michael whiticker

Program notes with recordings and further information

In Repose: a Japanese Requiem (2007 - ongoing)

In Repose is a multi-disciplinary work inspired by century-old Japanese graves around Australia where ceremony, spirituality and community meets dance, photography, music and theatre. Artists include Wakako Asano (dance), Satsuki Odamura (koto music), Vic McEwan (sound design / story telling) and Mayu Kanamori (photography / story telling). With original compositions by Mark Isaacs (Chinkon for bass koto), Michael Whiticker (Haiku for bass koto, In Repose for koto) and Rosalind Page (Garden for koto) as commissioned by Satsuki specifically for In Repose.

How do we honour our ancestors? In Japan, the act of memorialising the dead is known as kuyo, a ceremony whose origins are Buddhist in which prayers and offerings are made to honour and calm the spirits of the departed. But what happens when the dead lie far way, in Australia for example? Who will perform the rites of kuyo then? This question was one of the starting points for an original exhibition and performance titled In Repose now touring Australia. Blending dance, visual projection, sound-scapes, installation and the music of the Japanese koto, In Repose is a requiem for the Japanese migrants buried far from their homeland, and a celebration of the Australian communities who continue to tend those graves. In Repose has already been performed at grave-sites in Townsville, Broome and Thursday Island and is now being brought to a wider audience at Sydney's Japan Foundation.
Further reference to In Repose is found here http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rhythmdivine/stories/2010/2862291.htm and here http://satsukikoto.com.au/inrepose/index.html

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Haiku
Written for Koto virtuoso Satsuki Odamura in late 2006, Haiku was part of the In Repose project. This project was driven by Sydney-based photographer Mayu Kanamori. Haiku was first performed in Townsville at the Belgian Gardens Cemetery as part of the In Repose project in February 2007
In Repose is a site-specific collaborative multi art form project with dance, music, visual projection, sound-scapes and installation, inspired by Japanese graves in Australia from the turn of the century.
In Repose is a requiem: a work of kuyo, a Japanese term, which describes an act of ceremonial prayer or offering to respect, honour and calm the spirits of the deceased. Its origins are in Buddhism, and its practice has become a part of the Japanese spiritual culture with or without its religious connection.
This work began as a process in which the Japanese migrant artists attempted to connect to the land in which they chose to live and die. As the project In Repose takes its shape, this connection has extended beyond the landscape at Belgian Gardens Cemetery in Townsville to the Japanese Cemetery in Broome, and to the Japanese Cemetery in Thursday Island.
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Passing Through (Looking for that special place) 2002

Riverside Gardens is a new subdivision in Townsville of some 1000 or so new homes. It has been settled in barely five years and is widely held as being one of the best suburbs in town in which to live. Interviews with residents uncover what has brought them there: the beauty of the river environment and its surrounding walk and bike trails are foremost, along with boating and fishing opportunities. The area is also close to the university, a major army barracks, the CSIRO and the new regional hospital.
The interviews offer material for a fascinating sociological study, however for one outsider visiting the area the values implicit in the subdivision are just a little too middle class. A local university student, he considers he would miss the drunks, derelicts, gangs and glue sniffers of his part of town – a suburb built by the army in the 60s as housing for soldiers with uniform rows of purpose built dwellings, small yards, and few and arid parks largely devoid of recreational facilities.
The voices of the residents of, and visitors to Riverside Gardens accompanied by a few domestic noises and the sounds of this river environment – birds, boats, barks and bikes, along with some heavy breathing and the occasional moving feet.

Thank you to John, Daphne, Justine, Bernadette, Birte, Zelma, Iesha, Karen, Clare and Joseph. And a special thank you to Caitlin and Miles for singing the street names.


