CSM 17: Herscovitch/Schneider Music for Violin and Piano by Whitehead, Werder, Exton, Whiticker & Hollier
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/733722802
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Browsing CSM 17: Herscovitch/Schneider Music for Violin and Piano by Whitehead, Werder, Exton, Whiticker & Hollier by Author "Painter, John"
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Item Open Access Donald Hollier: Variations On A Theme Of Sitsky (1970)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1970) Composer: Donald Hollier; Schneider, Rotraud; Herscovitch, Daniel; Painter, John; Stines, Niven"The idea for this work came from a row of twelve notes which Sitsky employs in his Dimensions for Piano and Two Tape Recorders. Each performance of Dimensions involves the pianist in hours of preparation, arranging the cutting, splicing and designing of tiny fragments of pre-recorded piano sound for the two tape recorder parts. In 1968 I gave two public performances and made an ABC recording of Dimensions. The experience made me curious to see if this rather dry series of notes would do anything else, and I resolved to write a work on the same row, exploiting instead its melodic, and often romantic, potential. Thus I chose a series of variations for violin and piano, giving each variation a title. The theme is a harmonic arrangement of the row, followed by the movements, Invention, Aria, Passacaglia, Recitative and Fugetta. Variations on a Theme of Sitsky was commissioned by the Beecroft Music Club, and was completed in 1970." -- Donald HollierItem Open Access Felix Werder: Sonata No 3 (1986)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1986) Composer: Felix Werder; Schneider, Rotraud; Herscovitch, Daniel; Painter, John; Stines, Niven"This work was completed in February, 1986, and, like much of Werders output from around this time, suggests the influence of Schoenbergs expressionist style. A further influence is perhaps the music of C.P.E. Bach: Werder has often expressed to me his intense admiration for that composer, and Bachs influence may be discerned in the way Werder fully exploits the technical and expressive resources of both instruments. Bachs influence is also apparent in the structure of the work: Werders use of the title, Sonata, does not imply the classical form of the eighteenth century, but rather a structure in which recurring thematic motives constantly jostle for attention, and in the process undergo continuous metamorphosis. Although the work is through-composed, an underlying four-movement structure can be discerned, in which each movement is interrupted by a recollection or anticipation of previous or subsequent movements." -- Daniel HersovitchItem Open Access Gillian Whitehead: Okuru (1979)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1979) Composer: Gillian Whitehead; Schneider, Rotraud; Herscovitch, Daniel; Painter, John; Stines, Niven"Okuru is a Maori word meaning the fifth day of the new moon, and the work is one of a sequence of pieces that take their titles from that culture. The piece falls into four main sections, all based on various aspects of the same source material. In the first and third sections, various types of rhythmic figurations (elaborations of the basic ground plan) occur in both instruments in interlocking, rather than coinciding, segments. In the second section, the violin plays arabesques above a continual semiquaver rhythm, preceded, interrupted and concluded by variations of a chorale-like melody. The final section, which begins with the opening piano figurations of each of the previous sections, is essentially a 3:2 retrograde canon between piano and violin, the piano weaving its elaborate material around the continuing line of the violin. Okuru was written in 1979, and was first performed in Auckland by Mary O'Brien and Janetta McStay." -- Gillian WhiteheadItem Open Access John Exton: Fantasy (1962)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1962) Composer: John Exton; Schneider, Rotraud; Herscovitch, Daniel; Painter, John; Stines, Niven"Composed in 1962, John Extons Fantasy is a twelve-tone work (though not a strict one) with a simple outline easily grasped and felt by the listener. Beginning with a poignant, slow soliloquy by the violin, the piano creeps in with a bare, soft, staccato line. Though momentum is built up with the addition of more notes and fast, spasmodic fragments, the mood remains tentative with many pauses and sudden endings in mid-flight. While the middle section is more legato, the final section returns to the mood of the opening: the violin, slow and deliberate during this time, is accompanied by soft, bell-like chords from the piano." -- Margaret Legge-WilkinsonItem Open Access Michael Whiticker: Korokon (1983)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1983) Composer: Michael Whiticker; Schneider, Rotraud; Herscovitch, Daniel; Painter, John; Stines, Niven"Korokon is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning the roaring of the sea. There was no programmatic intention in the selection of this title; rather, it was the simple beauty of the word, and the vivid picture of a roaring sea that suggested its use. The work is based on the strict use of seven different chords and their transpositional possibilities, but this material rarely becomes obvious. Instead, it is the sense of contrast employed throughout Korokon that makes the strongest impression, and in this sense, the work makes reference to both sonata and variation forms. By looking at different aspects of the basic material and by emphasising their different capabilities, both instruments assume independent roles The piece is punctuated by climactic reference points, each climax followed by a calm after the storm Another important structural element of the piece is the continual use of extremes of register particularly in the piano part. Korokon is dedicated to Natalia Cohen, who commissioned it with the assistance of the Music Board of the Australia Council." -- Michael Whiticker