Voice and instrumental ensemble
Three windows on the weather
For spoken voice, piano and bassoon
3 poems by Greg O’Brien
The first performance was given by Greg O’Brien (voice), Emma Sayers (piano) and Ben Hoadley (bassoon) at St Paul’s Cathedral on 8 October 2008 during the Otago Arts Festival.
About the work
Three windows on the weather was written after a 6-day visit to Dusky and Doubtful Sounds in Fiordland in October 2007. 10 artists — poets, visual artists, a composer and a film-maker — travelled on the Breaksea Girl to create work as a fundraiser for the Caselberg Trust, who are restoring the Broad Bay, Dunedin house of Anna and John Caselberg for use as an artist’s residence.
The work sets 3 poems: Henry in Fiordland, Wet Jacket Arm and Shift in the Wind.
The first section concerns Richard Henry, who was possibly New Zealand’s first conservationist. He rescued kakapo and other endangered birds, creating a sanctuary on Resolution Island, until, several years later, he saw a stoat swimming nearby, and realised the sanctuary was compromised. ‘Wet Jacket Arm’, makes reference to the threatened biodiversity of the Fiordland region, and the last poem ‘Shift in the Wind’ refers to a gale we experienced one night on the Breaksea Girl.
Wet Jacket Arm can be performed on its own.
Scores and recordings
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Three windows in the weather — SOUNZ
A recording by Ben Hoadley, Emma Sayers and Greg O’Brien has been released twice.
Moon, Tides and Shoreline — book and CD
Listen to this work online.
Tongues, swords, keys
For 8 solo voices and 4 percussion
Text devised by Randolph Stow
Tongues, swords, keys was commissioned by The Song Company with funding from the Music Board of the Australia Council. They, together with percussion ensemble Synergy, gave the first performance in September 1987 at the Verbrugghen Hall at Sydney Conservatorium.
About the work
The multilingual text explores ideas of coming together and parting — perhaps of tribes, or of nations, or of individuals. At times the work is ritualistic in character.
Scoring
The work is scored for 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, 2 basses and percussion.
Scores
Buy or borrow the hand-written score from SOUNZ.
Buy or borrow a typeset score from the Australian Music Centre.
Two Frame songs
For mezzo-soprano, violin and piano
Texts by Janet Frame
I set these 2 poems for performance at Janet Frame’s memorial service in February 2004 in the Dunedin Town Hall. They were sung by Ana Good, with Sandra Crawshaw (violin) and Joyce Whitehead (piano).
About the work
The poems in this work are: ‘The Place’ and ‘When the sun shines more years than fear’.
Scores
The score is available from SOUNZ.
Wet Jacket Arm
For bassoon and spoken voice
Text by Greg O’Brien
The first performance was given by Greg O’Brien (voice), Emma Sayers (piano) and Ben Hoadley (bassoon) at St Paul’s Cathedral during the Otago Arts Festival on 8 October 2008.
About the work
Wet Jacket Arm is one of the 3 settings from Three windows on the weather for voice, bassoon and piano. It was inspired by a visit to Dusky and Doubtful Sounds. The text addresses threats to the biodiversity of Fiordland.
Recording
Listen to and watch a recording from 2018.
Wulf
For female reciter, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion
Poem in old English translated by Bill Manhire
Wulf was commissioned by Auckland Contemporary Music Rostrum and first performed by them on 24 April 1977 at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland conducted by William Southgate with Ros Clark (reciter).
About the work
Bill Manhire writes: ‘The old English poem “Wulf and Eadwacer” has always puzzled scholars, to the extent that it was at one time thought to be a riddle. The poem is now generally assumed to be the lament of a woman separated from her lover, Wulf. Who Wulf is, or was, remains obscure.
‘[The text of] Wulf is a fairly free version of the Old English poem. I have not attempted to “solve” any of problems of the original poem, but I hope that Wulf maintains, as it were, the emotion of the original, and that its voice is as suggestive. What is taken from the speaker, for instance, may be a child, born or unborn — ‘the spine of a feather, a cloud in the body”. Or it may be, simply, the possibility of love.’
Score and recording
Borrow the score from SOUNZ.
You may be able to borrow an RNZ recording of the premiere in 1977 from Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision