concept:collaboration series

Preparations

February 8th, 2020

preparations

Preparations is a dive into the bleeding edge of new music. As the final instalment in the 2019/20 “Concept:Collaboration” series we are featuring some of our more intimate chamber repertoire. Preparations takes place in the QLD Conservatorium where the ensemble was founded and very much represents the culmination of our collaborative project.

We are excited to be working along side guest artist Yvette Agapow for this performance.

Queensland COnservatorium | Ian Hanger Recital Hall

18:00

$20 General | $15 Concession | Free for Griffith Students

Brisbane, Australia
Preparations
QLD CON
Ian Hanger Recital Hall
FEB 8th, 2020

Setlist

Dawn Prelude
Jet Kye Chong | AUS
Instinct
Ruud Roelofsen | USA
World Premiere
Unconscious Inference
Karolina Kapustaitė | LITHUANIA
Australian Premiere
Trio for Piano, Contrabass and Bass Clarinet
Rouzbeh Rafie | ITALY
Australian PREMIERE
Gestalt "Take Be Taken"
HUNJOO JUNG | GERMANY
Australian PREMIERE
Introduction and Scherzo
Ryan Dodge | USA
Australian PREMIERE
Brief Interval
Tartarian Psalms E. Remix
Mark Oliveiro | AUS
Still Point
Christopher Buchenholz | USA
Australian Premiere
Oasis
Bracha Neil | ISRAEL
Australian Premiere
Silhouette
Deniz Can Baris | TURKEY
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
FANTASY ON THEMES FROM THE TEMPEST BY THOMAS ADÈS
Matthew Bridgham | USA
WORLD PREMIERE

Program Notes

Get immersed in the music

Dawn Prelude
Jet Kye Chong | AUS

In the still moments before dawn in suburban Canberra, scores of birds slowly awaken. The magpies call to one another in their characteristic voice as the finches interject to finish their sentences, escalating to vibrant cacophony as first light breaks. Prelude draws on this rich soundscape as basis for its musical material, and situates violin, double bass and percussion in a similar realm of interaction and conversation. Dialogues between musicians emerge and disperse through structured improvisation beneath a partial canopy of modal fragments, gently rustling textures and tumbling rhythms – a score to herald a new day.

Instinct
Ruud Roelofsen | USA

With ‘Instinct’ I wanted to go back to a more primal music with the use of contemporary instruments.

Unconscious Inference
Karolina Kupustaitė | LITHUANIA

Unconscious inference idea derives from a certain characteristic of a human hearing: a sound, which in nature contains numerous frequencies as different partials is perceived however as one single sound. Similarly, when several instruments produce sounds within low register – it appears to be difficult to distinguish those instruments as they tend to assimilate around the lower frequencies. This principle has influenced the structure, form and the timbral spectra of this piece.

Trio for piano, contrabass and bass clarinet
Rouzbeh Rafie | ITALY

The main idea of the piece was my personal imagination of “hapax legomenon” is a word that occurs only once within a context, either in the written record of an entire language, in the works of an author, or in a single text. The term is sometimes incorrectly used to describe a word that occurs in just one of an author’s works, but more than once in that particular work, but if I make a structure all based on 1 time appearances. I made some very peculiar and contrasting musical textures with a vast use of extended techniques, the most important challenge to create a structure based on one time appearances is how to join them, otherwise it can be an incoherent structure.

Gestalt "Take Be Taken"
Hunjoo Jung | GERMANY

This piece is written based on the Gestalt psychology, which is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole. The word “Gestalt” is used in German to mean the way of a thing has been “placed,” or “put together.” There is no exact equivalent for the word in English; “Form” and “shape” are the usual translations. In psychology, Gestalt is often interpreted as “pattern” or “configuration”. When trying to make sense of the world, Gestalt psychology suggests that human beings do not simply focus on each of small components. Instead, the human brain tends to perceive objects and sounds as part of a greater whole and as elements of more complex systems. This piece is a reaction against the structural schools’ atomistic orientation such as linguistic and traditional sense of classical/ contemporary structural formula. Instead, this piece adopted an approach, which fragmented experience into distinct and unrelated elements. This piece is the succession of apparent motions.

InTrODUCtion and Scherzo for Guitar and bass clarinet
Ryan Dodge | USA

Ryan Dodge’s Introduction and Scherzo for Bass Clarinet and Guitar is a fiercely “American” work that strives to balance the unlimited new musical resources of our time with the developmental coherence and melodic spirit of the past. After a short expository introduction, a churning, grooving scherzo takes off in an athletic dialogue between the players. Working through it’s material, the fast-paced scherzo subsides into a section of more intimate, nocturnal sentiment. Snaking its way back to the original scherzo dialogue, the work closes with a resounding and poignant declaration from the clarinet—only to subside with reminiscences from the work’s introduction. This piece was written for Ryan’s close friend, the guitarist Colin Fullerton.

Tartarian Psalms E. Remix
Mark Oliveiro | AUS

Before the gates of the pit is a vast abyss, where aimless souls await their fate. Often called purgatory, the expanse of a nothingness is the prelude to eternal torture.

Tartarian Psalms is a performance ritual that pays homage to a collective mythology of the underworld. The gruesome fancies of mankind are manifest in the loathing, purging, punishment, possession and irrationality of the self. Antithetical religious symbology is embodied in the bass trombone and intermedia as an exploration of the “pit”

Still Point
Christopher Buchenholz | USA

Still Point was written for a compilation CD of former students of Fred Lerdahl. In addition to my normal compositional procedure which combines set-theoretic, serial and diatonic/triadic elements, the music incorporates many of Fred’s compositional and theoretical ideas. The title of the piece is taken from T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” (Burnt Norton): “at the still point, there the dance is.” This piece is dedicated to Fred Lerdahl, with immense gratitude.

Oasis
Bracha Neil | ISRAEL

The duet “Oasis” for clarinet (Bb) and piano is based on different Maqamat and combines ethnic and classic fragrance. It contains instructions for improvisation (for the piano part) as it is used in the Mediterranean traditional music.

The work aims to describe the air of the desert, the arid freedom and its infinity as opposed to the joyful oasis full of life.

Silhouette
Deniz Can Baris | TURKEY

In my music that takes shape with this instrumentation, my goal was to build a silhouette which does not brings the initial figure to the surface but somehow reminds it to the listener via the theme I have composed for the piano which lasts for 3 measures. 

We hear the figure at the start of the music and then this figure gives birth to the complete piece.

FANTASY ON THEMES FROM THE TEMPEST BY THOMAS ADÈS
Matthew Bridgham | USA

Three arias, along with some choral/orchestral connective tissue, from Thomas Adès’ “The Tempest” are paraphrased in this work: Ariel sings of death by shipwreck in the stoic “Five Fathoms Deep;” Ferdinand reflects on losing his father to the storm in the mournful “As I sat weeping;” and a little later after being harassed by newcomers, Caliban sings a luring “Friends don’t fear” in an effort to distract the island’s Milanese visitors from noticing the dogged Ariel.