Audio Sample
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Performance by Richard Davis, Ormond Ensemble from the CD Gardener of Time |
Score
Gardener of Time : for symphony orchestra / Barry Conyngham.
Library shelf no. 784.2/CON 9 [Available for loan]
Work Overview
This work is written in memory of esteemed conductor Hiroyuki
Iwaki.
Its shape and mood are inspired by Gardener of Time, a short
essay by our mutual friend Toru Takemitsu, which owes its title
to an image in a Haiku by Australian schoolgirl Susan Morrison
(in Miracles: Poems by Children of the English Speaking
World, edited by Richard Lewis, 1966).
The poem reads:
Hours are the leaves of life.
And I am their gardener.
Each hour falls down slow.
The essay begins with Takemitsu gazing out over the foothills of
Nagano Prefecture. "The wind begins. The mists lift..." His mind
wanders: he reflects on life, on death, on nature, on
composition. "I do not stop composing, because I cannot give up
being one of these gardeners cultivating infinite
time."
The essay ends, "Moved by the view of those mountains, lost in
thought, I found that time passed quickly and the mountains were
again covered by clouds, lost from sight."
An exciting, energetic, surprising, thoughtful, sensitive, and
full-of-life person, Maestro Iwaki was also a "gardener of time"
- planning and shaping each performance, allowing each piece to
flower, and leaving behind colourful experiences that stay in the
mind.
Work Details
Year: 2010
Instrumentation: Piccolo/alto flute, flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contra-bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (3 players), harp, keyboard (celeste, piano), strings.
Difficulty: Advanced
Dedication note: In Memory of Hiroyuki Iwaki
First performance: by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tadaaki Otaka at MSO: Conyngham, Elgar, Tchaikovsky (Melbourne Town Hall) on 18 Nov 2011
Awards & Prizes
Year | Award | Placing | Awarded for/to |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Orchestral | Finalist | Barry Conyngham |
Analysis
Resonate article: Barry Conyngham on teaching, learning and the stuff of music by Anni Heino
Resonate article: 2012 Art Music Awards - comments by judging panels by Australian Music Centre
Performances of this work
27 Aug 2019: at Conyngham at 75 (The Ian Potter Southbank Centre). Featuring Richard Davis.
19 Nov 2011: at MSO: Conyngham, Elgar, Tchaikovsky (Melbourne Town Hall). Featuring Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tadaaki Otaka.
18 Nov 2011: at MSO: Conyngham, Elgar, Tchaikovsky (Melbourne Town Hall). Featuring Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tadaaki Otaka.
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