A recording of track 1 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of track 5 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of track 6 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of track 7 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of track 20 can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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All in good time

It was fortuitous that I happened to be living in West Berlin at the time of the November 9, 1989 opening of “Der Mauer”. As wall after wall in the eastern part of Europe crumbled it was a time which became locked in the memory and cherished by all. For humanitarians the world over the 1980’s ended in a period of great relief and euphoria.
All in good time, which I began late in 1989 and completed in 1991, is an emotional response to a momentous experience in my life. I tried to write positive even uplifting music, something my mirrored my feelings of this period and, although conscious of the difficult road ahead for East Germans (indeed all former Eastern Block peoples), I put their struggle aside and began to write something full of brightness and colour – a response to the celebration going on all around me as the German people released 30 years of pent up mistrust and frustration. I hope you will enjoy my piece simply as music but if you also experienced some of the elation that coloured and accompanied the creation of All in Good Time, then so much the better. On a darker note this piece is dedicated to the many people, including my own eastern block friends, who’ve suffered and lost so much for simply demanding their human rights – in particular to those who lost everything while attempting to cross “Der Mauer”.
All in Good Time was commissioned by the Seymour Group with financial assistance from the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council.


A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here,
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.

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Ad Marginem and Ad Parnassum
Ad Marginem for flute soloist and string orchestra was written in 1986. It is a sister piece to Ad Parnassum for flute soloist and small ensemble which was written in 1989/91. Both works take their titles from paintings by Paul Klee, and in the case of Ad Marginem this is not a surprise given the musical references I found in his marine landscape. Klee was an amateur musician of some note and it has been suggested that in his Ad Parnassum he was making a reference to the 1723 treatise on music theory and counterpoint of Johann Joseph Fux, Gradus ad Parnassum. While this musical reference in itself is enough to interest me in Klee's painting, I am more fascinated by the constellation of colours and sense of contrast which he employs.
A recording of Ad Marginem movement 1 can be heard by clicking here,
movement 2 by clicking here, and movement 3 by clicking here.
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
The short third movement of my piece Ad Marginem, although successful for me in the context of a large four movement work, had always seemed a little aenemic, so I was pleased when the opportunity arose to reorchestrate it and develop it into a completely new and much larger work for the Elision ensemble – Ad Parnassum. Even under the influence of two very different constraints - one being a complete rethinking of the original material to suit Elision's unusual ensemble and the new shape I was casting it in, as it was now to become a complete work in its own right, and the second being my 1989/91 composing temperament which was vastly different to that of 1986 - Ad Parnassum is still in many ways a sister piece to the earlier concerto. Both works take their titles from paintings by Paul Klee, and in the case of Ad Marginem this is not a surprise given the musical references I found in his marine landscape. With Ad Parnassum however, I made no attempt to attach any program to the music. Ad Parnassum, performed by the Libra Ensemble, is found on the Move Label CD, The Music of Michael Whiticker.
A recording of Ad Parnassum can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Love's Blazing Fire
Love's Blazing Fire began life as a series of 5 songs for mezzosoprano, baritone and piano with text taken from the bible's Song of Songs. In 1996 it became part of the 45 minute, one act chamber opera - Love's Blazing Fire, directed by John Wregg, who also wrote the libretto for the Sydney Metropolitan Opera. Love's Blazing Fire in that version does not require an accompanist as a backing track accompanies the singers.
A recording of song 1 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of song 2 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of song 3 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of song 4 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of song 5 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of Interlude A can be found here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Miname
Written in 1988 for the Het trio (bass clarinet, flute and piano). It was commissioned by the Australia Council for the Het Trio tour of Australia. It is dedicated to the Trio. It was recorded by the Het Trio for album release in the early 1990s.
Later versions of the work were created for solo performers. It exists in versions for flute and backing track, and contrabass and backing track.
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Nepean River 1998 73 mins
Co-composed with Paul Lawrence, this work consists of a collection of sounds of the Nepean region. Aside from the lovely noises it is a document of a period and a place. It exists only as a CD recording.

