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Grey Ghost : piano and fixed media [eScore] / Miriama Young.

Format	Title	AMC Library	Price
Score [ePDF]	Grey Ghost : piano and fixed media [eScore] / Miriama Young. 1 digital (PDF) facsimile score (13p. -- B4 (portrait)) Published by Australian Music Centre — 2019	Not for loan	$28.18	Add to cart
Score	Grey Ghost : piano and fixed media / Miriama Young. 1 facsimile score (13p. -- B4 (portrait)) Published by Australian Music Centre — 2018 Library shelf no. 786.2/YOU 2	Available for loan	$40.00	Add to cart
CD	This Earthly Round / Miriama Young. 1 CD Published by ABC Classics — October, 2023	Not for loan	$POA

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Work Overview

Grey Ghost is a meditation in piano and electronics, drawing on the ancient song of the once-prolific South Island Kōkako - The 'Grey Ghost' - of New Zealand.

Live piano is accompanied by a soundtrack of transformed historic Kōkako recordings. During live performance, the soundtrack is streamed through the audience's mobile phones, creating a unique forest of spatialised sound.

Prior to the concert, the audience should be directed to the following website to stream or download the track: https://miriamayoung.bandcamp.com/track/grey-ghost-soundtrack-alone . (Download or streaming of soundtrack by audience members is entirely voluntary.)

The audience should be instructed to wait for a downbeat from the pianist, then press play to stream from phone or loudspeakers whilst the pianist plays.

Ideally, the soundtrack should be reinforced through loudspeakers in order to balance adequately with the live piano. Speakers connected to mobile phones may also be used.

Recordings of North Island Kōkako were supplied by the New Zealand Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai. Other bird sounds recorded by the Composer. Thank you to Chamber Music New Zealand, and The University of Melbourne Faculty of Fine Arts & Music for supporting this project. Also, delighted thanks to Jessie Eastwood for recorded vocals.

"We all had Apps on our phones, and [the pianist] gave us an upbeat to play. Because people were scattered through the audience and there were slight differences in the timing, when you pressed play, all of a sudden.... You were in the Cathedral of the bush, with these dreamlike bird sounds.... It made you really, really listen. It was so clever.... I really loved it."

- Fiona McCabe for Radio New Zealand, reviewing Xenia Pestova's Wellington performance (2017).

Work Details

Year: 2017

Instrumentation: Piano (optional vocal part in piano), mixed media soundtrack.

Duration: 11 min.

Difficulty: Medium — Suitable for advanced students or professionals

Commission note: Commissioned by Xenia Pestova.. Commissioned by Xenia Pestova.

First performance: by Xenia Pestova — 16 Jul 17. Chamber Music NZ tour, James Cumming Wing

The composer has noted the following styles, genres, influences, etc. associated this work:
Minimalist, electronics, birdsong of New Zealand, new technologies, app. Influences: Radiohead, Moroccan vocal music, Tristan Perich, Ligeti Piano Etudes, Liszt.

Together with loudspeaker playback, audience can use smartphones to perform the fixed media soundtrack. The soundtrack can be streamed here, whilst the pianist plays: https://miriamayoung.bandcamp.com/track/grey-ghost-soundtrack-alone