Louise Devenish National Tour - Program Notes

Tura New Music

Acknowledgements

Tura New Music recently celebrated its 30th year as an internationally recognised organisation for the production and advocacy of groundbreaking programs, works and partnerships in music and the sonic arts.

Thank you to Tura New Music and the University of Western Australia for ongoing support of my music performance and research. I would also like to acknowledge the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries for financial assistance in commissioning Cat Hope, Stuart James and Kate Moore; special thanks to Luke Devenish.

Driving the evolution of music and the sonic arts.

Through its award-winning programs, Tura engages with tens of thousands of people across Australia every year, enriching lives through music and sonic art experiences. Linking artists with new audiences, connecting rural and urban culture, and creating experiences which transcend mainstream performance.

Board of Directors Gavin Ryan (Chair), Rod Campbell, Simon Dawkins, Robyn Johnston, Justine Lawler, Dominique Monteleone, Helen Symon QC. People Tos Mahoney: Artistic Director

Annalisa Oxenburgh: General Manager

Liesbeth Goedhart: Development Consultant

From Louise Devenish

From Tura New Music Tura New Music’s annual program is supported by the State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, in association with Lotterywest and The Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding advisory body. music for percussion and electronics national tour is presented in association with the University of Western Australia, Monash University, South Australian History Festival, Jugglers Art Space and Soundstream.

Government Funding Partners

Tristen Parr: Program Manager

Anna Sparkes: Marketing, Communications & Admin Coordinator Josten Myburgh: iMprov Coordinator

Tura Donor Circle Tura thanks its Next30 Leadership Donors:

Ambassadors: Irene Lawson and Brendan Kissane, Carl Erbrich, The Rowley Foundation.

Visionary: anonymous.

Champions: Helen Symon QC, Debra Knight, Katrina Chisholm, Elizabeth Gheradin, Clare McArdle, Bux Foundation, Joan Spiller and Phillip Yetton, Katrina Chisholm, Shane and Gabrielle Tregillis, Peter McMullin, Paul Sokolowski, John Barnier.

Pioneers: Peter Connaughton, Margot Nelson, Ros and Ian De Souza, Kate and Gavin Ryan, Guy and Belinda Leclezio, Andrew and Gabe Mostyn, Zelinda Bafile, Dwellingup Arts Collective, Mark and Rose Okeby, Elizabeth Fong, Norman Dennis, Larissa Strk and Simon Tan, Julie Wager, Felicity Davis, Leigh Mackay, Meryl Sexton, Andrea Tsalamandris, Philip McCann, Paul Grant, anonymous. tura.com.au

Presenting Partners

Louise Devenish

music for percussion and electronics

National Tour Tues 15 May - Thurs 24 May 2018

Tura welcomes you to music for percussion and electronics by Louise Devenish. An immersive collection of Australian works for percussion and electronics.

1. Exposiciones (2007)

Composition by Andrián Pertout for glockenspiel and fixed media 2. Kinabuhi | Kamatayon (2015)

Composition by Stuart James for Balinese bossed gongs and electronic processing 3. Tone Being (2016)

Composition by Cat Hope for tam-tam and sub-woofer 4. Coral Speak (2016)

Composition by Kate Moore for vibraphone and stereo tracks

music for percussion and electronics

The sparkling sound world of glockenspiel and vibraphone and the deep resonance of gongs are extended by electronic processing, samples and sub woofers in a collection of works

by Andrián Pertout, Stuart James, Cat Hope and Kate Moore.

This collection of virtuosic and experimental Australian works for a range of metal percussion instruments is complemented by interactive visual projections by New York based artist Ross Karre (International Contemporary Ensemble).

Louise Devenish | Percussion Ross Karre | Video projection design Tristen Parr | Electronics

Louise Devenish

Louise Devenish is an accomplished musician whose artistic practice lies at the nexus of performance, research and education. Key projects include co-directing The Sound Collectors duo and Intercurrent ensemble, percussing for Australia’s leading percussion group Speak Percussion (VIC) and acclaimed electro-acoustic sextet Decibel (WA). A passionate advocate of new and Australian music, Louise has commissioned over 50 works for percussion and premiered countless others.