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Orpheus and Persephone for guitar and mandolin 1987
Looking back on this work, some 25 years later, i remember being excited by Elision's performers Daryl Buckley and Stephen Morey, and my own background as a guitarist encouraging me to write for this duo. Daryl's initial promoting of the ensemble as "the performers who wear red shoes',  might have also had something to do with it. The style of the work is somewhat  in a post minimalist vein but it is probably more like it's sister piece of the time - Venus Asleep, which I also wrote for Elision.

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Hommage, Vibitqi, and Liexliu
Hommage and Vibitqi (written for Natalia Ricci (nee Cohen) were first performed by Sue Powell on 15 May, 1981 at Paddington Town Hall ; Liexliu was first performed by Frances Simons on 18 January 1981 at the University of Sydney War Memorial Carillon.

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A voice alone 1980
Although written as a composition study in the development of a small pitch cell, A voice alone - a short 3 movement work, is anything but dry - my text and dramatic sensibilities allow it to become quite a little show piece for a solo singer.
Early performers included David Collins - White, a good friend who later went on to become a principal tenor with the Australian Opera, and soprano Margaret Schindler - who also sang with the Australian Opera and later taught at the Queensland Conservatorium.
A recording of part 1 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of part 2 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of part 3 can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Water songs
I was commissioned by the ABC in 2002 to write a 3 minute radiophonic piece. The resulting work - Water Songs, takes a collection of popular songs which refer to water, that I had community artists with whom I was working at the time sing. Later I assembled them and lots of other watery noises found around Townsville (it was the wet season at the time) into a small fun 3 minute piece. It exists only as a recording.
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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As water bears salt
For Mezzo-soprano, baritone, SSAATB chamber choir, percussion.
The choral piece "As Water Bears salt" is in 3 parts and the text is taken from Federco Garcia Lorca. It was originally composed for solo voices in 1981 and recomposed for larger ensemble in 1989.
It was first performed in June 1989 by the Sydney University Chamber choir, conducted by Nicholas Routley and is “dedicated to the artistic vision of David Wansbrough". It was recorded by the Choir and released on CD in the late 1990s.

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Wild as the wind
Inspired by the birth of my son Miles and written for Dutch virtuoso and friend Harry Sparnaay, it was written while I was Composer In Residence with the Melbourne Symphony.
It was first performed in1993 at the CUB Malthouse with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and soloist Harry Sparnaay
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Winamin 1986
Written for Daniel Herskovitch and Rotraud Schneider while I was Composer in Residence at Trinity Grammar School and endeavouring to write something which would communicate to a wider school community at first listening.  Winamin has become one of my more successful works with many performers over the years. The most recent recognition (as I write this in 2010) is the new CD release "Jewel" on the Atoll Label with Robert Constable and Elizabeth Holowell.
There are at least 3 CD releases that I now of which contain Winamin. They can be found on the Canberra School of Music, Jade and Atoll labels.
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
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Plangge
Written to use virtually every possible percussion instrument owned by the Synegy ensemble, Plangge is a virtuosic tour de force which carefully unfolds the colours of the percussion ensemble, and only in its final minutes brings together the sounds of skin, wood and metal in one ensemble.
It was first performed by Synergy in 1987 at the Sydney Conservatorium conducted by the composer. It was commissioned by Synergy through the Australia Council and is dedicated to Michael Askill.

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Purgatorio Paradiso
With text from Dante's Inferno, my Purgatorio, Paradiso is a post minimalist work which draws comparison with Stockhausen's Stimmung. The original voice recordings which form the backing track were samples i recorded of the Song Company specifically for my work.

The following review provides a good program note:
"Whiticker's diptych Purgatorio Paradiso addressed the cherished notion that frequent changes of chord are a precondition for musical interest. He argues by example that it is not, and in part two, Paradiso, achieves a genuinely dramatic climax entirely by other means: dynamics, textural density, and the interplay of voices with the work's electronic tape component."
The Sydney Review, 4.92

It was commissioned by the Song Company with the assistance of the Australia Council. It was “dedicated to Roland Peelman and his merry band". The Song Company gave the first performance conducted by Roland Peelman.
A recording of part 1 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of part 3 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of part 4 can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.

