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Score
Resonances : 12 movements for solo piano / Michael Hannan.
Library shelf no. 786.2/HAN 30 [Not for loan]
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Work Overview
Resonances I (1987) is the first of a series of four
works, each with three movements, which explore the complex
resonances of the piano by means of a constantly depressed
sustaining pedal. Like George Crumb's Makrokosmos works, the
complete cycle of twelve
Resonances movements corresponds to the twelve astrological
signs. Each movement is dedicated to one or more friends or
associates (mostly composers) who have been born under the
relevant sign. Some aspect of their work or personality has been
used as a source
of inspiration for the composition of that movement, and
occasionally there are actual musical references to the works of
these people.
The Aries movement of Resonances I, "Celestial Ground,"
is dedicated to Anne Boyd, Trevor Pearce and Vincent Plush. The
main musical reference is the alternating A flat and B flat of
Anne's Angklung for piano (1974), a pioneering Australian
exploration of the extreme static qualities of some Asian
traditional musics. "Celestial Ground" was begun in Brisbane in
early 1986, and the melodic material of the last three phrases is
a transcription of song fragments of the pied butcherbird, whose
calls were heard frequently during the
period of composition.
Butcherbird calls also provided the main melodic materials for
the composition of the Taurus movement, "Earth Song," which is
dedicated to Peter Sculthorpe, Eva King and Sally Mays. The
ostinato figures at the beginning of the movement are influenced
by Peter's music, while the frenetic rhythmic textures towards
the end are a response to Eva's soundtrack for Kate McCarthy's
performance art piece, Mimulus (1986). The harmonic content of
this movement is derived from my earlier Three Meditations
for Dane Rudhyar (1984), the first work of mine to explore
piano resonance as a principal compositional strategy.
"Perpetual Inversion" is dedicated to Clive Pascoe and Martin
Wesley-Smith, the latter being a Gemini both astrologically and
biologically. Although I was responding to the personalities of
these two in the initial stages of composition, this movement
also owes debts to the harmonic materials of Sculthorpe's Night
Pieces and to the piano figurations of Debussy and Ravel.
Michael Hannan
Work Details
Year: 1987
Instrumentation: Piano.
Duration: 9 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Contents note: Celestial ground -- Earth song -- Perpetual inversion.
Dedication note: Dedicated to Clive Pascoe, Sally Mays, Eva King, Martin Wesley-Smith, Peter Sculthorpe, Vincent Plush, Trevor Pearce, Anne Boyd
Analysis
Resonate article: A lifetime of engagement with Australian music by Michael Hannan
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