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Work


Jekyll Rat

for piano trio

Year:  2010   ·  Duration:  12m
Instrumentation:  for violin, cello and piano

Year:  2010
Duration:  12m
Instrumentation  for violin, cello and piano

Chris Adams
Composer

Composer:   Chris Adams

Films, Audio & Samples

Chris Adams: Jekyll Rat - A...

Embedded audio
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Sample Score

Sample: Page 1, 4, 10 and 22

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Borrow/Hire:

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

About

This work was written for the NZTrio while I was the inaugural University of Otago/James Wallace Artist in Residence at the Pah Homestead.

Twinkle twinkle little star
how I wonder what you are?
A little bit hound, a little bit fox,
a junkie for the ballot box?
Twinkle twinkle little star
who’d have thought you'd come this far.
[adapted from Sam Mahon’s A Knight's Tale]

While Jekyll Rat is based on a prominent New Zealand politician, it unfortunately could be applicable to a number of political figures. It deals with my anger and frustration that a number of local body representatives and nationally elected politicians forget that they were elected to represent their constituents and instead become absorbed by the power and prestige of the position, or use their power and influence for personal gain.

Jekyll Rat has three movements. The first, “Me ne frego” (translation: I don't give a damn), starts with the statement of the principal theme but then over the course of the movement is gradually consumed by an insidiously growing chromatic semiquaver sequence in the strings. The second, “Sycophants’ Dance”, moves between sections of slightly awkward and clumsy pomposity, teetering fragility and vicious rage. The final movement, “Insanity represented by Mustard Yellow”, is fast and frenetic until it finally ends with an almost elegiac reprisal of the principal theme.


Commissioned note

Written for the New Zealand Trio while at the University of Otago Wallace Arts Residency at Pah Homestead


Contents note

  1. Me ne frego
  2. Sycophants’ Dance
  3. Insanity represented by Mustard Yellow

Performance history