Music
still, echoing
For piano and string quartet
still, echoing was commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand for a national tour of the New Zealand String Quartet and British pianist Kathryn Stott. They premiered the work at the Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson on 7 May 2017.
About the work
still, echoing takes its title from Greg O’Brien’s poem ‘Te Whanga Lagoon’, which collects the water from most of the Chatham Islands’ rivers before draining into the Pacific at Hanson Bay.
The work is unified by a set of 6 notes that form the basic cell or idea of the piece. It explores the sound possibilities of different combinations of the instruments: at times the piano falls silent, leaving just the violins and viola in dialogue; elsewhere the viola and cello sing together with the piano.
The moments at which all the strings play in rhythmic unison provide cohesion and drive, evoking the irrevocable ebb and flow of wave and tide, and contrasting the tumult of the Pacific with the stillness of Te Whanga Lagoon on Chatham Island.
Score and recording
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
SOUNZ filmed a performance for their Resound project.
RNZ Concert recorded the performance.