of the happy and sad. Cuo Diao, split melody, or wrong key, (Movement 2) is an isorhythmic love song in which notes in the tune are playfully replaced by ‘wrong notes’ which are not from the tune or its mode. These erroneous notes, however, later little by little form a transposition of the original tune in higher register.
Su Xie Si Ti was commissioned by the 2009 NZ Music Educator’s Conference for NZTrio, through funds provided by Creative New Zealand.
David Downes - Kingdom (2009) - 15'
Kingdom is an animated film/music piece exploring the strange rituals and hidden fantasies of a family meal. Originally commissioned by NZTrio.
Judy Bailey - So many rivers (2009) - 10'
Stuart Greenbaum - The year without a summer (Trans Tasman composer exchange commission - written for NZTrio 2009) - 15'
The eruption in 1815 of Mt. Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa was over four times as big as the eruption of Krakatoa later that century but perhaps not as well known. The ash and dust thrown up into the earth’s upper atmosphere further resulted in ‘the year without a summer’ in 1816. This was by all accounts a devastating ecological event that caused unseasonal cold temperatures and widespread famine.
The first movement of this trio is short and fast. It imagines a dark cloud of dust approaching from the distance, not knowing where it came from. Did it seem a premonition? How long did they think it would last? The longer second movement shifts forward to 1816 and contemplates the upheaval of people’s lives – of having their world turned upside down in one way or another and having to regroup and adjust to new circumstances.
Gareth Farr and Richard Nunns - Nga Kete e Toru for piano trio and taonga puoro (2009) - 20'
Jack Body - Fire in the Belly (2006) - 5'
The composer writes: “Fire in the belly is that energy that impels us to do things, make things, and to act with urgency and a sense of necessity. It is one important source of creative energy, and without it art can be flaccid and dull. It is what teenagers tend to have a lot of, and what aged folk like me need to try to recapture from time to time! The work was commissioned by NZTrio with funding from Creative NZ, and I was delighted to receive this invitation from an ensemble which has such a fantastic commitment to NZ music.”
James Gardner - Blessed Unrest (2006) - 5'
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique… You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
(Martha Graham to Agnes DeMille)
The composer writes: “blessed unrest was written in response to a commission from NZTrio requesting a short ‘attention-grabbing’ piece to open a concert; a ‘high-impact, dynamic and edgy’ work that would start ‘with all guns blazing’. It took a long time until I found something that I thought satisfied this demand, because I wanted to create a sense of pent-up energy and its release in bursts rather than write an obviously motoric pulse-basedpiece. While struggling to find a solution I came across the Martha Graham quote that gave the piece its title”.
blessed unrest was commissioned by NZTrio, with funds provided by Creative New Zealand. It was composed in 2006.
Ross Harris - Senryu (2006) - 5'
The composer writes: “Senryu – a Japanese poetic form similar to haiku. “An inquiry into the nature of man.” Associating a poetic form with this music concerns the regular balanced proportions of section lengths. This strict formal outline is articulated freely and intuitively.”
Senryu was commissioned by NZTrio, with funding from Creative New Zealand.
Lyell Cresswell - Moto Perpetuo (2006) - 6'
The composer writes: “Moto Perpetuo - perpetual motion - motion that, once started, will go on for ever unless stopped by other forces or worn out. The music ebbs and flows around a lively speed of MM120 (i.e. 2 beats per second). It fluctuates only slightly between MM138 (2.3 beats per second) and MM104 (1.7 beats per second).”
Moto Perpetuo was commissioned by the New Zealand Trio, with funding by Creative New Zealand.
John Rimmer - Burning the Calories (2006) - 6'45"
The composer writes: “When NZTrio asked for a short 'high impact, dynamic, edgy' kind of piece, I immediately thought of one in which the physical gestures of the performers would be exploited. The performers would burn more calories than is usual.
In the gym that I attend, the participants begin with warm-up exercises followed by the more vigorous activities of rowing, cycling and walking. I decided to use these activities to shape my piece. Thus the form of 'Burning the Calories' has 5 sections; a 'warm-up' followed by 3 'burn' sections where the violin, piano and cello take turns to be prominent and a 'warm-down'.”
Burning the Calories was commissioned by NZTrio with funding from Creative New Zealand and was completed on 28 February 2006.
Chris Cree Brown - The Triumvirate (2005) - 5'
The composer writes: The Triumvirate was commissioned by NZTrio in 2005. The commission called for something short, energetic and dynamic. When writing the initial sketches for the work, it occurred to me that the musical phrases seemed to imitate the shape of vocal inflections that might occur when three people were having a heated discussion – the same sort of heated argument that might ensue when three strong personalities were given equal authority over the same area of responsibility. I built upon this concept when writing the work, and settled on a title that might reflect a situation when such a quarrel could possibly arise.
Gillian Whitehead - Piano Trio (Sept 2004) - 20'
The composer writes: “the ideas behind the piece have to do with changing perspectives of patterns in water – in the bubbling of streams, the tumble of a waterfall, in the spiralling eddies where stream meets lake at sunrise. In the opening movement, a group of short themes and ideas initially form a mosaic-like section, which recurs in developed and varied forms around more reflective passages. The second movement reverses the first, in the sense that slow, sustained sections are interrupted by more energetic material, and the final movement draws all the previous ideas together.”
Gillian Whitehead’s Piano Trio was commissioned by NZTrio, with funding from Creative New Zealand.
Garth Farr - Triple Concerto (2006) - 25'
Originally commissioned by the University of Waikato in celebration of the opening of the WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts, in its first incarnation the Triple Concerto was a single-movement work of 'overture' score and duration. It was composed for the Turnovsky Trio, who were to be Artists-in-Residence at the Academy. In 2005, Farr received a commission from the New Zealand Trio to expand the concerto into a full-length work.
The composer writes: ‘On the whole the piece is tonal, displaying noticeable signs of my love for Prokofiev and Shostakovich – especially their orchestral works. All three solo parts are extremely virtuosic: the piano part in particular uses many virtuoso techniques that are found in the Prokofiev piano concertos, and if you watch the pianist you will see her flying about the keyboard at times. The second movement differs significantly in mood to the outer movements; it is less tonal and is, in fact, more romantic. It features the vibraphone in the percussion section, and has a somewhat eerie feel to it.’
As he was writing the concerto, Farr says he came to understand why there are so few triple concertos in the repertoire. ‘With the piano taking the harmony, the violin the melody, and the cello taking a countermelody, there is very little left for the orchestra to do!’ He solved the problem in various ways: ‘I let the trio play as if it was chamber music, there are tutti passages where the trio plays in balance with the orchestra, and then orchestral passages where the trio drops out and the orchestra goes wild!’
For more information visit:Gareth's website
Rachel Clement - Piano Trio (2005) - 10’
1. sabbia (sand)
2. filigrana (filigree)
3. bullicante (with bubbles)
4. millefiore (thousand flowers)
5. sommerso (submerged)
The composer writes: “This set of short pieces is inspired by an interest in mid-Twentieth Century glassmaking, in which the process of changing state, or changing phase, is essential to the production of the many types of art glass. Each piece is titled with the name of a different technique and express some of the processes of freezing, melting, vaporization, condensation and sublimation.”
Shifting states was commissioned by NZTrio with funding from Creative New Zealand.
Michael Norris - Piano Trio "Dirty Pixels" (May 2003) - 11’
The composer writes: “dirty pixels was written in response to two stimuli: an exhibition of the same name curated by Stella Brennan in the Adam Art Gallery featuring New Zealand artwork of a certain rough-hewn, gritty nature; and hearing the work Jagden und Formen by German composer Wolfgang Rihm, an unremittingly wild and preposterous discourse of extremes.
These two stimuli caused something of an aesthetic dilemma: leaving behind my rather French fondness for euphonious washes of sound, I became interested in the characteristics of roughness and raggedness, and in how a ‘pure’ conceptual scheme, such as the quite systematic construction I had formulated just prior to starting this piece, became ‘dirtied’ by intuition, by the exigencies of the material and by the reality of having it performed.”
dirty pixels was commissioned by NZTrio, with funding from Creative New Zealand.
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