Explorations Various Artists

JOHN GOURLAY, Aquarelle (2014) One of a set of duos inspired by visual art that also includes Chiaroscuro, Grisaille and Lithoglyph, the intention here is to portray in music the transparency and fleeting nature of watercolour painting. Aquarelle was premièred by Katherine Wake and Vincent Gray in 2015.

KIERAN REED - Miniature No. 5 (2016) This piece takes its inspiration from the Fibonacci sequence. The melodic content is based off intervals derived from the sequence, namely a major 2nd, a major 3rd and a tritone, while the structure alternates between sections with a length determined by this sequence.

PAOLO GEMINIANI - Trio I (1993 rev. 2016) The composition is based on a short sequence of note crossing through the whole piece. Divided into two parts, in the first section, the exposed line crosses all the instruments in a contrapuntal style. In the second section the sequence takes the form of single line exposed by the flute first and by the violin after, with the remaining instruments in the background. The expressive focus of the piece develops around solos of violin, cello and flute, and by the end of the piece, it returns back to the flute, which completes the lyrical line with the two strings on tremolo and harmonics.

MATT MAGERKURTH - Color_Shift1 A furious short piece, color_shift1 is a product of thick string writing and a coloristic approach to narrative structure. In this piece, each of the three sections are conceived as large blocks of pigment that serve as a blueprint to its architecture. A simple descending interval and feeling of tonal movement is the constructional link, and the thick, harsh viola and cello sounds bring it home.

TIMOTHY TATE - Duet (2014) At odds with each other – and sharing the same strings an octave apart – the viola and cello explore their inherent tension in Duet, a didactic and divisive piece. These instruments trade pithy melodic lines, struggling for dominance as they explore the extremities of register and colour.

PETAR JOVANOV - Yearning (2015) Yearning draws on string techniques such as col legno for percussive effects, string harmonics, and pizzicato with frenetic rhythmic motifs. The first section expresses a mechanical interpretation while the second section, draws on a more organic approach. It implies that when are deeply involved with our work, we function in a systematic way like robots, unthinkingly, automatically. Yet when emotion overwhelms us, we yearn for our home, birthplace, family etc.

GREG BARTHOLOMEW - Music for Toys & Dreams (2016) Music for Toys & Dreams was commissioned by the Farrelly Ensemble for their performance at the 2016 Unbound Flute Festival in Brisbane, Australia. With a childlike simplicity, the piece evokes music heard while napping, as we drift in and out of dreams, with melodies interrupted and fragments of distant stories interwoven. Each instrument becomes the child’s voice for a toy, sometimes telling its own story, sometimes reacting to another toy’s story, and sometimes enacting a story jointly with the other toys. It starts with the toys waking up, or with a child picking up different toys and introducing them to us. Initially the child is animating the toys, and then the toys begin to animate themselves within the child's dreams. Originally composed for flute, clarinet & cello trio, this adaptation for flute, violin & cello was arranged for this recording.