‘A sensory pleasure. I lost all sense of time and place’ Audience member
‘…like sitting by a billabong at dusk’ Audience member
the space between us… is a multi-directional live music experience performed by 7 musicians in a reverberant space for a walking audience.
This grounding, stirring, and uplifting work evokes the wide vistas of outback Queensland and its many moods from stormy skies to blooming flora and iridescent green peaking through red earth.
the space between us… was co-commissioned by Alex Raineri for Brisbane Music Festival, with generous support from the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund (in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ), Arts Queensland, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
In July 2022, I drove 1000km west from my home just north of the easternmost edge of Australia to the tiny town of Quilpie in Channel Country.
I was struck by the space, the hugeness of the sky, the shimmering mirages on the horizon, and the dotting of trees and fence lines that danced in the distance, and vibrant greens against red earth.
This piece is inspired by my experience of that vast landscape and is composed for performance in a highly reverberant space, such as the 7-second reverb at its premiere at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane as part of the Brisbane Music Festival.
The work is in 7 sections (some of which are like mini-pieces) that are programmatically titled.
1 Horizon stretches far and wide / Iridescent green dances across red earth
2 Blue-white mirage flickers and glistens like water
3. Moody sky, dark-purple swirls
4 Heavy clouds press the earth, Stormbirds cry
5 Gently blooming, a kaleidoscope of wildflowers turn to face the sun
6 Deep-blue sky pools (Reprise of 2)
7 Awaken dormant seeds and blanket me with colour (After the rains)
Several are inspired by the huge sky and glistening mirage on the horizon (1.1, 2, 6). They draw attention to the resonance of the building by using alternating notes and pauses. The notes activate the reverb, the pauses allow the listener to hear the reverb tail.
Other sections/pieces reference the changing mood of the sky as storm clouds gather (4 and 3). These are harmonically more dissonant, moody, and at times crackle with energy.
I was also inspired by the riotous colour of flora after rain, from the verdant, iridescent green of budding plants to the great swathes of wildflowers after the floods. The sections/pieces reference this (1.2, 5 and 7) The last is especially joyous, and at times, wild, with a racing tempo and several dramatic tempo changes that ramp up the energy in a quasi-finale.
The title refers to the physical space between the musicians, and the huge sense of space I felt whilst travelling in Channel Country as recalibrated my mind and body to a less human-centred landscape.
November, 2022
Corrina Bonshek
Brisbane Music Festival Premiere:
Music Composition & Installation direction: Dr Corrina Bonshek
Performers: Alex Raineri – piano, Thea Rossen – percussion, Jeremy Stafford – guitar, Courtenay Cleary – violin, Miriam Niessl – violin, Daniel Shearer – cello, and Luke Carbon – clarinets
Produced by Brisbane Music Festival and Corrina Bonshek & Collaborators.
the space between us… was co-commissioned by Alex Raineri for Brisbane Music Festival, with generous support from the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund (in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ), Arts Queensland, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
With thanks to James Enchalmeir (in-ears sound), DeepBlue (equipment), and Jai Farrell (sound and video recording).
2022 | Brisbane Music Festival, St John’s Cathedral. Dec 9.
the space between us… is available for presentation in Australia in 2023.
It is 25-minute duration for staging as an indoor live music installation in collaboration with composer Corrina Bonshek, who directs its site-specific staging/ placement of musicians.
A larger forces version of the work is in development in 2023 for premiere by Portugal-based “master of sound experimentation” Luis Bittencourt with Orquestra do Centro and Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras.
Please get in touch with Corrina Bonshek for more information and to start a conversation.
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