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Sheet Music: ScoreSeven tanka : for two sopranos, shakuhachi and percussion / music by Johanna Selleck ; words by Graeme Ellis.by Johanna Selleck (2009)
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Product details
The poems comprising Seven Tanka were written after Melbourne poet Graeme Ellis attended a concert at the University of Melbourne in September 2008 featuring Johanna Selleck's Songs of the Earth and Sky for shakuhachi and percussion. After hearing this work, Ellis responded, "A spirit world opened up at once - inhabited by eerie presences which were just as interested in us as we were in them". In imagining shakuhachi combined with voice, Ellis commented further, "I found the register, colour, and the manner of the shakuhachi and soprano voice of Merlyn Quaife simpatico. They elaborated and adorned this strange world". Soon after, he composed Seven Tanka , from which Johanna in turn created the present song setting. Thus, a circular process of inspiration across artistic mediums finds full expression in the poetry and music of Seven Tanka.
Selleck's musical response to Ellis's Seven Tanka reflects her general approach to composition, which often centres on exploration of human emotion and the natural world, interpreted both literally and metaphorically. Hence, the subject matter and the vividness of perception and sensation, so clearly apparent in Ellis's poems, presented a strong inspirational trigger for her. The ability of haiku to capture the very essence of human experience with such brevity and colourful juxtaposition of imagery has fascinated Selleck since her student days and led to continuous experimentation with this poetic form. A significant milestone in this creative journey was her composition Becoming, an hour-long song cycle of haiku composed by different poets across time and place, 'stitched' together in the form of Japanese renga. It was natural, therefore, for Selleck to feel an immediate affinity with Graeme Ellis's evocative Seven Tanka.
Published by: Australian Music Centre — 1 facsimile score (40p. -- A4 (portrait))
Duration: 26 mins
Curve of ivory -- That distant thunder -- Grey before the first dawn -- Red wine of maple -- Long crane free feathered -- The moon is gliding -- Five white stones unite.
Dedicated to Merlyn Quaife, Judith Dodsworth, Arwen Johnston, Anne Norman
First performance by Merlyn Quaife, Judith Dodsworth, Arwen Johnston, Anne Norman — 18 Sep 09. 'Songs for a Changing Planet' concert, Melba Hall, University of Melbourne
Includes programme notes, performance directions, copy of texts, and biographical information about the composer and the poet.
Typeset edition.
This edition produced Jul 17.
ISMN: 979-0-720205-25-0
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