Listen to excerpts from New Music: New Ensemble.
Soundstream Collective inaugural concert – Friday 30 September 2011 at Elder Hall (Adelaide)
a leaf falls
Composer: Erik Griswold
Cello: John Addison
Percussion: Jamie Adam, Ryan Harrison, Ryan Simm and Andrew Wiering
This world premier performance of a leaf falls , is taken from the e.e. cummings’ poem, published in 1958. It reads: “l (a leaf falls) oneliness.
It was originally set for Griswold men’s choir. Griswold writes, “Though I’ve never really lived in a place with an autumn, I nevertheless feel a sense of nostalgia for the coming of autumn, the leaves turning bright oranges and reds, and is it a sense of emptiness when the leaves fall?”
Eugene Carchesio captured something like this sense beautifully in his Dead leaves of Tokyo series. Raking the leaves in my backyard, [is] a kind of meditation. And who doesn’t love jumping into a pile of leaves?”. Griswold took a collaborative approach with cellist John Addison, welcoming his creative input and guidance.
The work was commissioned by Soundstream, with the support of Clocked Out, and the Australia Council.
Erik Griswold (Composer) at the rehearsal
Percussion & Cello
Listen to the 1st movement (2.00)
Listen to the 3rd movement (3:00)
Shining unbreakable
Composer: John Polgalse
Piano: Gabriella Smart
Violin: Elizabeth Layton
Shining, unbreakable, a world premiere at this concert, was commissioned work by Soundstream Foundation Patron Kevin Rooney as a tribute to his Aunt, Gertrude Rooney, who was first violin with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and a remarkable, progressive woman for her time.
Polglase writes of Kevin’s letter regarding the commission, “I was moved by his eloquent and heart felt writing about her. those words in any programmatic way, it must be acknowledged that reading them had a direct effect on the composition”. Usually a composer of abstract, pure music, I was immediately struck by the atmosphere and setting, and while this piece is by no means intended to reflect The lyricism and restrained passion of the opening and the vibrant, bustling energy of the central section could be seen to portray a person unbowed over nearly a century, of the individualdeep love of music for its power to move the mind and the heart in equal parts.
Elizabeth & Gabriella
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