Farr: Horizon

GARETH FARR HORIZON PIANO MUSIC PERFORMED BY HENRY WONG DOE WITH Jisoo Ok & Jesse Schiffman

permission of the artist, image courtesy of Auckland University Press.

Don Binney, Ahuahu Northward II, oil on board, 1977, 1070 Ă— 1530mm, Bell Gully, Auckland. Reproduced by

GARETH FARR HORIZON PIANO MUSIC PERFORMED BY HENRY WONG DOE WITH Jisoo Ok & Jesse Schiffman

Balinese Pieces 17:50

01 Sepuluh Jari 8:14 02 Tentang Cara Gamelan 5:15 03 Jangan Lupa 4:21 04 Shadow of the Hawk 10:34

for cello and piano

05 Mouse Hole 6:03 06 The Horizon from Owhiro Bay 3:30 07 Etude 1:40

Nga Whetu e Whitu for flute and piano 14:29

08 Movement I 10:54 09 Movement II 3:35

Love Songs 9:35 10 For Helen 1:34 11 For Charlotte 1:29 12 For Adelaide 2:44 13 For Salesi 1:22 14 Claudia’s Victory 2:26 15 Ramayana 4:52

Total 68:33 MMT2070 Digital Stereo Recording C 2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust P 2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust

Balinese Pieces

International Festival of the Arts by the New

Sepuluh Jari (1996)

requested that Farr compose him a toccata. In

Tentang Cara Gamelan (1994)

the published score of the work (Promethean

Jangan Lupa (2003)

Editions, PE014) Farr jokingly cites a fictitious

With a tradition dating back well beyond 500 years, gamelan music continues to be an iconic feature of the Indonesian performing arts. The gamelan orchestra is comprised of bronze percussion instruments, ranging from smaller keyed instruments hit with hammers to large gongs struck with soft mallets which produce a deep resonance. New Zealand composer Jack Body notes that ‘gamelan reflects the character of the cultures; Javanese gamelan is more refined, reflective, and conservative while Balinese gamelan is more extrovert, dynamic, and open to exploring new things.’

The three Balinese Pieces explore the exciting rhythms and beautiful sonorities of this music.

Apart from Farr’s works written specifically for Balinese gamelan, this set of three pieces best exemplifies the significant influence of Balinese music on his writing. Sepuluh Jari (‘ten fingers’) was commissioned for and first performed at the 1996 New Zealand

Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun, who had

letter ‘in the hand of J.S. Bach’ in which the older composer describes spending ‘a year in the Hindu lands of India and Bali,’ and says ‘I have found the rhythms and scales of the music here so inspirational that I could not stop them from creeping into this piece’. Farr refers to the harmonic basis of the work, which is derived from the interplay of two ethnic tuning systems: the Indian saraswati scale and the Balinese pelog scale. This exotic-sounding harmonic framework generates virtuosic figurations and cascading scalar passages that periodically arrive at points where both hands join in a unified statement of Balinese rhythm. Farr wrote Tentang Cara Gamelan (pron. ‘chara’, ‘On the Technique of Gamelan’) for his friend and colleague, Nicola Melville, while they were both studying at the Eastman School of Music in 1990–92 and 1994. Farr had become intrigued by how French impressionist composers including Claude Debussy responded to their exposure to the music of the Javanese

Gamelan, which was famously showcased at

life – their music and dance reflects this and

the Paris Expo in 1889. In an early programme

keeps going undeterred’.

note, Farr again humorously alludes to the character of the music by imagining a dinner conversation between Debussy and composer/ ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee in which they discuss the influence of gamelan on their music, before professional jealousy leads to an exchange of insults. Tentang Cara Gamelan does indeed bring together an impressionistic sound-world with a more clearly derivative gamelan style, at first as if viewing gamelan ‘from the outside’ with a flurry of notes that merely hint at Balinese tonality, then moving towards using Balinese scales and rhythms outright. Jangan Lupa (‘Don’t Forget’) was

Shadow of the Hawk(1997) Farr writes: ‘The shadow of the hawk rises and falls as the landscape gently undulates beneath it. One moment it is indistinct and unfocussed, the next it snaps into clear definition as the ground rises. A rocky outcrop thrusts up towards the sky – the shadow is suddenly crystal-clear. Slowly it slides away again as the hills recede, and the hawk ascends soundlessly back into the sky.’

written in memory of the victims of the terrorist

There are hints of Farr’s characteristic Balinese

bombings in Bali on 12 October 2002. It was

influence in this work, along with echoes of the

commissioned and first performed by the

music of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The music

Indonesian pianist Ananda Sukarlan, who had

is pervaded by a continual sense of forward

responded to the bombings by commissioning

momentum, which builds from the opening as

a number of new works inspired by Bali. Having

the cello’s syncopated pizzicato groove rides

visited Bali several times before the bombings,

atop urgent running lines in the piano’s lower

Farr recalls experiencing a very vivid and

register. Rhythmically-driven melodic material

immediate feeling of great sadness in hearing

emerges and is exchanged between the

about the events. He has said that the Balinese

instruments, before a quieter, more expressive

people are ‘incredibly forgiving and get on with

middle section provides an interlude, with

glimmering trills in the cello’s upper register set against gestural waves of notes in the piano.

