Church of All Nations,180 Palmerston St, Carlton VIC 3053
Concert Head:
A single wind instrument can awaken senses wider, wilder, older than our own music – sounding vertically to the skies, or horizontally in fanfare to social humans, or downwards to the inner world of the pipe itself.
Today's concert assembles four of Melbourne's extraordinary wind players, in solo soundings with choir that carry us on all three trajectories.
The four instruments share an elemental quality in these works, but are also highly individual. Shakuhachi, saxophone, bassoon and trombone draw their magic from their diversity – spanning wide histories and cultures that shaped their characteristic powers of sound and expression.
Concert Support:
Anne Norman, Beyond (2021-23) solo shakuhachi – first performance
Arnold Schoenberg, Mond und Menschen (Moon and Humans) (1925) poem by Zhang Ruoxu 7th-C, adapted by Hans Bethge 1907, 4-part choir
Judith Weir, Psalm 148 (2008), poem 6th-C BC, King James Bible 1611, choir and solo trombone
Philippe Hersant, Hasidic Chant (2009), solo alto saxophone
anonymous, Audi tellus! audi magni maris limbus! (9th-C.) (Hear, O earth! Hear, fringe of the great sea), trope for solo voices
Roland de Lassus, Audi tellus! (Hear, O earth!) (1566) anonymous 16th-C poem, 6-part motet
Anne Norman, Heart Moon (2021-22) poem by Anne Norman, solo shakuhachi and choir
Allan Walker, Seas of the Moon (2023), poems by Bashō and Ryota, solo saxophones and choir – first performance
Keith Humble, 5 Haiku from 'The Seasons' (1971), poems by Sanpū, Issa, Hashin, Onitsura, Buson, 4 choirs with hand instruments
Philippe Hersant, Wanderung (Journey) (1998 /2013), poem by Goethe 1780, solo bassoon and female choir
Robert Schumann, 2 Songs for Double-Chorus Op.141, No.1 & 4 (1849)
"An die Sterne" (To the stars), poem by Friedrich Rückert
"Talismane" (Talismans), poem by Goethe 1819
Anne Norman shakuhachi Niels Bijl saxophone
Elise Millman bassoon Robert Collins trombone Kim Bastin organ
The Astra Choir directed by John McCaughey