concept:collaboration series

Theories

September 15TH, 2019

This is Theories

The human experience covers a huge expanse of emotion, sense and experiences. Tonight, we broach these themes and experiment with the passage of time, the advancement of science and the mysteries of the brain. As the second concert in our Concept:Collaboration series, our setlist features six world premieres and two Australian premieres.

Backbone Youth Arts

18:00

$20 General | $15 Concession

Brisbane, Australia

Theories

Backbone

Sept 15, 2019

Setlist

Out Of Time

Alys Rayner | AUS

World Premiere

In time as one

Elias Kokkoris | AUS

World Premiere

Cerebral Pauses

Sergio Aarón Pérez Velázquez | MEXICO

World Premiere

Hydrogen + Helium

Luke Cuerel | AUS

WORLD PREMIERE

Spectral Fields in Time

Joshua Carro | USA

Australian Premiere

Bass-Drum

Hadas Goldschmidt-Halfon | ISRAEL

Australian Premiere

Aubade

Mastaneh Nazarian | AUS

World Premiere

Involuntary Citizen

Callum Kennedy | AUS

WORLD PREMIERE

Program Notes

Get immersed in the music

Out of Time

Alys Rayner | AUS

“Out of Time” is a setting of Kenneth Slessor work of the same title. The poem flickers through visions of the passing of time or the passage of time – I cannot decide which. The opening guitar chords were the creative germ for this piece. I found them experimenting on an accordion (of all things!) during a summer holiday in my family home in Canberra. In love with the verse of Australian poet Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971), I combed my copy of his selected poems for one that resonated with those chords: “I saw time flowing like the thousand yachts”. The six musicians in this work either emphasise or converse with the spoken voice as it traverses the three sections of this poem. Only between sections of poetry do the instruments experience a real togetherness in interludes of repeating, driving melody. The text of this work is used with permission of Harper Collins Publishers.

In Time as One

Elias Kokkoris | AUS

A ticking clock.

For Concept Ensemble

Cerebral Pauses

Sergio Aarón Pérez Velázquez | MEXICO

It’s a piece that emulates the electric pulses at the brain, and how irregular they are, how damaged are the scars, and the grooves and lines in our brain when something terrible happen, like a car accident, or a trauma, and how does that sounds inside our head, maybe it’s an internal chaos, entropy, something to try to keep out of mind, or maybe to take inside our brain, but for some people, it would be a pleasure to have that in mind, well, it’s a matter of criteria. Just listen at the music while you let go your brain dance, and jump, or maybe scream and laugh.

Hydrogen + Helium

Luke Cuerel | AUS

The work “Hydrogen + Helium” composed by Luke Cuerel, is inspired by the life cycle, stages, and satellite images of stars. The work has been composed to put a simplified concept and delineate a much more abstract, non-linear and complex galactic process, in awe of the spectacular nature of the galaxy. “Hydrogen + Helium” proceeds through the following short movements, in replicating a linear progression of a much more complex path of a star.

1.0 Eagle Nebula

2.0 V1647 Orionis

3.0 Hydrogen and Helium

4.0 Arcturus

5.0 Sirius B

6.0 Renewal

Each short movement is preceded by a short improvisation by a different member of the ensemble, to signify a different moment in the cycle. A continuous pulsing synth line provides a through line for the entire work to tie all 6 movements together.

Spectral Fields in Time

Joshua Carro | USA

Spectral Fields in Time, an unrelenting crescendo which rescores the spectrum of a tremolo cymbal for an ensemble of rich timbral possibilities. For Percussion, Electric Guitar, Piano, Bass Clarinet, Trombone, Double Bass, Electronics – Spectral Fields in Time is part of a cycle of works which are a direct response to the experience of realizing the greater sense and possibilities of sound when not constricted by traditional constructs or expectations. The piece was created by amplifying the lowest frequencies of a cymbal, and having the ensemble echo those pitches in a series of long phrases that gradually build to the excruciating climax.

Bass-Drum

Hadas Goldschmidt-Halfon | ISRAEL

A Duo for Percussion and Double Bass, based on energetic rhythms, include parts of Improvisation. It features the virtuosity of both performers and expresses joy of life, happiness and vitality.

Aubade

Mastaneh Nazarian | AUS

Aubade is both inspired by and based on the formal elements of a poem by award winning Australian poet Judith Bishop. The poem started a process of developing and then deconstructing materials that are captured in the accompanying audio. This ‘tape’ part acts as a collaborator to the ensemble’s score in a similar sense that the poem acted as a collaborator for the composer’s overall process. Central to this process, is a play of perspectives that moves between the text-meaning versus sound elements of speech; mirroring the score’s ‘instructions’ for musical-meaning and the act of sound-making. Again, a collaborative process leads the edge of developments.

Involuntary Citzen

Callum Kennedy | AUS

Involuntary Citizen is a piece of music based on the idea of a shifting brightness through modality. At first glance this work seems to reside in F major, however, when you start looking at the implied harmony, accidentals and beat stresses it reveals a more apparent Dorian mode implication. The Dorian mode is one of the two “brightest” pitch sets to work with in traditional modality in my opinion, given that it is essentially our natural minor scale (Aeolian Mode) with a raised 6th. This piece of music has a pseudo-programmatic context where there is an unveiled journey the music presents as it meanders through tonal ambiguity until we finally arrive at F Lydian towards the end of the piece. The Lydian Mode is the brightest pitch set in conventional modality, as it is our Major scale (Ionian Mode) with a raised 4th. This also hints at Jazz harmonic implications with the Lydian Chromatic Scale concept. I wrote this work around the Guitar and its role in this ensemble as an unconventional chamber music instrument, and also my passion, love, and experience in having played the electric guitar for many years. I drew on experiences from Western Classical Electric Guitar music, Jazz music, and modern popular music idioms to construct the material written for the guitar. The remainder of the work was written outwards as it expanded into an entire ensemble.