The tension mounts as the music accelerates and returns to the material of the opening, and

The Horizon from Owhiro Bay (2007)

then charges to an aggressive finish. Shadow of

Farr writes: ‘This prelude is a musical

the Hawk was commissioned by James Tennant

representation of the view I see at twilight from

and Katherine Austin.

my studio on the South Coast of Wellington –

Mouse Hole (1998/2002)

the moody dark green depths of Cook Strait, the inky blue sky, and the endless unbroken horizon dividing the two. Fishing boats sit on

The title of this work was very much an

the horizon all lit up, looking like little gleaming

afterthought. Farr has said that Mouse Hole

gemstones in the darkness. The occasional

isn’t ‘about’ anything – there is no conscious

gust of wind stirs up wild eddies on the

influence on it other than the piano itself; it is

surface of the water, and the odd rogue wave

a really piano-driven work. Along with Tentang

hurls itself onto the rocks and up into the air

Cara Gamelan and Ramayana, Farr wrote this

in a spectacular explosion of sea spray.’ The

work for his friend Nicola Melville. A virtuosic

repeated E-flat figure, heard in the piano’s

romp, it was even more fiendishly difficult as

middle register throughout the work, forms

first performed – Farr later revised the work to

what Farr calls a literal horizon in the music,

be more playable and ‘more fun’. While there

which becomes increasingly turbulent as the left

is no programmatic element to the work, the

and right hands work outwards to encompass

composer enjoys the idea that the title Mouse

the full range of the instrument. This work is

Hole might conjure up an image of a cartoon

the second in which the composer has overtly

mouse running frantically around.

drawn inspiration from living in Owhiro Bay, although the more contemplative nature of this work stands in contrast to the harshness and rhythmically jagged nature of his string quartet Owhiro (1993).

The Horizon from Owhiro Bay was commissioned by the James Wallace Arts Trust for Stephen De Pledge as part of his programme of ‘Landscape Preludes’ by New

Ngaā Whetu e Whitu (2005)

Zealand composers. It was first performed

NgaāWhetu e Whitu refers to Matariki, the

by De Pledge at the 2008 New Zealand

Maori name for a group of seven stars also

International Arts Festival.

known as the Pleiades. Farr describes this

Etude(1992)

two-movement work as another exploration of pairing the flute with an instrument he plays himself, following on from Taheke, for flute

Farr wrote this short work as a birthday gift for

and harp and Kembang Suling for flute and

another Eastman friend, John Milbauer, who was

marimba. He also said that Olivier Messiaen is a

in the same piano class as Nicola Melville. Like

strong influence in this work, particularly in the

Mouse Hole, this work focuses on the technical

tonal colours and harmony. The overall feeling

aspects of playing the piano. Farr has said that

of the longer first movement is that of expansion

he liked the idea of creating something fluid,

– moving from slower lyrical passages through

and making the hands work independently with

to faster undulating lines shared by both

no sense of rhythmic unity between them. The

instruments where the tension and volume

lines of the left and right hands are harmonically

reach a climax. The shorter and faster second

independent as well, the right hand mostly

movement continually drives forward with

chromatic and without a clear tonal centre,

propulsive energy and virtuosic intensity. This

incorporating serialism with a row of ten notes

work was commissioned by the duo partnership

(curiously missing the notes F sharp and G,

of Bridget Douglas (principal flautist of the

Farr’s own initials) while the left hand generally

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and pianist

remains tonal throughout.

Rachel Thomson and was first performed by them at St Martin’s Church, Lower Hutt, New Zealand on 29 June 2005.

Love Songs

Wellington, as part of the music he prepared for

For Helen (2006)

a tritone (coincidentally part of the Balinese

For Charlotte (2001)

scale) – both are features of For Charlotte.

For Adelaide (2001)

Ramayana(1991)

For Salesi (2001) Claudia’s Victory (2006)

Vagabonds. The pitches of the bells included

Ramayana (an ancient Sanskrit story of ‘Rama’s

These five short pieces share their origins in

journey’) is another work that Farr wrote for

music that Farr wrote for theatre productions.

