Gareth Farr was born
in Wellington (New Zealand) in 1968.
There’s a black and white photograph
of him in the booklet in white wing
collared shirt and tails (but no white
tie) looking not unlike the resurgent
techno pop star and amateur aviator
Gary Numan – with the exception that
Farr seems to be wearing white, possibly
surgical - assuredly not kid - gloves.
Leaving aside things sartorial Farr
is a graduate of composition and percussion
in Auckland, who later counted Samuel
Adler and Christopher Rouse as teachers
at Eastman in Rochester, New York. He
was taken early by the sound of the
gamelan and after becoming composer-in-residence
with Chamber Music New Zealand he has
had an active freelance career.
The major work here
is Ruaumoko written in 1997,
which follows the seasons’s cycle in
the shape of Ruaumoko, God of Earthquakes.
Each movement corresponds to a season.
Given Farr’s immersion in the world
of Pacific Rim percussion one expects
the gamelan sonorities, the gongs but
there’s also some romantic tracery here
as well alongside the ominous drum rolls
that portend the Earthquake’s eruption,
and are separately tracked. I was especially
taken by Spring, whose motionless calm
- high flutes, low brass – pays court
to minimalism but rather more to the
buzz of nature. Summer is full of brassy
energy, some Stravinsky influence and
a filmic blaze of triumph.
Orakua is a
setting of a poem by Leon Coad and is
sung by his son, Conal, depicting a
battle between Maori and the white settlers
("Their deathless pride of race
we did not rout") and which ends
in lines of Maori. It was written in
1941 or 1942 – the notes can’t quite
decide - during another war in which
"Our hand grenades and Enfield’s
ceaseless fire" had another context.
A steady bass line and wind arabesques
lead to outbursts or eerie calm. Rangitoto
was part of the Millennium celebrations
and depicts an eruption of the island
of that name. It’s very loud, deliberately
so. Apparently a concertgoer told Farr
it was the loudest piece he’d ever heard
from a symphony orchestra - but then
he probably hadn’t heard Solti and the
Chicago brass murder Bruckner. There’s
some La Valse here, a certain
Chinoiserie, percussion and whoops.
Te Papa is effusive
and optimistic and features male and
female voices singing a rather naïf
poem by Bill Maguire, half of which
is in Maori, a translation one assumes
of the English. Tom toms make their
mark here as does a colouristic and
once more filmic sense – this was the
music that opened the new Museum of
New Zealand. The roars and sword clashes
of Beowulf are exciting and characterful
as is the melee that precedes them.
I don’t know if Farr has received any
film music commissions but he seems
a natural.
The Morrison Music
Trust seems to be going great guns,
as it were, in promoting native music
in New Zealand – this is the first of
three I have to review. The booklets
are eye-catching and worth reading and
the performances are assured.
Jonathan Woolf
see also reviews
of three
other releases
ALL DISCS AVAILABLE
FROM:-
Morrison & Co Music
Trust
PO Box 135
Wellington
New Zealand
www.trustcd.com
and
Russell Armitage Management
PO Box 320
Hamilton
New Zealand
fax +64 7 853 6504
phone +64 7 853 6503
r-armitage@wave.co..nz
all Gareth Farr's works
are available from
Promethean Editions
PO Box 7348
Wellington South 6039 NZ
phone +64 4 473 5033
fax +64 4 473 5066
info@promethean-editions.co.nz
www.
promethean-editions.co.nz
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth Young
