Score
The drowning dream : for solo percussion / Iain Grandage.
Library shelf no. 786.8/GRA 1 [Available for loan]
Work Overview
One still morning in 1902, on a beach just south
of Fremantle, a man rode his horse into the motionless waters of
the Indian Ocean, dismounted and turned to face the rising sun.
His body, gunshot wound to the mouth, was discovered shortly
after, floating at the shoreline. That man was C.Y. O'Connor,
Engineer-in-Chief of Western Australia and driving force behind
three great Western Australian feats of engineering - Fremantle
Harbour, Mundaring Weir and the Goldfields Pipeline.
The Drowning Dream is a response to the circumstances of
C.Y. O'Connor's life and death - from exacting control via
paralysing anxiety to a final, submerged calm.
The work's scoring is dominated by metal percussion instruments -
vibraphone, 9 pieces of resonant metal and 3 tubular bells are
supplemented with 6 pieces of resonant wood, a drum and a
luminescent bowl of water. The resonance of his three great feats
of engineering is reflected both in the groupings of instruments
(and their metal-piped timbres) and also in the pitch
collections, tone rows, rhythmic figurations and structures of
the work. During the latter stages, tubular bells, each rigged
independently, are slowly raised and lowered into water troughs,
creating glissandi of evocative beauty. To control these, the
performer must manipulate ropes hooked to his arms, creating
puppet-like illusions and intimating at forces beyond his
control. The real tragedy of C.Y. O'Connor's plight lies in that
image - a remarkably gifted man driven to death by his masters
(both
politicians and members of the press gallery) - people who only
shared their glowing respect for him publically once he had taken
his own life.
The melodic material is dominated by a tone row made entirely of
the 5th and the semitone with a secondary descending semitone
figuration dominating the latter section. The tension between
semitone and 5th, between compression and stasis never fully
resolves, imbuing the work with a constant sense of unease and
disquiet. Texturally, the work contains huge contrasts between
moments of woozy, quiet solitude and frenetic, dense madness. It
is in arch form, ending as it begins, with a quiet evocation of
the beach - the recapitulation, however, alluding to the presence
of a fresh ghost from that summer dawn over a century ago.
Work Details
Year: 2011
Instrumentation: Vibraphone, 9 metal objects, 6 wooden objects, 3 tubular bells (E, A, B), 1 drum (Orch bass drum or Floor Tom or Kick Drum, or a combination), troughs of water.
Duration: 10 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Dedication note: "For Paul and Cath"
Commission note: Commissioned by Ian Potter Cultural Trust for performance by Paul Tanner.. Commissioned by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust for Paul Tanner for performance in the Fremantle Arts Centre’s soft soft loud chamber music series
First performance: by Paul Tanner at Soft soft loud loud (Freemantle Arts centre) on 17 Mar 2011
Performances of this work
4 Nov 2015: at ANAM RECITAL - Thea Rossen (Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM)). Featuring Thea Rossen.
18 Sep 2011: at Twilight - Etica Ensemble (Studio Underground). Featuring Paul Tanner.
17 Mar 2011: at Soft soft loud loud (Freemantle Arts centre). Featuring Paul Tanner.
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