Nicola Melville during his time at Eastman.

The outer two pieces, For Helen and Claudia’s

At the time, Melville had been studying

Victory, were written for Helen Moulder’s one-

Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ piano sonata, and

woman play, Playing Miss Havisham, which

once while listening to her perform

tells the story of Claudia, who attempts to

the final Rondo, Farr was struck by a

alleviate her ‘humdrum existence‘ in rural New

certain stretto passage (bars 425–6

Zealand by auditioning for an eccentric visiting

to be exact) in which he recognised

film-maker’s production of Charles Dickens’

figurations and a chord progression

Great Expectations. The other three pieces

found in Balinese gamelan music.

were written for the play Vagabonds by Lorae

This momentary encounter in a

Parry, which is set in colonial New Zealand.

passage of Beethoven’s found its

Farr writes: ‘This is a set of three little pieces

way as inspiration into the writing

about love – simple, succinct and sincere. For

of Ramayana. Another influence on

Charlotte and For Adelaide were to accompany

this work was Farr’s study of 20th-

the love scenes for those two characters. For

century American piano music, in

Salesi is a more personal love song, and was

particular Barber’s solo piano sonata

written for my partner.’ Farr included three

which had been recommended to

ship’s bells, which he found at the Museum of

him by his teacher Samuel Adler.

While preparing for this recording, Henry

Gordon had broken in and pulled a series of

Wong Doe was perplexed by a set of three

pranks. Not only had Gordon interfered with his

triplet notes that appear out of context at the

teddy bear, but she had made an addition to his

end of a stave on the second page of Farr’s

score… (shown below)

handwritten score. Explaining that these notes could safely be omitted, Farr recalled that while writing Ramayana, on one occasion he had left the manuscript on his kitchen table when he went out. Upon returning to his apartment, he found that his ‘teddy bear had been placed in

overleaf: Bill Hammond, Yellow Board Boulder Bay, 2001, 970 × 1730mm, private collection. Reproduced by permission of

the popcorn machine’, and later discovered that

the artist, image courtesy of Christchurch

his good friend and marimbist colleague Ingrid

Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu.

GARETH FARR

Gareth Farr was born in Wellington, New

alter-ego, the percussion-playing drag queen

Zealand. He began his studies in composition

Lilith Lacroix.

and percussion performance at Auckland University. The experience of hearing a visiting gamelan orchestra prompted his return to Wellington to attend Victoria University, where the characteristic rhythms and textures of the Indonesian gamelan rapidly became the hallmarks of his own composition.

Farr continued with postgraduate study in composition and percussion at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where his teachers included Samuel Adler and Christopher Rouse.

The inclusion of his works in four events at the 1996 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts – the ballet score for Douglas Wright’s Buried Venus, Lilith’s Dream of Ecstasy, for orchestra, Kembang Suling, and the Bach-inBali piano solo Sepuluh Jari – kick-started his career as a dedicated freelance composer.

Since then, his music has been heard at, or especially commissioned for, high-profile events including the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (the 25-minute From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs),

In 1993, at the age of 25, Farr was appointed

the opening of the Museum of New Zealand

composer-in-residence by Chamber Music New

Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa, a work hailed as

Zealand, the youngest-ever composer to hold

‘music with a powerful and moving impact that

that position. This resulted in the composition of

transcends idiom and individual taste’), and

three substantial works, Owhiro (String Quartet

the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (Hikoi, a

No. 1), Kebyar Moncar (for gamelan) and the

concerto for percussionist Evelyn Glennie and

chamber sextet Cadenza. At the conclusion of

the NZSO). Most recently, a commission by

the residence, Farr returned to the Eastman

the 2003 Auckland Festival resulted in Stone

School to begin a doctorate in composition. As

and Ice, composed for the combined forces

well as composing Kembang Suling (for flute

of the NZSO and the Auckland Philharmonia

and marimba, his most popular work to date)

Orchestra. In 2006 Gareth was made an

and three works for orchestra during this time,

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for

Farr also introduced audiences to his on-stage

his services to music and entertainment.

Gareth Farr’s music is particularly influenced

dance and song, and with Farr’s stirring

by his extensive study of percussion, both

music it toured a number of centres in New

Western and non-Western. Rhythmic elements

Zealand.

of his compositions can be linked to the complex and exciting rhythms of Rarotongan log

In 2007 Farr was appointed Composer-In-

drum esembles, Balinese gamelan and other

Residence with the Auckland Philharmonia

percussion music of the Pacific Rim.

Orchestra. The culmination of this residence

In addition to his music for the concert chamber, Farr has written music for dance, theatre and television. In 2003 Farr won the Chapmann Tripp theatre award for his soundtrack to Vula, a New Zealand/Pacific Island theatre piece that went on to be performed extensively overseas, including in Australia, the Netherlands and the UK. In 2006, the Royal New Zealand Ballet toured the country with The Wedding featuring a score by Gareth Farr. The 90-minute work was among the ballet company’s most ambitious projects, and brought Farr together with prominent New Zealand novelist and librettist Witi Ihimaera. Farr’s

was the premiere in 2008 of Ex Stasis, a symphonic song-cycle for four soloists.

In 2008 Farr also celebrated the world premiere of his work Terra Incognita, for bass baritone solo, choir and orchestra. Since then Farr has received a number of largescale commissions, including the children’s opera Kia Ora Khalid (with librettist Dave Armstrong) in 2009, and This Holy Fire of Love, for two voices and orchestra, a 40-minute work based on Shakespeare’s sonnets and scripted by Rima Te Wiata.

For more information, visit: www.garethfarr.com

music was integral to Maui – One Man

The music of Gareth Farr is published

Against the Gods, a stage show that was

exclusively by Promethean Editions:

four years in the making. First premiered in

www.promethean-editions.com

2003, in incomplete form, it featured aerial theatre, Maori kapa haka, contemporary

HENRY WONG DOE

Henry Wong Doe was born in Auckland,

Channel 9 (Australia), Concert FM (New

New Zealand in 1976. Starting piano with

Zealand), and Kolhamusica (Israel).

Susan Smith, he later studied with Bryan Sayer at the University of Auckland, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in 1998. Wong Doe continued with graduate work in the United States, studying with Evelyne Brancart at Indiana University Bloomington and earning a Master of Music Degree in 2001 and later received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2006 from The Juilliard School where he studied with Joseph Kalichstein.

A strong affinity with 20th and 21st Century music, particularly that of New Zealand composers, characterises his programming. His acclaimed debut at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in 2008 presented solo and interactive works for pianist and computer-controlled piano by Ravel, Messiaen, Ligeti and Risset, and included the North American premiere of Gareth Farr’s The Horizon from Owhiro Bay. This recital provided the impetus for this recording of Farr’s

The winner of ‘Audience Favourite’ Prizes at

complete piano works to date, which includes

the Rubinstein and Busoni International Piano

several premiere recordings.

Competitions, Wong Doe has performed at renowned venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium and the Sydney Opera House. Wong Doe’s prizewinning performance at the 2000 Sydney International Piano Competition was recorded and released on the ABC Classics label. He has appeared on television and radio with solo performances, including BBC Radio 3

In addition to his performing schedule, Wong Doe has a strong interest in teaching and mentoring. After working initially at Hunter College in New York City, he continues to teach as Assistant Professor of Piano at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and divides his time between New York City and Western Pennsylvania.

(UK), RTBF and Canal la Deux (Belgium),

For more information, visit:

WFMT Radio (Chicago, USA) and TVNZ

www.henrywongdoe.com

(New Zealand); and both solo and concerto performances on ABC Classics FM and

Jisoo Ok (cello) was born in Seoul, South

Jesse Schiffman (flute) was born in

Korea in 1982 and lived in Auckland from

San Diego, California in 1983. He studied

1994–98 and in Christchurch, New Zealand in

with Michael Parloff and Robert Langevin at

1999, before moving to the United States. Her

Manhattan School of Music from 2003–07,

early cello teachers included James Tennant and

earning a Bachelor of Music in 2007. Following

Natalia Pavlutskaya. Completing her studies in

this, he continued studying with Langevin at The

2006, she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s

Juilliard School and with Carol Wincenc from

degrees from The Juilliard School, studying

2007–10, where he earned a Master of Music

with Bonnie Hampton and Fred Sherry, and she

Degree in 2010.

received chamber music coaching from Itzahk Perlman and Robert Mann.

In the summer of 2009, Schiffman was selected to serve as the principal flutist in the inaugural

Ok has performed throughout the United

season of the Castelton Festival under the

States, South America, Asia and New

direction of Lorin Maazel. Schiffman lives in

Zealand. In 2003, Ok gave the world premiere

New York City, where he is an active freelance

performance of Jonathan Keren’s Concerto

performer and pedagogue.

for Cello and Chamber Orchestra with the New Juilliard Ensemble at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. She also premiered Matthew Kajcienski’s Cello Concerto with the Manhattan Virtuosi Orchestra at the Great Hall of The Cooper Union. Ok has closely collaborated with musicians such as the pianist Pablo Ziegler and the bandoneonist Hector Del Curto. Recent career highlights have included performances at the Miami International Piano Festival, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in California, and Copa Fest in Brazil.

