Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

During the Middle Ages there existed a vibrant musical culture in the southern-most region of the Italian Peninsula, Calabria. There existed also an ancient nobility descended from Byzantine nobility who ruled over a people who were a rich mixture of Greek, Albanian, Moorish and pre-Roman Southern Italian ancestry. Having been deforested by the Romans and Byzantines Calabria was reduced to rocky, infertile hills and vales. As a result there are limited instruments in Calabrese musical tradition. The principal sound sources are the voice, the zampogna (a goat skin bagpipe) and different sized resonant granite rocks called sonupetru. These dances are transcriptions of some of the music handed down traditionally in the town of San Giovanni di Gerace by the legendary bard Giambattista Miciappá.
This work was originally scored for trombone instead of clarinet and premiered by Simone de Haan (trombone), Daryl Pratt (marimba/vibraphone) and Christian Wojtowicz ('cello) September 15, 1995 at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, Hobart. Calabrian Dances II was revised in 2000 and performed by Heather Monkhouse (clarinet), Tom O'Kelly (marimba) and Christian Wojtowicz ('cello).

Work Details

Year: 1995

Instrumentation: Trombone, marimba, cello.

Difficulty: Advanced

First performance: by Simone De Haan, Daryl Pratt, Christian Wojtowicz — 15 Sep 95. Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, Hobart