Abstract
The 'Pacific' of the title refers to the music's use of cultural resonances of the Pacific: percussion ensemble sounds of the Philippines and personal interval-colour sonorities evocative of the sea. These resonances 'dance' in that they are swept up into colour chorales (both fast and slow) and fiery syncopated Filipino kulintang percussion rhythms. The shape of the piece is explosive: opening kulintang fragments evolve into a cacophony of juxtapositions with orchestra girded by a barrage of percussion at the end. Untuned percussion at the close balances the tuned-percussive utterance at the opening. Interval-colour moments feature in the music either via dissonantly tinged whole-tone conglomerations, initially borrowed from kulintang scales, or with open-string fifth resonances, or by aching tonally dissonant sounds. The static colours reflecting sea-blue or Filipino sonorities are thrust forward, amongst moments of repose, in syncopated Pacific rhythm as a way of expressing the composer's locale. For 2 flutes (1st doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B♭, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, trumpet in C, 2 trumpets in B♭, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (2 players), harp, strings.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Grosvenor Place, N.S.W. |
| Publisher | Reproduced and distributed under licence by the Australian Music Centre |
| Size | music score |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |