CSM 29: Mizu To Kuri
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/733714857
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Item Open Access Lee Buddle: Just an inkling for a angklung (1989)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1989) Composer: Lee Buddle; Nova Ensemble"Written overnight for a single pedormance by Nova, this little ditty has become largerthan the sum of its pads. The vocal effects and large cuica, originally conceived as contrast and suppod to the brittle and woody timbre of the Indonesian instruments have become a unique attraction in 'tongue in cheek' renditions of the piece. There have been over 150 pedormances of Anklungin Australia and Asia." -- Lee BuddleItem Open Access Jennifer Fowler: Echos from an Antique Land (1983)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1983) Composer: Jennifer Fowler; Nova Ensemble"Echoes from an antique land is a piece for five percussionists using tuned percussion instruments. It is a development of a piece which began life as a flute solo. In the flute piece, I was making explicit something that I've always felt strongly: namely, that rhythm and metre are quite different concepts. Rhythm, of course, is of basic importance in music, but the idea of having an underlying metre, in which the rhythms of the separate lines of music coincide all too frequently at every bar line, tends to have a constricting effect on the feeling of rhythmic flow. In the flute piece, I was concerned to progress in bundles of notes of differing length, based on a basic pulse of demi-semiquavers, and to use the expansion and contraction of these groups of notes to emphasise the feeling of phrase. In this percussion piece, I have used this same idea, but with the added parts following differing ways of expanding and contracting within the phrase. A regular metre is also present, so that there can be a tension between the parts which emphasise metre, and those that flow over it. I have been concerned to keep the whole thing very simple, but instead of the parts coinciding frequently at bar lines, they coincide at the beginnings and endings of phrases: that is, they flow in longer sections. In a similar way, the phrases begin on a particular note centre, and gradually expand out of it. Sometimes they return to the same note centre, but mostly they expand and 'settle' on a different centre. These different centres are part of a larger design of expansion and contraction. In the places where the feeling of settling needs to be particularly emphasised to show the end of the whole section, I have deliberately used some devices of archaic cadential formulae, to achieve extra anchorage. Hence the title of the piece: Echoes from an antique land." -- Jennifer FowlerItem Open Access Roger Smalley: Ceremony 1 (1986-87)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Roger Smalley; Nova Ensemble"Ceremony I, for percussion quadet, was composed between September 1986 and April 1987, especially for the Nova Ensemble, to whose members it is dedicated. Since a significant pad of the work's effect lies in not knowing what happens next, my program note will be necessarily brief. The subtitle 'for percussion quadet' is intended to suggest an analogy with more traditional ensembles, for example, a string quartet. To this end there are no large percussion set-ups; in each of the work's six continuously played movements the four pedormers are restricted to different sizes of a single instrument, occasionally two instruments. These are, in order of appearance: 1 - claves; 2 - cuica and referee's whistle; 3 - snare drum; 4 - tam-tam (with a light metal chain resting on the sudace); 5 - bongos; 6 - vibraphone and crotales. The changing positions of the players and the movement of the sounds in space are an integral pad of the musical structure. The title and the ritualistic aspects of the piece have no specific connotations, but are intended to awake personal associations in individual listeners." -- Roger SmalleyItem Open Access Stuart Hille: Mizu to Kori (1988)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1988) Composer: Stuart Hille; Nova Ensemble"This work was completed in March 1988. The title, meaning 'Water and Ice', is derived from the fact that the work explores a relationship between strictly structural sections and flowing improvisatory forms. The term 'Ice' refers to the two tightly controlled outer sections, both of which develop the same musical material. 'Water' refers to the middle section which is intended to present an evocative contrast of structural and emotive content. The players are positioned well apad in order to create a heightened quadraphonic effect, and to enhance the ritualistic quality of the music. I have used a transliteral Japanese title in order to numinously evoke some of the power and serenity created by that country's percussion music." -- Stuart HilleItem Open Access Stephen Benfall: Rough Cut (1992)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1992) Composer: Stephen Benfall; Nova Ensemble"Closed system vs. outside influence, altered destinies; exploitation, waves in longer cycles of near stasis - these are some of the elements of Flough Cut. The four players perform with relative independence yet often as a consequence of each other. The marimbist (as 'dominator') struts while the others hardly notice at least initially. An epoch is a hiccup and they all live happily ever after..." -- Stephen BenfallItem Open Access Cathy Travers: Cold Air Rising (1990)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1990) Composer: Cathy Travers; Nova Ensemble"The form of the piece is a simple rondo - ABACA. The 'A' sections using instruments of indefinite pitch; 'B' and 'C' featuring the xylophone, marimba and wind instruments of the ensemble. The title of the piece was inspired by a visit to Vancouver and the islands off the coast where Emily Carr (1871-1945) painted and wrote about the West Coast Indian Totems, supernatural beings and tribal villages: from D'Sonoqua (her story about the wild woman of the woods), The rain stopped, and the white mist came up from the sea, gradually paling D'Sonoqua back to the forest. It was as if she belonged there, and the mist were carrying her home. Presently the mist took the forest too, and, wrapping them both together, hid them away." -- Cathie TraversItem Open Access Anthology of Austraian Music on Disc: CSM: 29 Mizu to Kori Nova Ensemble(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University)