Shifting 2 - Performance Notes
Welcome to Shifting!
After another year of canceled shows and disappointment, we’re thrilled to be back on stage to perform for you this rich and diverse program that reaches across countries and times. As a new art organisation we are committed to presenting new, lesser-known, and emerging voices.
If you enjoy this evening’s performance, think about attending Shifting 1 (26 February 2pm) where we perform intimate small ensemble works from across the Asia-Pacific.
We have also just announced two other performances: Diapsalmata featuring the music of Kym Dillon and Folding a new dance-baroque music collaboration curated by Kim Tan and featuring dance and choreography from Ashley Dougan.
Finally, we have also launched our digital reimagining of Arnold Schoenberg’s epoch-defining Pierrot Lunaire. Explore the moonlit world from the comfort of your own home, encompassing dance, video, design, visual art, prose, poetry, and chamber music.
As with all Forest Collective shows we welcome you to clap when you feel.
You’re welcome to document your experience on your phone, however, please respect your fellow concert-goers. And be sure to tag us! #forestcollective @forestcollective
- Evan J Lawson, artistic director.
Forest Collective acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, meet, create, and perform - primarily Wurundjeri land of the Kulin Nation.
We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and extend our respects to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, past and present. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs, and relationship with the land. We recognise Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of this nation.
Toru Takemitsu (1930 - 1996)
Rain Spell (1982)
For flutes, clarinet, vibraphone, harp & piano
dur. 10”
Scored for flute, clarinet, harp, piano and vibraphone, and running about 10 minutes in duration, Rain Spell is one of the composer's pieces expressing his fascination with rain and the random flow of water (Rain Coming, Water-Ways, Riverrun, Waterscape, Rain Tree, Garden Rain, etc.), a theme also shared by one of Takemitsu's main influences Claude Debussy. Written for the Sound Space Ark in Tokyo, Rain Spell opens with isolated arpeggios and gentle flutterings like splashes of water. Strange multiphonics sound like electronic insects. The melodies become longer and more full of eerie effects accompanied by muted harmonics on harp and piano. These describe the deep "spell" woven by the rain more than the sound of falling rain itself, and that is the genius of Takemitsu's spiritual insight expressed in his art.
Program note from allmusic.com.
Richard Meale (1932 - 1996)
Las Alboradas (1966)
For flute, violin, horn and piano
dur. 13”
Richard Meale was born in Sydney on 24 August 1932. Between 1946 and 1955 he studied piano (under Winifred Burston), clarinet, harp, history and theory at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, but he remained self-taught in composition. In 1960 Meale won a Ford Foundation Grant for his composition, Sonata for flute and piano. Meale used the grant to study non-Western music at the University of California in Los Angeles and concentrated on Japanese court music and Javanese and Balinese gamelan.
After visiting Europe in 1961, Meale joined the Music Department of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and developed special programs of Asian and contemporary music. He remained at the ABC until 1968.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Meale's music gained considerable interest. In 1965 Homage to Garcia Lorca was performed at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in the Royal Festival Hall, London, by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Dean Dixon. In the same year, Meale was solo pianist in the first Australian performance of Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques in Sydney. With such works as Nocturnes (1967), Very high kings (1968), Clouds now and then (1969), Soon it will die (1969), Interiors/exteriors (1970), Coruscations (1971), Incredible floridas (1971), Evocations (1973) and String quartet (1975), Meale achieved international recognition and was represented at festivals, including the Warsaw Autumn Festival and the Paris Rostrum, as well as being frequently broadcast on European radio.
In 1969 Meale took up an appointment as Lecturer/Teacher at the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, where he was a reader in Composition until 1988.
By 1979, Meale had completed Viridian and began work on his first opera, Voss. Voss, based on the novel by Patrick White, premiered in Adelaide in 1986 by the Australian Opera and had subsequent performances in repertoire in Sydney (1986, 1990) and Melbourne (1987).
Meale was awarded an Australian Creative Fellowship in 1989 and in 1991 his second opera, Mer de Glace, premiered in Sydney by the Australian Opera. Like Voss, the libretto for Mer de Glace was by David Malouf. Later works included Melisande for solo flute which premiered in 1996, and in 2002 his Three Miro pieces was performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
In 1985 Meale was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to music. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Australian National University in 1996, and in 2000 was conferred Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University of New England.
Sources: Richard Meale: list of works. Sydney: Boosey & Hawkes, 1991. 'Richard Meale', Australian Music Centre, 2003, viewed 20 January 2009, http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=449
Toru Takemitsu (1930 - 1996)
Waves (1976)
For clarinet solo and ensemble
dur. 10”
Takemitsu was born in 1930 in Tokyo and died in 1996. He achieved worldwide renown for works that combined the tradition of Western classical music and the sounds of traditional Eastern instruments, especially the biwa (a short-necked lute) and the shakuhachi (a bamboo flute), in addition to serial music and musique concrète. His compositions also used percussion in unusual ways, electronic alteration of orchestral sounds, and even silence to return to music the sensuality he thought it had lost.
Takemitsu first gained public recognition as a composer in the late fifties, with his "Requiem" for strings (1957). His interest in different artistic fields and his self-taught status deeply influenced his avant-garde style. He was using tape recorders to create musical collages out of "real" sounds ("musique concrète") as soon as 1950 ("Water Music" 1960, "Kwaidan" 1964). Takemitsu was also very receptive towards other music (jazz, chanson, pop tunes) and, being an ardent film fan, he has also composed film music. Although at home in the electronic media and film music, his most characteristic works are perhaps for chamber ensemble and large orchestra. Takemitsu is in particular an instrumental composer and being adherent to a "musique concrète", he uses - even in his electronic pieces - solely natural sounds instead of electronic ones.
