Awakening
Marshall McGuire is a formidable asset to Australia’s contemporary music scene, and the only harpist specialising in both baroque harp and all forms of modern music. This Tall Poppies disc remains a catalogue best-seller.
Helen Gifford composer
Barry Conyngham composer
Jennifer Fowler composer
Graeme Koehne composer
Peter Sculthorpe composer
Marshall McGuire arranger
Recorded in 1994 at Studio 200, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney, the album gathers Australian works for solo harp, with one trio for flute, viola and harp.
Conyngham’s title piece moves through seven short movements that set stasis against bursts of activity and colouristic harp writing. Sculthorpe’s Night Pieces, written for piano, are heard here in the composer’s harp version, alongside McGuire’s own arrangements of Into the Dreaming and From Kakadu.
Reviews
Marshall McGuire is a leading Australian harpist with a special interest in (and talent for) new or unfamiliar music. On this Tall Poppies disc he begins with an admirably shaped and coolly poised sonata for harp by the late Peggy Glanville-Hicks and a slightly sinister Fable by Helen Gifford. Barry Conyngham's Awakening is a work in seven short movements concerned with contrasts of stasis and activity and marked by colourful harp effects. Conyngham's Streams is an atmospheric piece for the same instrumentation as Debussy's sonata for flute, viola and harp, and also features Geoffrey Collins (flute) and Patricia Pollett (viola).
Peter Sculthorpe's evocative Night Pieces, written for pianists, work perhaps even better in the composer's arrangement for harp; and McGuire has arranged two other Sculthorpe pieces, Into the Dreaming (originally for guitar) and From Kakadu.
Another McGuire arrangement is of Graeme Koehne's elegantly planned To His Servant Bach..., a kind of chorale prelude suggested by thoughts about the end of Bach's life. Jennifer Fowler's Threaded Stars uses changes of tempo and rhythm as an equivalent for star patterns. McGuire's playing serves his composers with an almost ideal blend of technical sureness and interpretative sympathy.
This CD by Marshall McGuire will be a very pleasant surprise for anyone unfamiliar with the potential of the harp in contemporary music. There are some astonishing sounds on this album.… Marshall McGuire has compiled a selection of works that is consistently interesting; his playing is sensitive throughout. This CD will always demand attention with its range of unusual sonorities.
The Sonata by Peggy Glanville-Hicks is confident and fluent; its astute variety of coloration and not at all confronting. The more austere Fable by the Melbourne composer Helen Gifford is concise but unfailingly interesting, making the harp sound like an exotic guitar. Threaded Stars by Jennifer Fowler… is almost a fantasia in its alternation of quiet reflectiveness with glassy swirls and trills – the stars, presumably.
The sonata for harp evokes a sense of serenity and tranquillity. The rhondo is especially delicate and refined. The processional is joyful and celebratory! Mr Marshall McGuire has presented a pure rendition of listening pleasure!
Artist
Marshall McGuire
Marshall McGuire brings the harp into contemporary Australian music with uncommon colour and nerve. He specialises in both baroque and modern repertoire, drawing out unusual sonorities and serving new works with technical sureness and interpretative sympathy.
Tracks
- i 4:07
- ii 2:25
- iii 3:44
- Fable Helen Gifford 5:04
- i. Contrasting 2:42
- ii. Dancing 2:02
- iii. Flowing 2:26
- iv. Musing 2:16
- v. Shocking 1:25
- vi. Climaxing :52
- vii. Building 1:35
- Threaded Stars Jennifer Fowler 8:50
- To His Servant Bach ... (arr. McGuire) Graeme Koehne Arr: Marshall McGuire 3:58
- Snow 1:01
- Moon 1:19
- Flowers 1:35
- Night 1:53
- Stars 2:50
- Into the Dreaming (arr. McGuire) Peter Sculthorpe Arr: Marshall McGuire 4:38
- From Kakadu (arr. McGuire) Peter Sculthorpe Arr: Marshall McGuire
- Streams for Flute, Viola & Harp Barry Conyngham 9:13
Sonata for Harp Peggy Glanville-Hicks
Awakening Barry Conyngham
Night Pieces Peter Sculthorpe
Performers
- Marshall McGuire · harp
- Geoffrey Collins · flute · track 21
- Patricia Pollett · viola · track 21
Composers
Barry Conyngham
Barry Conyngham, born in Sydney, has received numerous awards and fellowships for composition, among them Churchill, Harkness, Australia Council and Senior Fulbright grants. He holds an ARIA, two Sounds Australian Critics Awards and two Maggs Awards.
Helen Gifford
Helen Gifford OAM is an Australian composer whose music often draws on Balinese and Javanese elements. She writes for stage, orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo instruments.
Peggy Glanville-Hicks
Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912–1990) was an Australian composer, born in Melbourne, whose career carried her through London, New York and Greece. She wrote operas, chamber music, song cycles and a concise Sonata for Harp that remains widely played.
Graeme Koehne
Graeme Koehne (born 1956) is an Australian composer and music educator, known for orchestral and ballet scores of direct, communicative style. His solo, ensemble and orchestral music is widely performed.
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe (1929–2014) was a Tasmanian-born composer whose orchestral and chamber music drew the Australian landscape, neighbouring Asian traditions and Indigenous materials into a clear, personal language. He wrote extensively for strings, piano and voice.
Jennifer Fowler
Jennifer Fowler’s Threaded Stars for solo harp treats tempo and rhythm as star patterns. Quiet reflectiveness alternates with glassy swirls and trills, motifs that stream outward and pull the surrounding notes into their field.
Where to listen
Awakening is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
Awakening is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- TP071
- Total playing time
- 63 minutes 55 seconds
- Release date
- 30 May 1995
- Label
- Tall Poppies
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 1995 Tall Poppies Records
- Category
- Australian Classics
- Genre
- Contemporary Classical
- Barcode
- EAN 9399011007124
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