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Quidong
Written in a serial style, Quidong was the second piece I wrote with my  composition teacher in Berlin - Isang Yun. Following Korokon for violin and piano, written earlier that year, Quidong shows the development of a very strict compositional technique which interestingly was of no interest to Yun. My fellow student, English composer Keith Gifford and I spent many hours analysing and discussing the work of recent European composers and that, more than anything, provided the rigour and forged the direction of my work for the next years.
Press review: "In Quidong, Whiticker creates a musical picture that emerges effortlessly and lingers on afterwards." Westdeutsch Zeitung, 16.9.85
It was first performed in West Germany in 1983 In West Germany and 2 years later at the Sydney Conservatorium conducted by the composer. It was commissioned by guitarist Ken Burns through the Australia Council and is dedicated to Justine Wilkinson. Quidong, performed by the Libra Ensemble, is found on the Move Label CD, The Music of Michael Whiticker.
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Tartengk
Tartengk my work for orchestra, was begun in 1985 and the first, short version workshopped under the mentorship of Sturt Challender at the AMC Composers School in Tasmania that year. Tartengk heralded a change in direction for me as a composer as it started to feature the bold upward thrusting melodic lines that were to become a feature of my writing. After lying idle for 7 years, Tartengk was completed only in 1993 while I was Composer In Residence with the Melbourne Symphony, a position funded by the ABC and the Australia Council.
The title is an Australian Aboriginal word found in the South Australian area; it means 'a stick for beating time in singing'. The sound of the word 'tartengk' immediately communicates something to me. It emanates strength and has a certain exotic appeal and, as it came into being on this continent, assumes a special quality for me as an Australian. When one considers its musical meaning it is also especially apt as a title for a piece of music.

A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here.
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.

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Townsville by Land and Sea 1997
This CD consists of field recordings made in the Townville region in 1997/98. It is a series of 22 individual soundscapes and includes spoken text introducing each track. The text is narrated by myself, Justine Wilkinson, and Miles and Caitlin Whiticker.

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Silent beat
Commissioned from Bonemap as part of a large multimedia performance project, the score was performed live by Paul Lawrence and I playing guitars, percussion, voice and synthesizer.
Although the material has potential for further live performance, it exists now as a CD recording from Silent Beat (my performing duo) which in its 1997 to 2001 membership, had Paul Lawrence as my performing accomplice. The CD "bonemap - the wild edge and listening to skin" features this music.
Recorded examples from the CD can be found on this page
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Tries and tribulations 1997
The work was composed to run as a soundscape, 8 hours a day, accompanying the visual exhibition of the same name at the Lewers Gallery in Penrith on the Nepean River. The soundscape consists of a collection of sounds of Aborigines in sport assembled from many sources - both spoken text and actual sporting sounds. Aside from the interesting noises it is a document of a period and a place, before the Sydney Olympics and Cathy Freeman's extraordinary performance representing Aboriginal Australia.
A recording of track 4 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of track 7 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of track 8 can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Tulku 1982
Written to extend my own skills as a guitarist, it includes use of accessories such as a glass slide, and includes a lot of contemporary guitar performance techniques. It was commissioned by the Australia Council and dedicated to and first performed ken burns in 1983. Tulku is found on the Move Label CD, The Music of Michael Whiticker.
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Tya for small orchestra
Tya is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning "earth" or "flowering time". It was composed in 1984 while i was studying in Berlin with Isang Yun and Witold Szalonek. Tya is a serial work and typical of the works i was composing at that time is higly dramatic with intense and sudden changes of dynamic and colour.
Tya was chosen to represent Australia at the ISCM World Music Days in 1985 in Amsterdam. It was first performed in Amsterdam at the Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra conducted by Enst Bour.
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Venus asleep
Originally composed in 1987 but reworked in 1993, Venus Asleep was written for the Elision ensemble. Looking back on this work, some 20 plus years later, I remember being excited by the passion of Elision's performers and Director Daryl Buckley’s initial promoting of the ensemble as, "the performers who wear red shoes'. This inspired the style of my work -  somewhat  in a post minimalist, post romantic, post modernist vein in that it takes a big theme (perhaps a little too angular and strident for post minimalism) and then repeats it in many and various guises.

