Edwards - LAIKAN

Ross Edwards Laikan

Sextet (1979)

G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd Sydney, NSW

Instrumentation

Flute

Clarinet in B-flat (notated in C in the score)

Percussion: Marimba, Aboriginal clapping sticks – high pitched (alternatively Claves), Bass Drum with damper attachment

Piano Violin Cello Score in C duration circa 14 minutes

If this work is to be performed publicly as a live concert, permission must be secured from the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Locked Bag 5000 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Tel: +61 2 9935 7900 Email: apra@apra.com.au

If this work is to be streamed, synchronised or performed publicly as an opera, ballet or theatrical dramatico-musical performance, a grand rights and/or synchronisation licence must be secured from G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd. Tel: +61 2 8252 6200

Email: classical.au@wisemusic.com

Editing and typesetting by Peggy Polias

Commissioned for The Fires of London by Musica Viva (Australia) with assistance from the Music Board of the Australia Council.

Copyright © 2009 by G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd, Sydney, NSW, a division of Wise Music Group International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.

Unauthorised reproduction of any part of this publication by any means including photocopying is an infringement of copyright.

LAIKAN

(1979)

For Flute, Clarinet, Piano, Percussion, Viola and Cello

I. Ritmico

II. Lento tranquillo III. Madagascan Song

IV. Lento molto espressivo e mesto V. Scherzando

My instrumental sextet Laikan was commissioned by Kim Williams for Musica Viva (Australia). It was composed especially for Peter Maxwell Davies, to whom it is dedicated, and The Fires of London, who premiered it at the 1980 Festival of Perth. Laikan signalled a departure from the trance-like stillness of much of my music of the 1970s by its introduction of corporeal rhythm. (Laikan is an old Gothic word which suggests liveliness, rhythmic vitality.) It may thus be seen as a precursor of my Maninya series (1981-6) and of my violin concerto Maninyas, which was completed in 1988.

The work is structured very simply: five clearly defined sections are arranged to form a symmetrical ABCB’A’ plan. The A sections are quick, dance-like; the B sections serene and melodic. The first of the B sections has a sinuous, richly decorated clarinet melody against a drone-like string accompaniment; the second is a ruminative miniature adagio. The central (C) section is a re-composition of a colourful Madagascan folksong whose vocal antiphony has been distributed between woodwinds and strings, whilst a burbling accompaniment, originally for African harp, has been adapted for marimba.

Edwards

Ross