Gordon Monro - "The Voice of the Phoenix (2)"

"Lament Over Jerusalem"

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"Its Claws Lifted Up to Pray"

"The Voice of the Phoenix (2)"

For bass flute or contrabass flute and tape, duration 11 mins 35 secs (1997)

Go to the download page for an extract from The Voice of the Phoenix (2).

Program note

The Voice of the Phoenix (2) is dedicated to the Sydney flautist Kathleen Gallagher, who premiered the work, and who contributed much advice and encouragement during its composition.

The tape part was created by digital synthesis, using the same chaotic process (based on a model of the sun's magnetic field) that was used in The Voice of the Phoenix (1). In The Voice of the Phoenix (2) the oscillators (of which there are 17) start off producing sine waves; the timbres slowly become more complex during the first section of the piece, and in the third section the oscillators have reached fully chaotic behaviour. The middle section is a cadenza for the bass flute alone.

The tape part was realised on the composer's home computer.

Performance materials are available from me or from the Australian Music Centre.

Performances, etc

"Live Wires" concert (organised by the Contemporary Performers' and Composers' Fellowship), Old Darlington School, University of Sydney, 11 October 1997, bass flute Kathleen Gallagher;
Broadcast on the programme "AudioDaze", 2SER-FM (Sydney), 24th March 1998;
Australian Computer Music Association conference, Canberra School of Music, 11 July 1998, bass flute Kathleen Gallagher;
Fifth Computer Music Festival in Seoul, Korea, 4 December 1998, bass flute Lee Chul-ho;
Selected as an ISCM recommended work for the ISCM World Music Days in Romania, September 1999;
Joint prize-winner at the First Australian Flute Composition Competition, held as part of the Tenth Australian Flute Convention in Brisbane, April 1999;
"Plugged In" concert (organised by the Contemporary Performers' and Composers' Fellowship), Old Darlington School, University of Sydney, 15 May 1999, bass flute Kathleen Galllagher;
International Computer Music Conference, Berlin, August 2000 (premiere on the contrabass flute: performer Beate-Gabriela Schmitt).
Performance in Korea by Beate-Gabriela Schmitt (contra-bass flute), 26th October 2005.
The Voice of the Phoenix (2) is on the CD "Flöte und Computer 2" on the ProViva label: ProViva (Munich) CD ISPV 191.

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