A further program note can bex found in the reviews of the time:
"Whiticker's Venus Asleep is thoroughly engaging. After a strident, edgy opening, the score becomes complex and imaginative with splendidly forceful percussive effects." The Australian, 2.87 "Of the two works recycled from the previous concert, Whiticker's Venus Asleep gained in stature and virtuosity of performance. It is direct and stern in its language, imbued with energy and occasional soaring unison instrumental lines, leavened with jagged block-chords that whip across the sinewy texture: a most impressive piece that radiates vitality."
Clive O'Connell, The Age, late 1987
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.

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Redror 1989
Redror is an explosive piece with a great virtuosity demanded of the performers. From whisper quiet multiphonics through to tongue slaps and extreme register playing, there is little respite for them during its 14 minute duration. Written in a post serial style with rhythm as well as pitch strictly controlled, Redror is probably the last piece I composed with such excessive rigour. From 1989 I was beginning to look for opportunity to add improvisatory elements to my music as one means of moving on to new modes of expression as a composer.

Redror was commissioned by the Dutch ensemble Duo Contemporain with the financial assistance of the Performing Arts Board, Australia Council.
It is dedicated to performers Henri Bok and Evert Le Mair.

Melbourne Ensemble Libra recorded Redror on their CD release on the Move label of the Music of Michael Whiticker. It was released in 1994.

A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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On slanting Ground (1988)

for clarinet and tape, can be heard here

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Kiah 1986

for solo flute can be heard here

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Sheaf Tosser for spoken voice and piano
The work was written in 1984 while i was living in Berlin and missing a little of the Australian vernacular.The text is from a poem by Eric Rolls. The voice is required to rhythmically narrate rather than sing the words. The first performance was given by David Collins-White.
A recording of this work can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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She calls to the wind Between now and forever 1994

These two works were commissioned for the Nepean Valley Concert Band with funding provided by the Australia Council. I wrote them while I was lecturing in Composition at the University of Western Sydney. They are dedicated to trumpeter Merv Lawrence.
There is a further tale is associated with this commission. I am to believe that the conductor of the band left town soon after I complete the works and I don’t think they were ever performed.

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Pieces for students: The serpent beguiles, Three episodes, The tempting
The hollow crown, Taldree, karobaan
Written while I was Composer in Residence at Trinity Grammar School in Sydney in 1986 and endeavouring to write pieces for the boys that would be immediately playable and able to communicate to a wider school community at first listening.  
The residency was funded as part of a Australia Council Composer Residency program.

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Piece for students: the sound garden
A range of pieces for children that use percussion, voices (Chatter with the angels, Who's that, Sound Garden jive), guitar (Guitars too!) and recorders (Reggae for Sound Garden).
The composition of the work was funded in approximately 2001 as part of a project by Delpin Developments in Townsvile

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A collection of simple piano miniatures: Boinko the Billio 1979 - 81
A series of 13 short piano pieces for pianists up to grade 3. The series has been recorded for CD on at least 2 occasions. One of the artists was pianist Elizabeth Greene.
Boinko the Billio is published by Allans Music
A recording of piece 1 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 2 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 3 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 4 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 5 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 6 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 7 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 8 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of piece 9 can be heard by clicking here
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
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Tu Tu Tutti
A short work for chamber ensemble, it was written while I was a composition student in 1982. Tu Tu Tuttli has not been performed.

Program notes for some of michael whiticker's compositions

All notes by the composer