DON BINNEY W.D. HAMMOND Don Binney was born in Auckland in 1940 and graduated with a DipFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1961. His first exhibition was

Bill Hammond was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1947. He has exhibited widely since the early 1980s, and in 1994 was the joint

held in Auckland in 1963. He represented New

winner of the Visa Art Award. He represented

Zealand at the Troisiemme Biennale de Paris in

New Zealand at the Asia Pacific Triennial 1999

the same year, and in the Cultural Programme

in Brisbane, Australia and the 2000 Sydney

for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. A solo

Biennale in Sydney, Australia. Hammond has

show of his work was held in London in 1973, a

become a celebrated and enigmatic exponent

survey show at the Fisher Gallery (Pakuranga)

of what is bizarre, surreal, and quirky in New

in 1989, and a travelling survey, Forty Years On,

Zealand art. Appropriately, he began life as a

in various centres in 2003–2005. His works are

toy-maker before taking up oil painting in 1981.

held in all major New Zealand collections. From

In 1989 Hammond he visited the Auckland

1974 to 1998 he taught at the Elam School of

Islands (located South of New Zealand in the

Fine Arts, becoming Head of Painting in 1994.

Subantarctic) and was inspired by the birds

In 2003, Auckland University Press published

observed there. In his paintings he does not

an illustrated monograph on Binney’s work, Nga

present birds as commonly known, but rather

Manu, Nga, written by Damian Skinner. Binney

as surreal hybrid creatures – half man, half bird

was awarded an OBE for services to the Arts

– that roam and inhabit his canvasses in much

in 1995. He is New Zealand Patron of the Little

the same way that humanistic machines had

Barrier Island (Hauturu) Supporters’ Trust, Artist

in earlier works. These are voyeuristic birds,

Patron of the Friends of Auckland Art Gallery

which, through the artist’s hand, have become

and has been a Waitakere City Art Laureate.

the viewers as well as the viewed. Music has

His book Drawing the Waitakere Coast was

always been of interest for Hammond, its

published in 2010.

influence evidenced by his use of song lyrics and, in other works, with the incorporation of musical notation.

GARETH FARR HORIZON Piano Music performed by Henry Wong Doe with Jisoo Ok & Jesse Schiffman

01 02 03

Balinese Pieces 17:50 Sepuluh Jari 8:14 Tentang Cara Gamelan 5:15 Jangan Lupa 4:21

04 Shadow of the Hawk 10:34 for cello and piano 05 Mouse Hole 6:03 06 The Horizon from Owhiro Bay 3:30 07 Etude 1:40 Nga Whetu e Whitu 14:29 for flute and piano 08 Movement I 10:54 09 Movement II 3:35 Love Songs 9:35 10 For Helen 1:34 11 For Charlotte 1:29 12 For Adelaide 2:44 13 For Salesi 1:22 14 Claudia’s Victory 2:26 15 Ramayana 4:52

Total 68:33

MMT2070 C 2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust P 2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust

All music © Promethean Editions Ltd

Recorded at Patrych Sound Studios, The Bronx, New York, USA, 7-9 March & 24 May 2011 Producers Joseph Patrych & Henry Wong Doe Digital Recording, Engineering, Editing & Mastering Joseph Patrych Executive Producer Charley Davenport Design Promethean Editions Ltd Booklet Notes Charley Davenport The HRL Morrison Music Trust gratefully acknowledges the support of the following people and organizations in the making of this recording: Creative New Zealand, University Senate Research Committee of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Auckland University Press, Christchurch Art Gallery and Thomas Liggett.

Wong Doe acknowledges Creative New Zealand and the University Senate Research Committee of Indiana University of Pennsylvania for their assistance in this recording project & Tom Stoelker, photography.

The HRL Morrison Music Trust was established in March 1995 as a charitable trust to support New Zealand musicians of international calibre.

All funds received by the Trust are used to make recordings, present concerts – both in New Zealand and overseas – and assist artists to undertake projects to further develop their talents.

HRL Morrison Music Trust P O Box 10-143 Wellington, New Zealand info@trustrecords.com More information about other releases by the HRL Morrison Music Trust can be found at the internet site: www.trustrecords.com All rights of the producer and of the owner of the work reproduced are reserved.

Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of this recording is prohibited.

The music of Gareth Farr is published exclusively by Promethean Editions.