Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

This setting includes a development of a technique first called fuori di passo by Peter Sculthorpe, another Australian composer, and used in his work Mangrove in the violoncello parts where the subsequent 'cellos shadow the first slightly under the pitch but in no definite interval and different for each instrument in the section. Sculthorpe developed a notation for this. The St Luke Service changes the technique slightly but for ease of reference in the score still calls it fuori di passo and notes it as such. Here, while one voice in the part using this technique begins as notated in the score (notated differently to Sculthorpe and more in the form of a modern edition of plainsong), the other voices may begin at subsequent times decided on by the individual singers at the time, and sung in their own time. They continue the phrase until the next notated rest or double barline whence they cut off no matter where they are up to in the phrase. Fuori di passo as defined and used in this work is thus different to Sculthorpe's technique in that it is not a blurring of pitch but one of rhythm. This creates a note cluster over which other fully-notated parts are sung. The technique takes its inspiration here from plainsong which is not set in rhythm and thus differs slightly in each performance. Here Gregorian Psalm tones are used when the fuori di passo technique is employed. The tones used are noted in the score.

Work Details

Year: 2010

Instrumentation: SSATB a cappella.

Duration: 7 min.

Difficulty: Medium

Contents note: Magnificat (4 min., 15 sec.) --  Nunc Dimittis (2 min., 45 sec.)

The composer notes the following influences associated with this work:
 Peter Sculthorpe, Gergorian chant, Anglican liturgy, harmonisation of Gregorian tones.