CSM 31: House Songs - Music For The Seymour Group
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/733715038
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Item Open Access Stephen Cronin: House Songs VI(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Stephen Cronin; Grafton-Greene, MichaelWhile visiting Australia during 1989 Leon Waller wrote the first of seven poems which provide the text for House Songs. On his return to New York, Waller completed the group which Stephen Cronin used to write his song cycle during the next two years. The poetry, at times almost surrealistic, is pervaded by images of wind and fire and themes of isolation, expectation and change. Cronin's use of the text varies between complete and unedited use of the poetry to the use of a single line in the second song. The work is dedicated to the tenor, Gregory Massingham. It won the first Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award in 1991, and was premiered by The Seymour Group at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.Item Open Access Gordon Kerry: Sonata(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Gordon Kerry; Grafton-Greene, MichaelThe term 'sonata' has three specific connotations here: there is the baroque notion of a piece sounded, rather than sung, written for any combination of instruments. In addition, I was aware of the classical principle we now call sonata design - a way of dramatically structuring purely musical ideas. Finally, the 19th century's use of the sonata as a vehicle for instrumental virtuosity was an important influence. The piece has no predetermined schema, but seeks to create an abstract drama from the contrasts in various parameters made possible by this combination of instruments. There are passages which contrast metrical irregularity with ostinati; there is some use of aleatoric counterpoint to balance passages of more rigorously designed texture. Much of the music moves at considerable speed, but this is balanced by passages of an almost static quality. The relationships between the various sections, which are intercut on a kind of mosaic pattern, are related to the ratio of the golden mean.Item Open Access Raffaele Marcellino: The Lottery In Babylon(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Raffaele Marcellino; Grafton-Greene, MichaelThe notion of the labyrinth is one of particular resonance for the end of the millennium with the dawning of the internet, globalisation and the multinational corporation. The labyrinth reaches far back into the prehistory of humans and regularly reappears in the mythology and images of many cultures. The most famous of labyrinths is the Labyrinth of Crete with its threat of the imprisoned minotaur. Other forms of the labyrinth have surfaced in Mannerist garden mazes and the 'rhizomes' of late 20th century thinkers such as Eco, Paz and Borges. The Lottery in Babylon takes its name from a short story by Borges from his book of short stories, Labyrinths. Borges' story describes a form of lottery that creates a complex set of constructed relationship labyrinths within an imagined society. In this lottery there are not just winners but degrees of winning and degrees of losing, from losing money to becoming 'nonpersons'. This work explores relationships that are both obvious and hidden, benign and chaotic. The construction of labyrinths is the construction of symmetries; so too in this work of 'labyrinths' the symmetry of time, colour and style is explored through music.Item Open Access Andrew Schultz: Silk Canons(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Andrew Schultz; Grafton-Greene, MichaelSilk Canons is a single movement piece based on a brief duet for two sopranos, bass clarinet, vibraphone and double bass. The duet, called Silk, was a setting of an anonymous Chinese poem: When you sat in your dark chair Ripe with fat fruits of yellow and red silk Alive with blue lithe animals. Pressing your scented rose-ended Peach-coloured feet against my face, I was humiliated, as you desired. The original duet was only four minutes long; in building on the original material, Silk Canons adds a lot of new music and elaborates the idea of interwoven duet lines over a repetitive harmony. The ensemble of two flutes, two bass clarinets, piano and vibraphone is used in a series of episodic duets and full instrumental refrains. The harmonic structure and melodic possibilities of the original are also greatly expanded by the continuous counterpoint between the equal voice parts.Item Open Access Elena Kats-Chernin: In Tension(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin; Grafton-Greene, MichaelSome of the aspects of this piece from my student days are still present in my current works. Although my pitch language was more abstract at that time, and my overall style has altered, characteristics such as the extensive use of mottos and the use of a small amount of material are still apparent. The core of In Tension is that a deceptively optimistic, continually rising, yet unstable motif is insistently arrested amidst its developments to such an extent that the interruptions themselves become primary structural elements. The focus is on attaining stability; yet when finally established, there ensues an inevitable struggle to escape the dangers of inertia.Item Open Access Stephen Cronin: House Songs III(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Stephen Cronin; Grafton-Greene, MichaelWhile visiting Australia during 1989 Leon Waller wrote the first of seven poems which provide the text for House Songs. On his return to New York, Waller completed the group which Stephen Cronin used to write his song cycle during the next two years. The poetry, at times almost surrealistic, is pervaded by images of wind and fire and themes of isolation, expectation and change. Cronin's use of the text varies between complete and unedited use of the poetry to the use of a single line in the second song. The work is dedicated to the tenor, Gregory Massingham. It won the first Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award in 1991, and was premiered by The Seymour Group at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.Item Open Access Stephen Cronin: House Songs IV(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Stephen Cronin; Grafton-Greene, MichaelWhile visiting Australia during 1989 Leon Waller wrote the first of seven poems which provide the text for House Songs. On his return to New York, Waller completed the group which Stephen Cronin used to write his song cycle during the next two years. The poetry, at times almost surrealistic, is pervaded by images of wind and fire and themes of isolation, expectation and change. Cronin's use of the text varies between complete and unedited use of the poetry to the use of a single line in the second song. The work is dedicated to the tenor, Gregory Massingham. It won the first Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award in 1991, and was premiered by The Seymour Group at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.Item Open Access Stephen Cronin: House Songs II(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Stephen Cronin; Grafton-Greene, MichaelWhile visiting Australia during 1989 Leon Waller wrote the first of seven poems which provide the text for House Songs. On his return to New York, Waller completed the group which Stephen Cronin used to write his song cycle during the next two years. The poetry, at times almost surrealistic, is pervaded by images of wind and fire and themes of isolation, expectation and change. Cronin's use of the text varies between complete and unedited use of the poetry to the use of a single line in the second song. The work is dedicated to the tenor, Gregory Massingham. It won the first Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award in 1991, and was premiered by The Seymour Group at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.Item Open Access Stephen Cronin: House Songs I(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Stephen Cronin; Grafton-Greene, MichaelWhile visiting Australia during 1989 Leon Waller wrote the first of seven poems which provide the text for House Songs. On his return to New York, Waller completed the group which Stephen Cronin used to write his song cycle during the next two years. The poetry, at times almost surrealistic, is pervaded by images of wind and fire and themes of isolation, expectation and change. Cronin's use of the text varies between complete and unedited use of the poetry to the use of a single line in the second song. The work is dedicated to the tenor, Gregory Massingham. It won the first Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award in 1991, and was premiered by The Seymour Group at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.Item Open Access Stephen Cronin: House Songs V(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Stephen Cronin; Grafton-Greene, MichaelWhile visiting Australia during 1989 Leon Waller wrote the first of seven poems which provide the text for House Songs. On his return to New York, Waller completed the group which Stephen Cronin used to write his song cycle during the next two years. The poetry, at times almost surrealistic, is pervaded by images of wind and fire and themes of isolation, expectation and change. Cronin's use of the text varies between complete and unedited use of the poetry to the use of a single line in the second song. The work is dedicated to the tenor, Gregory Massingham. It won the first Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award in 1991, and was premiered by The Seymour Group at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.Item Open Access Anthology of Austraian Music on Disc: CSM: 31 House Songs Music for the Seymour Group(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Crisp, Deborah