Breath of Souls: Five Waiata for Solo Flute (2010-2014)
Peter Adams
©2015 Promethean
Editions Limited
Native New Zealand composer Peter Adams studied with Peter
Maxwell Davies, and he also cites the serial work of Anton Webern as an
influence. Breath of Souls is clearly very carefully crafted with
regards to structure, and it favors both symmetrical shapes and the loose
employment of 12-tone rows, but the effect is nonetheless truly captivating.
The composer’s notes which precede this edition comprise a brief
master class in the tonal form of the piece, which is interesting in
itself--the intricate detail of this work is admirable. But what is even more fascinating is how
something that can be described in such mechanical terms can become something
else entirely, as if each “breath” was improvised, growing organically from
first note to last. The piece began as a set of three movements for treble
recorder and was only completed last year with the addition of the second and
fourth movements. The entire piece is inspired by the poem Mercy by
Greek-Armenian poet Olga Broumas, which describes breaths of “sea smoke” rising
from the waters of a harbor and compares this natural phenomenon to a more
spiritual “breaths of souls”.
The first and fifth movements, both called “Pounamu”, serve
as prologue and epilogue in this setting, and they are both constructed of
identical pitch content. The first serves as a contemplative idea which
develops slowly and incompletely, while the second (the last movement), has
been drastically altered in rhythm to reflect the rhythmical development of the
middle movements, ending in a more restless, but still incomplete thought.
Movements two and four, “Waiata Aroha” and “Waiata Tangi”, are the newly added
movements, and they are meant to explore themes of love and loss, respectively.
“Aroha” (love) leaps and soars gracefully with a nimbleness expressed through
rhythms that develop in density throughout.
A general sense of upward motion at the end of many phrases lends an
optimism which is later crushed in the slow and meandering “Tangi” (loss). “Moeraki (Jewel of the Sea)”, depicts
transcendence in the form of the poet’s rising “sea smoke”. It is organized in a simple A-B-A arch. The A theme is a light 3+3+2 dance,
interrupted in the middle of the movement by a B theme which suddenly slows,
employing pitch bends and wiggling sixteenth notes meant to be played unevenly,
with a sense of rising up into the atmosphere.
Breath of Souls: Five Waiata for Solo Flute in its
current, fully developed incarnation is a set of meditations which build upon
and inform each other; each one is pure magic. And while the composer suggests
that these brief ideas may be performed individually, I would urge the
performer to commit to this eight-and-a-half minute suite in its entirety, for
a result that is pure sonic poetry and a refreshing new addition to our
contemporary solo literature.
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