Waiting, Still (piano, solo gamelan)

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Dedicated to Jack Body, this work is a revisiting of an earlier work of mine, Waiting for the Aeroplane, written when I was a composition student at Victoria University in 1988. Jack was an important mentor during my student days, and two things he encouraged me to do at the time (both of which I resisted) were to join the gamelan (a great regret), and to alter the ostinato pattern in Waiting for the Aeroplane (which I don’t regret). So here, two decades later, I have finally embraced both ideas.

You can listen to the piece here on the album Helix on  Spotify

This performance is by Donald Nicolson (piano) and myself (gamelan).

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Waiting Still in its original form; a duo for piano and solo gamelan.

This piece uses a small configuration of Javanese gamelan instruments (intended to be performed by one player);

• slenthem

• saron

• two gongs (one low, one high)

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When I composed this work, with the slenthem and saron, I imagined the pair of instruments being struck (male and female) to produce the beating tone.

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There is a small clip in this documentary that shows me explaining this with the instruments:

Resources

RESEARCHERS: EXPLORE WAITING, STILL PIANO AND GAMELAN SOLO AT THE ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY