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Work


Moon, Tides and Shoreline

for string quartet

Year:  1989   ·  Duration:  15m

Year:  1989
Duration:  15m

Films, Audio & Samples

Gillian WHITEHEAD: Moon, Ti...

Embedded audio
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Sample Score

Sample: Page 1

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Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

In this work, inspired by Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast - 'home' during the composer's six-week residency at Victoria University in 1989 - the relationship between music and environment is particularly strong. The cello's low repeated D, which opens the piece, is the fundamental pitch heard in the sea and the restless semi-quavers evoke the continuous movement of waves crashing on the Paekakariki shore. Whitehead's fascination with medieval philosophy and music, incorporating concepts of natural cycles, is reflected both in the title and in the compositional process, where magic squares were used to generate the background structure. (Programme note by Emma Carle and Jack Body).

"This is a rich evocative piece that is never merely picturesque, as the title might suggest. It has a lyrical complexity reminiscent of Tippett... (it) achieves moments of great beauty." (Tim Bridgewater, The Dominion).

"The highlight for me was the premiere of Gillian Whitehead's Moon Tides, and Shoreline. ... Perhaps there are marine associations to be heard in the score, but, more importantly, one appreciates the work's cool and eminently logical form. The various musical motifs are inventive in themselves and intriguingly handled." (William Dart, Music in New Zealand)


Commissioned note

Commissioned by: Music Federation of New Zealand (Now Chamber Music New Zealand)


Contents note

one movement


Performance history

28 Sep 1992: Performed by the New Zealand String Quartet; Napier

16 Aug 1994: Performed by the New Zealand String Quartet

13 Mar 2010: Aroha Quartet on The Terrace

18 Jul 2010: Aroha Quartet: Mulled Wine Concert

24 Sep 2010: Aroha Quartet: Whangarei

25 Sep 2010: Aroha Quartet: Rotorua

26 Sep 2010: Aroha Quartet: Putaruru

03 Oct 2010: Aroha Quartet: Tauranga

28 Jun 2011: Performed by the Geminiani Quartet at St Michael Cornhill as part of the 2011 City of London Festival, in London

16 Sep 2023: Chamber Music NZ | Calathea Quartet (Waiheke Island)

20 Sep 2023: Chamber Music NZ | Calathea Quartet (Rangiora)

22 Sep 2023: Chamber Music NZ | Calathea Quartet (Lower Hutt)

24 Sep 2023: Chamber Music NZ | Calathea Quartet (Wellington)

28 Sep 2023: Chamber Music NZ | Calathea Quartet (Rotorua)

30 Sep 2023: Chamber Music NZ | Calathea Quartet (Warkworth)

01 Oct 2023: Chamber Music NZ | Calathea Quartet (Kerikeri)

Gillian Whitehead: CD2; CD

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