Louise is Head of Percussion at the University of Western Australia Conservatorium of Music. Louise is a 2017 Churchill Fellow and her research is published widely, including a forthcoming book on Australian contemporary percussion history for Routledge’s Research in Music series. This program is representative of her debut album music for percussion and electronics, released on the Tall Poppies label in 2017.

Ross Karre

Ross Karre is a percussionist and temporal artist based in New York City. His primary focus is on combining media, including classical percussion performance, electronics, theater, moving image, visual art, and lighting design. He designs integrated, moving images that emerge from an aesthetic foundation in American experimental music as well as that of the European avant-garde. Ross is a percussionist and the co-artistic director for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

National Tour

Perth | 7:30pm Tuesday 15 May | The Sewing Room Adelaide | 5pm Sunday 20 May | Z Ward As part of South Australia’s History Festival Brisbane | 7:30pm Tues 22 May | Jugglers Art Space Melbourne | 1pm Thurs 24 May | Music Auditorium, Monash University | As part of the Lunchtime Concert Series

Program Notes Exposiciones (2007) Composition by Andrián Pertout for glockenspiel and fixed media

Tone Being (2016) Composition by Cat Hope for tam-tam and sub-woofer

Originally composed as an acousmatic work for Sampled Microtonal Schoenhut Toy Piano in 2005, Exposiciones was translated for glockenspiel in 2007. This virtuosic work represents a complexist branch of percussion repertoire that emerged from Melbourne post 2000 and is unique in its balance of tonal melodic beauty and complex rhythm. Pertout writes that ‘Exposiciones is a thorough exploration of divisions of the octave within the context of a complex polyrhythmic scheme. Opening with octave Cs and dividing the octave to add new pitches, all pitches within a two-octave range are presented alongside two complementary scales: Indonesian Pélog and Sléndro forms. Additionally, all 57 polyrhythmic ratios between the ranges of 2 and 15 are presented. In other words, polyrhythmic ratios 3:2 (2:3), 5:2 (2:5), 4:3 (3:4), 5:3 (3:5), and so on, with the last set represented by 15:14 (14:15). This material is referenced against a tape consisting of a gong-like detuned middle C that sounds the tonal centre as well as marking the downbeat, while another, higher C sampled from the original toy piano provides the rhythmic pulse against which the glockenspiel is heard’.

Of Tone Being, Hope writes: ‘Tone Being is a work that encapsulates the nature of my explorations into the interaction of acoustic instruments and sub tones. The work is notated using a graphic ‘superscore’ that is read electronically with an audio part built into it. The work engages ten unique approaches to the surface of the tam-tam, presented to the performer in a fixed order and duration. Different types and shapes of line are used to describe timbre, time and harmonic development, interpreted individually by the performer’.

Kinabuhi | Kamatayon (2015) Composition by Stuart James for Balinese bossed gongs and electronic processing Kinabuhi | Kamatayon explores the sonic potential of a selection of instruments from a Balinese gamelan gong kebyar using contemporary western techniques. Five movements each bring a variety of timbres forth from a collection of reyong and trompong aided by different electronic treatments. The composer describes his inspiration for the work thus: ‘The essence of energy consists of the cycles of life and death. The essence of human life is the breath, the compression and rarefaction of the lungs. The essence of sound is the compression and rarefaction of kinetic energy passing through air. Kinabuhi | Kamatayon is concerned with the compression and rarefaction of time, exploring different time scales, sometimes in parallel or in series. The work progressively transitions from a compression and rarefaction across an entire movement to transitions between consecutive bars.’

Coral Speak (2016) Composition by Kate Moore for vibraphone and stereo tracks Moore frequently draws inspiration from the Australian environment, and describes Coral Speak as ‘a percussion suite of laments and playful dances in homage to the fragility of the Great Barrier Reef, where the corals are currently under threat due to climate changes and human intervention. In three movements titled Spel I, Spel II and Spel III, each imagines the colourful interplay of movement between the living corals, joyful sentient creatures celebrating their idyllic surrounding and utopian waters. The pieces have a melancholic edge at the prospect of the corals retreating and dissipating as the water changes. The ebullient dance of life and beauty comes to an abrupt halt as it is silenced and abandoned, leaving behind a skeleton like a ruined underwater city that once thrived, never to return’.