Chamber orchestra or large ensemble
Time steps out of line
For baroque ensemble
Time steps out of line was commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand for the brilliant young players of Juilliard 415 for their 2020 New Zealand tour. The premiere was given by them, conducted by Kyle Ritenauer, at the Gallagher Auditorium in Hamilton on 27 February 2020.
About the work
Time steps out of line is in a single movement but passes through various moods and tempi.
Writing for a baroque ensemble today is a very different challenge from that facing the composers of the Baroque, who were discovering the possibilities and sonorities and delights of their new evolving medium, producing a perfect and varied repertoire in the process. I did not want to imitate the music of the baroque era, and decided to give solo roles to some instruments, particularly the wind, less featured as soloists in the ensembles of the time.
The title is a quotation from Claire Beynon’s poem ‘At home in Antarctica’ and refers to the approximately 3 centuries between my piece and the others on the programme. While writing it, I found suggestions of harmony and gesture from earlier times were creeping into the fabric of the piece.
Instrumentation
Time steps out of line is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, bassoon, theorbo, harpsichord and strings.
Score and recording
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Time steps out of line — SOUNZ
Time steps out of line was filmed as part of SOUNZ’s Resound project.
Time steps out of line — video
RNZ Concert recorded the performance.
Time steps out of line — audio
Interview
SOUNZ interviewed me about this work before the premiere.
Gillian Whitehead on ‘Time steps out of line’ and ‘Weaving time and distance’ — publication
Tirea
For chamber orchestra
Tirea was commissioned by the Contemporary Baroque Ensemble with funds from the Arts Council of Great Britain, and was written when I was composer-in-residence for Northern Arts in the United Kingdom.
The first performance was given by Sandra Mackay (oboe), Joyce Nixon (violin), Penelope Cliff (cello) and Dan Saunders (harpsichord) with the Contemporary Baroque Ensemble conducted by Alexander Cowdell, at New Zealand House, London on 27 September 1979.
About the work
Tirea is the name for the second day of the Māori lunar calendar. Some technical aspects fo the piece — pitch, texture and rhythm — are derived from the proportions and symmetries of the magic square of the moon, of European or Middle Eastern origin, in which horizontals, verticals and diagonals all add up to the same number.
The overall 3-movement form has something in common with the Brandenburg Concertos in its pitting of a concertino (oboe, harpsichord, violin, cello) against a body of strings, but the detail, although largely canonically conceived, is very different from that of Bach. The first movement is tripartite, with the third section a varied recapitulation of the first. A harpsichord solo leads into the second movement, which makes some use of octave figurations, while the third picks up tempo and energy.
Instrumentation
Tirea is scored for oboe, violin, cello, harpsichord and strings.
Score and recording
Buy or borrow the score, or borrow an archival recording from SOUNZ.