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Work


Goodnight Kiwi

for piano

Year:  2004   ·  Duration:  3m

Year:  2004
Duration:  3m

Victoria Kelly
Composer

Composer:   Victoria Kelly

Films, Audio & Samples

Kenneth Young introduces th...

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Stephen de Pledge: Landscap...

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Victoria Kelly: Goodnight K...

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Victoria Kelly: Goodnight K...

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Sample Audio

Sample: From 0:31 - 1:31

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Sample Video

Sample: 0:00-1:00

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Sample Score

Sample: First page of handwritten score

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Borrow/Hire:

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

About

A "landscape prelude".

Everyone of my generation remembers the ‘Goodnight Kiwi’ - the animation that used to signal the end of television for the night in the days when we only had two channels to choose from.

I remember the rare occasions I was allowed to stay up late enough to see the Goodnight Kiwi carry out his nightly duties. It was always way past my bedtime and therefore overwhelmingly exciting. But I always felt very melancholy afterwards. I would lie awake for hours thinking about the kiwi shutting down the power and climbing up to sleep in the sky. It seemed so final.

As I was composing this piece in 2004, my mother was approaching the end of a long illness and she and I were going through a process of looking through photographs, telling the stories that accompanied them and wondering what lay ahead. It made me remember long summers, lawn-mowers, barbeques, pohutukawa trees at the beach and a time in life that wasn't weighed down with responsibilities or fears for the future. This piece is an emotional landscape that tries to evoke that feeling of nostalgia, presenting childhood memories into which the future begins to creep.

I imagined my mother was setting off on the same journey as the kiwi... wandering through the building, shutting down the power and then climbing up to sleep in the sky. I wrote this piece for her.


Commissioned note

Commissioned by Stephen de Pledge

Stephen De Pledge |


Dedication note

Dedicated to the composer's mother


Performance history

23 Jan 2004: Premiered by Stephen De Pledge (piano) at Wigmore Hall, London 23 January 2004

30 Mar 2004: Performed by Stephen de Pledge (piano) at Helen Young Studio, Auckland for Radio New Zealand Concert

27 Feb 2008: Landscapes

25 Aug 2010: NZ Landscapes in UK

01 Apr 2011: Performed by Stephen De Pledge on the 'Good Morning' show (TVNZ), in Auckland

05 Apr 2011: Stephen De Pledge at The New Zealand International Piano Festival

04 Jul 2011: Stephen de Pledge: Landscape Preludes

22 Mar 2012: Stephen de Pledge presents the "Landscape Preludes" to Scotland

03 May 2012: NZ Piano Music of the '2000s'

04 Aug 2019: Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival | Mozart, Brahms, and More

12 Oct 2019: Performed by Geoffrey Hinds at St Barnabas Church, Mt Eden, Auckland

Performed by Michael Houstoun (piano) in 2007

Performed by Henry Wong Doe.

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