Waiting for the Aeroplane (Preview)

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Psathas has always embraced writing for large ensembles, and this has intensified since the turn of the century. He was selected to score much of the opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, which led to a proliferation of large-scale projects, collaborating with artists from dozens of musical traditions. Much of his work since 2010 has overt social and historical commentary at its core. Psathas handled the orchestral arrangements for the Elect the Dead Symphony, featuring Armenian-American rock musician Serj Tankian. The album reached No.2 on the Billboard Classical Album Chart. Psathas wrote the original score for the feature film White Lies, described as a depiction of the head-on clash of beliefs and the nature of identity in early New Zealand European settler society. Between Zero and One is inspired by ancient and modern rhythms, and brings musicians from around the world into the concert space via interactive projection, transforming and challenging the traditional experience of fixed-location, temporally-contained performance. Psathas collaborated with Tankian once again for the song 100 Years, which is featured in the soundtrack to the film 1915, an unflinching exploration and remembrance of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Most recently, Psathas co-produced and wrote music for the epic experimental film project No Man’s Land—a project conceived to overtly challenge the accepted handling of World War I commemorations—and involved filming and integrating 150 musicians from more than 25 different countries, including Oum El Ghait (Morocco), Meeta Pandit (India), Bijan Chemirani (Iran/France), Marta Sebestyen (Hungary), Vagelis Karipis (Greece), Refugees of Rap (Syria), and Derya Turkan and Saddredin Ozcimi (Turkey). Psathas has received an array of awards and honours, including twice winning the SOUNZ Contemporary APRA Silver Scroll Award (2002 and 2004) for individual works and being awarded three Classical Album of the Year awards (2000, 2004 and 2007) in the NZ Music Awards. In 2003 he was made a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate and in 2005 was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM). He teaches composition at the New Zealand School of Music (Victoria University of Wellington), receiving the title of Professor in Composition in 2011. In 2014, Victoria University of Wellington conferred Psathas the degree of Doctor of Music (DMus), a higher doctorate in recognition for the immense body of work he has contributed to his field. Latest information about the composer may be found at www.johnpsathas.com. PE048 – 4
Waiting for the Aeroplane (1988/90) Waiting for the Aeroplane is Psathas’ response to the emotional experience of contemporary air travel: long periods spent passing the time in a kind of awkward limbo, concluded by abrupt partings with loved ones. The alternating two-note ostinato which opens the work, and remains present throughout, evokes the sense of anticipation, while the interjections of melodic fragments above this ostinato are like the fleeting, distracted thoughts and conversations occupying the individual obliged to wait at the behest of influences outside his or her control. Intense jazz-influenced flourishes bring a brief rush of energy, seemingly signifying the arrival of a long-awaited, yet rushed, departure. The composer writes: Waiting for the Aeroplane captures a time when I was travelling to Greece to visit my family, who had recently returned there from New Zealand to live. The emotion of farewells, the sense of the distance between the two countries and the power of aircraft, and the frenetic activity of airports all found their way into the piece. Waiting for the Aeroplane received its premiere performance from Dan Poynton at the Adam Concert Room, Wellington, New Zealand, in June 1988. Performance notes The alternating two-note ostinato which is present throughout most of the piece should be executed with precision but be perceptible as no more than an unobtrusive background ‘buzz’, until it combines with foreground elements at the climax of mm.54- 64. The pedal should be used throughout each full phrase to create the sense of a single uninterrupted expression of emotion. PE048 – 5
Page 1: PROMETHEAN EDITIONS John Psathas Wa
Page 4 and 5: Waiting for the Aeroplane (PE048),
Page 8 and 9: B B # T d g h B - Waiting for the A
Page 10 and 11: h TUU h R CCC A TUU A S C TUU d C C
Page 12 and 13: # # B B AAA B - B BBB R R g UUT UUT
Page 14 and 15: # C C B B h B B h C C h A B S C 72
Page 16: PROMETHEAN EDITIONS

Waiting for the Aeroplane (Preview)

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