Abhisheka (Preview)

More documents

Recommendations

Info

concerto, Zahara, which he first performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Atherton, at the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, New Zealand on 22 September 2006. In 2008, Chamber Music New Zealand commissioned Psathas to write a string quartet, A Cool Wind, for the world renown Takács Quartet, who presented the first performance in the Auckland Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand on 23 July 2008. Psathas’ recent career highlights include the creation of key ceremonial music for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and more recently Zeibekiko, an entire programme of music celebrating the heritage of Greek music from antiquity and the present day. Zeibekiko was commissioned by the Eduard van Beinum Foundation at the request of the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and toured Holland in 2004. It was a highlight of both the 2004 Bath Festival (UK) and the 2006 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. Psathas’ inclination to work in a collaborative capacity with artists from a wide range of musical genres and backgrounds has resulted in projects such as Elect the Dead Symphony with Serj Tankian, and Pounamu with New Zealand roots musician Warren Maxwell. In 2011, Psathas produced his first film score for the feature-film, Good for Nothing, and further film music followed with White Lies in 2013. Psathas’ involvement with Booktrack—a company focused on developing synchronised soundtracks for eBooks—saw the opportunity to write music for the Salman Rushdie novel, In the South. Psathas has received a number of awards and honours, including twice winning the SOUNZ Contemporary APRA Silver Scroll Award (2002 and 2004) for individual works and taking three Classical CD 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). In 2014 Victoria University of Wellington awarded Psathas a Higher Doctorate in the degree of Doctor of Music (DMus) for the immense body of work he has contributed to his field. Latest information about the composer may be found at www.johnpsathas.com. PE028 – iv
Abhisheka (1998) Psathas’ highly exotic and intriguing Abhisheka embraces the suspension of time, with the only sense of rhythm or pulse coming from periodic chordal swells whose pitches are often solely comprised of quarter-tones. This harmonic material becomes blurred by slow glissandi, creating dizzying harmonic hues. The temporal space between these swells gradually contracts and expands , and is filled with sensual solo lines rich with flickering microtonal inflections. The composer writes: Drafted immediately after reading a book by the Buddhist guru Chögyam Trungpa, Abhisheka was my first ever attempt at writing music with space in it. Until this piece, practically everything I had written was ultra-caffeinated, fast, full of notes, and murder on the performers. But having been (albeit temporarily) inspired by the great truths and peace in Trungpa’s writing, I found myself navigating slower passages of musical time, as well as exploring the microcosm of inner space between the even intervals of our tempered chromatic scale. “The sanskrit equivalent to ‘initiation’ is abhisheka, which means ‘anointment’ or ‘to sprinkle or pour’. And if there is pouring, there must be a vessel into which the pouring can fall. So at last we might really give up all these complications and just allow some space, just give in. This is the moment when abhisheka – sprinkling and pouring – really takes place, because we are open and really giving up the whole attempt to do anything, giving up all the busyness and overcrowding. Finally, we have been forced to really stop properly, which is quite a rare occurrence for us.” 1 An arrangement of Abhisheka for string orchestra (PE175) is also available. 1 Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa PE028 – v
Page 1: PROMETHEAN EDITIONS JOHN PSATHAS Ab
Page 4 and 5: Abhisheka (PE028), for String Quart
Page 8 and 9: Abhisheka received its premiere per
Page 10 and 11: [ ] [ ] [ ] ! ! A A A A A A Q A A A
Page 12 and 13: [ ] [ ] [ ] ! ! ! # ! ! ! # ! ! ! C
Page 14 and 15: [ ] [ ] [ ] C C h B R g C C C C C C
Page 16 and 17: [ ] [ ] [ ] ! ! # " C T C C C C C B
Page 18: [ ] [ ] [ ] " " " B =C B BB C C AA

Abhisheka (Preview)

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?