Contemporary New Zealand Piano Music

Landscape Preludes is a collection of pieces commissioned in 2003 by New Zealand pianist Stephen de Pledge from twelve New Zealand composers. The writing took about four years and the complete set was first performed by de Pledge at the International Festival of Arts in Wellington, New Zealand, on 6 April 2008. The title `Landscape Preludes' refers to inspiration drawn from New Zealand landscapes in general rather than to specific geographical locations. This treatise examines four pieces from the set: Landscape Preludes by Jenny McLeod, The Street Where I Live by Jack Body, Sleeper by John Psathas and The Horizon from Owhiro Bay by Gareth Farr. These were chosen to represent four contemporary approaches to writing for the piano: music generated from a theoretical notion (McLeod); the piano combined with electronic material (Body); color derived from minimalism, combined with Greek modes (Psathas); the inspiration of the Balinese gamelan (Farr). The treatise is arranged in three main chapters: a historical background of New Zealand music; biographies of the four composers; and an analysis and performance guide for the four selected pieces. The first chapter describes the history of New Zealand music followed by discussion of New Zealand's natural landscapes, recent New Zealand composers, and background information of Landscape Preludes. The second chapter presents information on each composer's life, musical influences and achievements. The third chapter, the analysis and performance guide, I discusses aspects of compositional technique including rhythm, ostinato, harmonic language, pitch choices, and texture. This chapter also describes specific compositional styles such as the use of Greek scales, musical elements from the Balinese gamelan, the Tone Clock system of Peter Schat, and Sprechstimme, a vocal technique used by Schönberg amongst others. An interpretative guide is also provided in this chapter based on the author's own experience performing the works. The suggestions given explore the use of pedal, and treatment of rhythms, tempo and dynamics.!