Toru Takemitsu's work as a composer, teacher, and author has established new bridges between east and west. A true multimedia artist, his music is regularly featured in Takemitsu festivals around the world and has been commissioned and performed by orchestras including the Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and others.
In 1951, Takemitsu and several other composers, painters, performers and poets organized the Experimental Workshop for collaboration in mixed media. The group created new work that combined elements of traditional Japanese music and modern music. Studying modern western music brought him to a unique recognition of Japanese culture and led to the development of his own personal and idiomatic language, which fuses oriental and western musical gestures. Thriving on this blend of influences, Takemitsu established the "Music Today" series in Tokyo, which creates opportunities for performers and composers of contemporary music from around the world to work together and exchange ideas.
Takemitsu's music is known for its preoccupation with timbre and texture and for its silence. He has said that "(I compose to) find my own existence, and through that, to feel my relationship to other human beings." His earliest large work, Requiem for String Orchestra (1957), was heard in 1959 by Igor Stravinsky, who declared it to be a masterpiece. Aaron Copland, following a visit to Tokyo in 1966, made the following enthusiastic statement about the music of Takemitsu: "I consider him to be one of the outstanding composers of our time". Takemitsu's prodigious output includes work for symphony orchestras, choirs, chamber ensembles, traditional Japanese gagaku orchestra and electronics. He has also written extensively on Japanese cinema, produced his own documentary on Antonio Gaudi, and designed the "Space Theatre" for the World's Fair in Osaka in 1970.
Interval dur. 20”
Micah Thompson (1993)
Ōtaki Song (2020)
For solo Bass Flute and ensemble
2020 Forest Collective commission & world premiere
The title Ōtaki Song refers both to the place where I composed most of the music, and the overwhelming synesthetic relationship between the music and the coast. Saturated gold vermilion sunsets like fire bleed into the cool magenta of the evening. Green clay-like water murmurs and numerous chimes populate the twilight chorus.
The colours are tactile where surface and weight become integral parameters for composing. The weight of the bow on the string, changes of speed in the airflow, or subtle differences in embouchure all have significant synesthetic/coloristic meaning.
Ōtaki Song collages different smaller pieces, independently written, around the bass flute. Each instrumental part has been developed separately in close collaboration with performers. The result is a rich collision of musical lines that all have a developed sense of identity. All the sounds are anchored by the bass flute, however. The ensemble is enmeshed with the flute – constantly responding, and further saturating the colours of the solo line.
The piece is in fact a collection of songs, collaged in time and space, and anchored by the cantus firmus of the bass flute.
- Micah Thompson
Biome explores an organic mass of sound that grows around the ensemble. Each player occupies their own distinct time world, exploring a sonic identity that is unique and disparate from the group. These sonic worlds intersect to form a blurry, bubbling ecosystem of sound, which be experienced in a variety of different ways. As a listener, one could try to pick out an individual voice from the crowd, following along as it ducks and weaves through the texture, or one may instead try to absorb the soundworld as a whole, paying special attention to moments of homogeneity.
- Alex Turley
This piece was originally commissioned by Forest Collective in 2018 and has been revised for this concert in 2022.
LUO Maishuo (罗麦朔)
On That Mountain Road 在那山道旁(2006)
For voice and ensemble
World premiere of a new arrangement by Evan J Lawson
dur. 5”
LUO Maishuo is a Chinese composer and professor at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He holds a Ph.D. from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and is currently the resident composer of the Harmonia Chorus, the Chongqing Chinese Orchestra and music producer for the iSing Vocal Arts Festival. He is also a creative talent funded by the China National Art Fund. LUO has performed across many parts of the world, including Moscow, New York, Seattle, Singapore, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Macau, Sochi, Beijing and Shanghai. His compositions have been performed by the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Central National Chinese Orchestra, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and the Singapore Arts and Culture Fund, among others. LUO has also won numerous composition awards, including the China National Competition, the Voice of China competition, and the Moscow International Competition and Festival of Modern Art and Education. His music for the film Six Years – Six Days won the award for best music at the Macau International Movie Festival.
Originally composed for voice and piano, On That Mountain Road is a setting of a poem by the romantic Chinese poet XU Zhimo (徐志摩) (1897-1931). After studying at King’s College, Cambridge, XU became heavily influenced by the poetry of Keats and Shelley. He championed a more vernacular approach to Chinese poetry, breaking with the classical, formal traditions of the past. As such, he is considered to be a pivotal figure in the history of Chinese literature.
On That Mountain Road -
By the mountain road, one misty morning,
new-born indigoes peeped out of the grass,
midway I had gone with her, and there we parted,
her pure white dress fluttering amidst the green meadow.
I did not speak, she did not say farewell,
stopping by the mountain road, I thought to myself,
“Tell your secret, is this not the best opportunity?” –
Dew-covered petals seem annoyed at my hesitation.
Why hesitate? Is this not the last opportunity,
by this mountain road, on this misty morning?
Gathering my courage, I turn to her: –
But ah! Why are her eyes so filled with trepidation?
I choke my words, bow my head,
While fire and ice contend within my heart,
Ah! I suddenly understand my fate, her sorrows, –
In this thick fog, by this sombre road!
On that morning, beside the misty mountain road,
Newborn indigoes look scornfully at me from the grass
I watch as she turns away, separated from her from this moment.
Her pure white dress fluttering in the green meadow!
(Trans. Daniel Szesiong Todd.)
