The fusion of musical styles

Solo piano

Gareth Farr’s music reflects his personality – bold, brash, or delicate and sensuous, but inevitably, immediately engaging. Rhythmic elements of his compositions can be linked to the complex and exciting rhythms of Rarotongan log drum ensembles, Balinese gamelan and other percussion music of the Pacific Rim, and these influences spill over into his works for piano. Balinese Pieces (PE128) is a set of three piano works influenced by gamelan music of Indonesia. This collection includes Sepuluh Jari (“ten fingers”), Tentang Cara Gamelan (“on the technique of gamelan”), and Jangan Lupa (“don’t forget”). Farr perfectly captures the exciting rhythms and beautiful sonorities of gamelan music and combines it with sounds and textures reminiscent of French impressionism. His writing for piano in these pieces is virtuosic, with fast melodic passages and complex rhythms.

The Horizon from Owhiro Bay (PE091) is Farr’s musical depiction of the ‘moody depths’ visible from the composer’s home. Farr writes: “This prelude is a musical representation of the view I see at twilight from my studio on the south coast of Wellington, New Zealand — the moody dark green depths of Cook Strait, the inky blue sky, and the endless unbroken horizon dividing the two.” The work’s simple arching structure begins and ends with a repeated two-note motif which serves as a literal horizon as the pianist performs surrounding ascending and descending figures.

An exciting and virtuosic work for solo piano, Farr’s Mouse Hole (PE100) requires fast finger work and dares the pianist to keep pace with the scurrying rodent evoked by the speedy streams of semiquavers that define the work. This work perfectly illuminates Farr’s penchant for rhythmic propulsion that typifies much of his musical output.

A great test for advanced pianists, John Psathas’s Jettatura (PE029) is an uncomplicated moto perpetuo, and another example of Psathas’s gift for creating high-energy, compelling works. Requiring heavy and impassioned fingering, Jettatura is shot through with defiance and aggression. The left hand hammers a stream of ostinatos while the right hand flies almost incautiously over the keys, stretching to the piano’s upper register.

Excerpt from Jettatura, p.1 (PE029)

By contrast, Psathas’s short and ebullient Sleeper (PE090) is built using minimalist techniques, the composer’s energy expressed in lyrical, child-like melodic gestures that evoke a sense of exploration and discovery. The opening measures contain a two-note ostinato pattern that forms a static harmonic base from which the work unfolds. A sense of momentum and subsequent departure emerges from the ‘voice-like’ notes, which gracefully evolve into scalic melodies, steering the dynamic and registral development of the piece, and generating the work’s pulse.

Vincent Ho’s Supervillain Études (PE214, PE215) fixate on six supervillains from comic book culture. Ho found that each of these villains are extreme expressions of psychological disorders and decided to dive into their psychological profiles collaborating with choreographers to see their takes on animating each of the profiles. The Supervillain Études take gestural cues from choreography while maintaining the profiles and personalities of the aforementioned supervillains, forming a compellingly moody, exciting, and villainous set of works.

Nostalgia (PE161) was originally intended as an encore piece for his percussion concerto The Shaman. Originally written for vibraphone, the evocative and lyrical lines of the original work also lend themselves to the sustained resonance of the piano. Ho expresses a sense of nostalgia throughout the work with simple melodic lines and ebbing accompaniment, making for a beautiful and thoughtful point within recital programmes.

Also on the theme of memory, Hatzis’ Through A Glass Darkly (PE102) is a dramatic and intricate work for solo piano that plays with the idea of ageing and failing memory. Wrong harmonic turns at the ends of phrases, memory slips, starting a new phrase in the wrong key and then adjusting afterwards; all of these harmonic dysfunctions intensify as the work progresses.

Piano and Percussion

John Psathas piece for piano and flute. Containing tonal colours and harmonies reminiscent of Olivier Messiaen, the piano’s nocturnal stillness is beautifully complemented by the flute’s winding lyrical passages. Faster, swirling lines are passed between the two instruments, their wave-like contours contracting into quivering trills and expanding into grand sweeps.

First made famous by Dame Evelyn Glennie, Psathas’s Matre’s Dance (PE027) is now a standard in the repertoire for piano and percussion. The title refers to a dance performed by a group of fanatics in one of Frank Herbert’s Dune books. The dance was non-repeating and exhausting for the dancer, who often collapsed or died before completing the extremely long, complex routine. Matre’s Dance is highly energetic and maintains relentless rhythmic tension courtesy of unpredictable accents and syncopation.

Whimsical Sketches Of Fanciful Birds

Vincent Ho

Ho’s Whimsical Sketches of Fanciful Birds (PE152) is an adventurous and colourful recital work for alto saxophone and piano. It consists of five short movements, each taking inspiration from a different bird species as imagined through the lens of the composer’s childhood. The saxophone’s expressive pitch bends, honks and frenzied gestures in combination with the piano’s colourful harmonic clusters makes for a playful, energetic and virtuosic addition to any post-graduate or professional performance.

Excerpt from Matre’s Dance, p.1 (PE027)

Glennie also commissioned Psathas’s Drum Dances (PE008), which is now also standard repertoire for drum kit and piano. Each of the four movements in this work were inspired by a certain rhythmic interaction possible between two performers. The performers gradually transition from battling for superiority to working together as they navigate material ranging from from a loosely-written stately dance to very tight and syncopated rhythmic interaction.

Piano and Strings

TUATARA

Gareth Farr

Farr’s Tuatara (PE037) is an energetic and entertaining work for percussion and piano, based on two musical ideas which are heard concurrently at the start of the work. A jaunty, angular, syncopated theme in the piano part is set against fast marimba lines. The musical argument of the work is entirely derived from these two ideas, which are exchanged between the instruments and subjected to development by variation.

Piano and Woodwind

Excerpt from Tuatara, p.1 (PE037)

Shifting between haunting and dextrous, Farr’s Nga Whetu e Whitu (PE131) is a captivating and challenging performance

Farr has arranged his string quartet Mondo Rondo for piano trio (PE132) Mondo Rondo is immediately engaging due to its combination of exotic melodies and percussive, funky rhythms throughout three contrasting movements. The pianist mimics the original version’s pizzicato techniques by muting the strings inside the piano.

Hatzis’s Old Photographs (PE104) is one of the composer’s most widely performed works for piano trio. Commissioned by the Gryphon Trio, it forms one movement of Hatzis’s award-winning multimedia theatre work Constantinople Old Photographs takes inspiration from a combination of sources including the music of Robert Schumann and early 20thcentury popular idioms reminiscent of the music of Astor Piazzolla.

Arranged for piano trio as well as clarinet, cello and piano, Psathas’s Island Songs (PE075, PE177) is perfect for ensembles looking to perform a high-energy work inspired by Greek dance. Suitable for performance by advanced secondary students and above. Of similar origins is Psathas’s Piano Quintet (PE036), perfect for chamber musicians who want to perform a virtuosic contemporary work influenced by Greek folk music. Individual lines are combined into layers of collective textures throughout the work, which makes the overall sound of the ensemble evocative and powerful.

Vincent Ho:

The Twelve Chinese Zodiac Animals, Book 1