Program note: Raindrop (1997)
- Dominik Karski
- Source: The Song Company Viewing 30 May 1999
Raindrop (1991) Dominik Karski (b. 1972)
Raindrop, on a poem by Stella Marie Anderson, is Karski's only venture into vocal music so far and was
written in 1991 while a student at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. He is better known for
instrumental music, having won the 1998 ABC Classic FM Young Composer's Award with Blue and
Silver Charms.
'At the start of the piece, fragments of the text are distributed among the singers, creating a sense of
fluidity and lack of direction. The static nature of the opening is reinforced by harmonic uniformity
throughout the first main phase of the piece. The second phase can be identified by the textural change in
which the text is delivered in a more direct way, often through the use of whisper, over a background of
sustained harmonies. The succession of the sustained sounds changing in their harmonic quality attempts
to depart from the stable beginning. The sense of moving on is also achieved through the delivery of the
text. Finally, the piece arrives at a fully harmonic conclusion that corresponds to the final line of the poem
- and joins the eternal ocean'
DK
