Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

The music for Entangled Stillness was inspired by the ecology of stillness within entangled branches with cross-cutting rhythms of Mulgoa Nature Reserve and the immersive stasis of Japanese Gagaku shō music, in its dronal stillness and organically growing cluster sonority and seconds motif. The music starts with long dronal resonances and gentle short accents that awaken the silently undampened chords. The sound gradually emerges across shortening space ratios to reveal shō harmonies of vibrating deep stillness. The middle portion of the piece consists of four intensification/deintensification sections resonant with Gagaku clusters and energised birdsong fragments that burst into ecstatically spaced upper resonances that form the climax of the work, and then ebb back to slower spectral-like resonances. The opening section returns but with the dronal pedals as warm Gagaku-like chord clusters with hints of birdsong in the melody that both come to rest on gently articulated undampened resonances that demand deep listening within their stillness. The work is a tribute to my mother, Rosalie Gillies, who was an artist and poet, who always emanated peace and passed to another world this year. It was written for my friend and pianist Vanessa Sharman, who requested music with stillness.

Work Details

Year: 2023

Instrumentation: Piano.

Duration: 6 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Advanced — Complex rhythmic detail and changing colour nuances

Dedication note: Dedicated to Vanessa Sharman. Dedicated to Vanessa Sharman (pianist) and Rosalie Gillies (artist and poet).

Commission note: Commissioned by Vanessa Sharman.. Commissioned by the Australian pianist, Vanessa Sharman for a Tall Poppies compact disc recording in 2024.

The composer notes the following styles, genres, influences, etc in relation to this work:
Japanese Gagaku shō spectral chords, the New York free jazz of pianist Matthew Shipp, and the ecology of Mulgoa Nature Reserve.