Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

I like to start my day by going for an hour's walk, usually before sunrise. Adelaide's streets are usually pretty quiet before dawn, which gives time and space to reflect and think. But most of all I love to hear the birds as they gradually wake up, beginning with the magpies.

The environment and mood of my early morning walks around Adelaide are the inspiration for this music. It is mostly written in a very tonal, postminimalist language, with an episodic structure of recurring material, always slightly different at each iteration, and always using a subtly unpredictable numbers of repeats. There is a three-note ostinato played most of the way through - but stopping for certain key passages. This musical language is used to capture the freshness, quiet, solitude and almost timeless sense of space experienced on these morning walks.

Interspersed through the work are five 'magpie' episodes, in which the ostinato is stilled and fast, non-diatonic phrases warble away in the treble in rough imitation of Australian magpie song. These mysterious episodes are the heart of the piece.

Work Details

Year: 2016

Instrumentation: Piano.

Duration: 10 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Dedication note: Dedicated to Hugo Selles

First performance: by Hugo Selles — 12 Feb 17. Ukaria (Mount Barker, SA)

The composer notes the following submitted styles, genres, influences, etc associated with this work:
Minimalism, Nature, Birdsong, Adelaide