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Digital Sheet Music [PDF]: ScoreA distant shore : [eScore] / music by Andrew Schultz ; text by Louis Nowra.by Andrew Schultz (1991)
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Product details
A Distant Shore
commenced as an idea for a collaborative project between Louis
Nowra, Garrick Jones and myself in 1987. Subsequent grants from
the Australia Council Literature and Performing Arts Boards
provided the means for its creation. It was originally conceived
as a work which could be performed as either a song-cycle or in a
staged music-theatre version scored for small ensemble and
baritone and subsequently grew into the current version for small
orchestra (consisting of three brass, harp, piano, percussion and
strings) and baritone. Most of the music was composed in 1988
immediately after another large piece, the opera Black River. The
lyrical and lush musical style of A Distant Shore was partly a
reaction to the bruising directness of Black River; nonetheless,
the works do share many thematic and structural similarities. The
score was revised and another interlude added at the beginning of
1991.
Louis' interests in the intermingled topics of
the sea, desire, love and memory produced many rich associations
for me. Hence, a number of my earlier works such as Sea-Change
for piano and Sea Call for three brass are recalled and reworked
in A Distant Shore to which they form a type of commentary; the
composer is remembering as is the man portrayed in Nowra's
sensitive text. Memory is important on another level, the work is
in 11 movements which apart from the song settings is made up of
a prelude for brass and two orchestral interludes (the second is
a reworking of the first, like deja vu). There is a continual
transformation and overlapping of ideas framed by a strong sense
of symmetrical arch shape with the deliberately sentimental sixth
movement, Barcarole (scored only for baritone with prepared piano
and percussion accompaniment), as a pivot. To further suggest the
ideas of memory and time, use is made of off-stage brass in
movements 7 - 9; the effect is meant to be like one of those
strange fleeting memories that never seem to get further than the
edge of memory but leave one with a bitter taste of grief. This
seemed an appropriate analogy for the internal drama of a man
caught between past and present but now (as Nowra puts it),
"mostly past".
Published by: Australian Music Centre — 1 digital (PDF) facsimile score (125p. -- A4 (landscape))
Difficulty: Advanced — Professional
Duration: 45 mins
Sea call -- Steps -- Two small hands -- The sea is made from memories -- Interlude 1 -- Behind the dunes -- Barcarole -- Bad memories -- A distant shore -- Drowning -- Interlude 2 -- Bright, bright, brilliant.
Commissioned by Garrick Jones with funds provided by Australia Council. Performing Arts Board.
First performance by The Hunter Orchestra, Garrick Jones, Roland Peelman — 1 May 91. Concert Hall, Newcastle University Conservatorium, Newcastle NSW
Includes performance notes.
This is a handwritten edition — it is not typeset.
Related products
This work is also available in the following products:
Score: A distant shore / music by Andrew Schultz ; text by Louis Nowra.
CD: Selected Works by AMC Represented Artists, vol. 82 / Works by Andrew Schultz.
Parts: A distant shore / music by Andrew Schultz ; text by Louis Nowra.
- Browse other works for Baritone with chamber ensemble
- Browse other works by Andrew Schultz
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