Golf, Oil, Power and Cheeseburgers (2005/2025)
for organ
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score BDE in preparation
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Première
First performance:
Programme note
The idea for this piece emerged out of a 2003 conversation in with my friend Nishlyn Ramanna in Johannesburg when we had both read Terry Eagleton’s latest book After Theory and were both by a particular reference to “tasteless, clueless philistines who run the world and whose lexicon stretches only to words like oil, golf, power and cheeseburger". Taking my point of departure from a musicology colleague’s undergraduate module “Western Art Music from Monteverdi to Berlioz”, I chose a choral repertoire bookended by those two composers and culled the openings of 22 much-loved choruses. My second point of departure came from John Cage’s ASLP – “as slow as possible” for organ - and I slowed them down drastically before pasting them chronologically into a collage. The Cage work can be heard in St Burchardi Church, Halberstadt, Germany where the performance began in 2001 and is due to end in 2640, with one note changing every few years. G.O.P.A.C. meanwhile lasts about 10 minutes, and notes change in every bars.
I began sketching this in 2005 and left it in my bottom drawer for two decades, yet it feels more relevant than ever to the present world order. I swapped the first two words around to create a snappy acronym, G.O.P.A.C., and as the Gopak happens to be a Ukrainian dance, I quoted a few bars of Mussorgsky’s “Gopak” as a coda.
for organ
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score BDE in preparation
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Première
First performance:
Programme note
The idea for this piece emerged out of a 2003 conversation in with my friend Nishlyn Ramanna in Johannesburg when we had both read Terry Eagleton’s latest book After Theory and were both by a particular reference to “tasteless, clueless philistines who run the world and whose lexicon stretches only to words like oil, golf, power and cheeseburger". Taking my point of departure from a musicology colleague’s undergraduate module “Western Art Music from Monteverdi to Berlioz”, I chose a choral repertoire bookended by those two composers and culled the openings of 22 much-loved choruses. My second point of departure came from John Cage’s ASLP – “as slow as possible” for organ - and I slowed them down drastically before pasting them chronologically into a collage. The Cage work can be heard in St Burchardi Church, Halberstadt, Germany where the performance began in 2001 and is due to end in 2640, with one note changing every few years. G.O.P.A.C. meanwhile lasts about 10 minutes, and notes change in every bars.
I began sketching this in 2005 and left it in my bottom drawer for two decades, yet it feels more relevant than ever to the present world order. I swapped the first two words around to create a snappy acronym, G.O.P.A.C., and as the Gopak happens to be a Ukrainian dance, I quoted a few bars of Mussorgsky’s “Gopak” as a coda.
