Peter McNamara's percussion concerto The Styx, written for solo percussionist and chamber orchestra. Originally premiered by Claire Edwardes and Kammerklang in 2009. [Digital download score]
Cover Art by Luke Moseley.
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about
When writer Marcus Whale and I sat down together, we wondered what to make a piece about. Marcus was intrigued with the concept of imprisonment. For me the idea of imprisonment became about emotional imprisonment; co-dependency, sexual entanglement; the beauty and anguish inherent in such a relationship. As a whole, Dual can be looked at as an exploration of different ways entanglement can be represented with sound.
Tonal clusters recur throughout, at times horribly discordant, at times in strong unison. The ‘dirge’ mentioned in the lyrics is heard first between the vibraphone and piano and recurs towards the end fortissimo across the whole ensemble. It comes from that place of imprisonment, riling against something non-specific but darkly emotional. Quintuplets start sotto voce and grow in insistence, evoking murmurs that evolve into argument. The oboe solo passage represents the naked beauty of idyllic love. High-pitched scratchy strings work against the aching woodwind melodies as a reminder that such perfection is only illusory and temporary.
Dual is a dialogue, a duet, an obvious pairing of voices with more subtle pairings of instruments. The music is fluid, moody and reactive; the singers’ lines reflecting the visceral and spell-binding images of Marcus’ text.
Felicity Wilcox completed a Bachelor of Music in composition in 2006, graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with First Class honours. She completed a PhD at Sydney Conservatorium of Music as a recipient of a University Post Graduate Award, in music and multi-media composition in 2012. Her doctoral research focuses on live electro-acoustic performance and integration of electronic sound and visual media into the concert setting. She has had pieces from her portfolio performed by the Sydney Symphony Fellows, the Kammerklang Orchestra and Halcyon Ensemble.
Felicity has extensive experience as a composer for film, television, theatre and radio, working under the alias Felicity Fox since 1987. She has contributed to many award-winning films throughout her career and has been the recipient of AFI and ARIA nominations and several AGSC awards. Felicity was also the Assistant Music Director, arranger and composer for the Paralympics opening ceremony in Sydney, 2000.
Felicity has lectured on a casual basis at the University of Western Sydney since 2010 and at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School since 2003. She is teaching the inaugural course in composition for images at Sydney Conservatorium in 2013.
lyrics
(Text by Marcus Whale)
There, ruined red, strung taut in a
skein, the walls leak words,
some you have said above me,
over the length of me.
If, waiting, your lily heart
succumbs, dissolve from me.
I know no other who
subjugates me.
How you mythologise me.
Your wealth
of strangeness, that dirge.
You say you map
skies in breath, the way
tiny weight gathers
in torrents
I have loved your hands
above, codeine high,
channeling through
our bulk, fused.
Tussled
or thrown.
Hurled.
Now
new.
How your skin rustles in a scene –
like a newborn.
Your tongue lashing short of coherence.
A waking prayer, lipped and gleaming off your
cheek.
How you mythologise.
I raked you in position, a pregnant child forced
into bathwater.
I might crouch
myself in
your yowl,
where icing
won’t frost
past winter.
Beside, what sanctity stirs
hulk like, imposed.
I once slurred your images
together to the handprint,
I left you loaded
with my
marrow,
slewn.
Wild.
Newborn.
credits
from Kammerklang: Alpha,
released January 29, 2013
Composer: Felicity Wilcox
Lyricist: Marcus Whale
Solo Soprano: Alison Morgan
Solo Mezzo Soprano: Jenny Duck-Chong
Sound Engineer: Jayson McBride
Conductor: Sadaharu Muramatsu
Recorded for Kammerklang Vox
KAMMERKLANG CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (2009-2010):
Flutes: Shaun Barlow, Owen Salome
Oboes: Toby Thatcher, Matt Bubb
Clarinets: Toby Armstrong, Peter Smith
Saxophones: Nathan Henshaw, Paul Zaborac
Bassoons: Jakab Kaufmann, Cameron Burnes
Horns: Seb Dunn, Kartini Suharto-Martin, Cindy Sims
Percussion: Daniel Luscombe, Morgan Merrell
Piano: Jacob Abela, Jack Symonds, Vatche Jambazian
Keyboard: Amy Bastow
Harp: Genevieve Lang, Verna Lee, Claire McDonogh, Maryanne Tucker
Violins: Justin Leong, Colin Tripolone, Carol Tang, Adam Wasiel, Davide Quincey, Ben Adler, Victor Wu, Liz Stanton, Klara Morrison, Michelle Blewett, Ting Lee
Violas: Tara Hashambhoy, John Faye, Luke Spicer, Dominic Meagher, James Wannan
Cellos: Julienne Guerbois, Emma Trevena, Anthony Albrecht, Lucy Price
Double Basses: James Menzies, Steven Adler, Elsen Price, Brigitte Wirfler, Brian Sim
Kammerklang (German for “Chamber sound”) is an Australian arts company specialising in the collaboration of music and other
artforms, focusing on the fusion of sound and the “chamber” or space it’s performed in. The aim of Kammerklang is to present and promote new artistic creation that is inquisitive, detailed and accessible while still fostering exploration and communication between the arts....more
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