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Digital Audio Album
The Offering / Flinders Quartet, with Benjamin Martin, piano.
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Work Overview
Lawrence Whiffin, the late Australian composer, was my first composition teacher. He was also a wonderful friend of great warmth and humour, a man of strong and frequently acerbic opinions (intellectual, aesthetic and especially political), and on the domestic front, a keen follower of football and a lover of cats. He retained a childlike openness and curiosity about new ideas and music until he died.
Laurie was a pupil of Rene Leibowitz in Paris in the 1950's, and the luminous figure of Arnold Schoenberg (Leibowitz's own teacher) and the Second Viennese School was always in the background. Laurie's works reflected his 26 years living in Europe, particularly in France and Italy. While driven always by a search for truth and inner logic (see 'Schoenberg', above), the surface level is often full of mischief and wit (France, Italy). In short, his works fully reflected his personality.
While not directly programmatic in nature, the various atmospheres in this work reflect the following themes in the life of 'the poet':
the poet glimpses
paradise
the poet loses sight
of paradise
the poet tries to
regain paradise (the poet's life
work)
the poet enters
paradise…
To quote a passage from a favourite poem by Jorge Luis Borges:
'…To
transmute the outrage of the
years
Into a music, a murmur
of voices, and a symbol,
To
see in death sleep, and in the
sunset
A sad gold - such is
poetry,
Which is immortal and
poor.
…They say that Ulysses, sated with
marvels,
Wept tears of love
at the sight of his Ithaca,
Green and humble. Art is that
Ithaca
Of green eternity, not
of marvels…'
From 'Ars Poetica', by Jorge Luis Borges
(Translated by W.S. Merwin, in Selected Poems 1923-1967 by Jorge Luis Borges. ed. Norman Thomas Di Giovanni: Delacorte Press, 1972)
-- Tom Henry
Work Details
Year: 2015
Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, cello.
Duration: 13 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Dedication note: Dedicated to Lawrence Whiffin. In memory of Lawrence Whiffin (1931 - 2012).
Commission note: Commissioned by Melbourne Recital Centre, University of Melbourne.. This work was commissioned with support from Majlis Pty Ltd.
First performance: Oct 15. Monstalvat, Eltham & The Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre VIC
Videos
Scenes from a Poet's Life |
Performances of this work
Oct 15: Monstalvat, Eltham & The Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre VIC
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