WITHIN A WORLD OF BECOMING:

WORDS AND INSTRUMENTAL SYMBOLISM

IN THE MUSIC OF IAN SHANAHAN

Ian Shanahan, 29.2.2000.

INTRODUCTORY DIATRIBE

What follows is taken from the exordial chapter of my PhD thesis, A World of
Becoming the bulk of which consists of eleven original compositions accompanied by
analytical notes and CD recordings. Now aside from my hope that readers will find this
text stimulating in itself, I do have a philosophical axe to grind. Certain local commentators
have continually portrayed me as a torch-bearer of High Modernism (and of The New
Complexity) amongst Australian composers indeed, one of the very few still at large
within this country. Unquestionably, the bad-boy Modernist pigeon-hole is one whence I by
no means resile; there are, however, certain myths which have come to be associated
with Modernism these being propagated, for dubious musicopolitical reasons, by self-
styled postmodernists and poststructuralists that I set out below to EXPLODE, once and
for all. The lie which I target in particular is that the typical Modernist is there really such
a beast? seeks to make their work utterly self-referential, hermetically sealed off from
any external culture (particularly that of the past). Dr Linda Kouvaras, in her essay A
Plurality of Voices,1 states that:

... whilst reflecting upon the declared aesthetic position of the composers in [ed.
Broadstock (1995)], some consideration of modernism and postmodernism is
relevant, if not essential. (Very) broadly speaking, Ian Shanahan and Michael
Smetanin seem to be focussing on that aspect of modernism which has asserted a
wilful and weighty degree of non-accessibility for a generalised audience [a
generalised audience?: hmmm ... sounds like another mythical creature beloved by
eristic postmodern polemicists!]. Western society has evinced a separation of so-
called high and low culture. But high modernism (that is, from the period just after
the Second World War) especially sought to exclude itself from mass culture. High
modernist art therefore became driven, by its fear of contamination from the
consumer culture burgeoning around it, into an elitist and exclusive view of aesthetic
formalism and the autonomy of art ... In other words, art should withdraw from
modern life; the only legitimate concern of modernist art [is] the medium of the
particular genre itself, and art must refer only to itself, must be about those
parameters peculiar to the medium.2

Well yes, I admit that on the whole, I do despise and am always deeply wary of things
demotic: Most popular culture with its so-called mass appeal I regard as being
(oxy)moronic; it is the ochlocratic opiate; it is a big part of the New Stupidity, brainless
and soulless McEphemerality a phial of dangerous IQ-lowering meme-destroying

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viruses spread forth by a corrupt media in bed with rampant global capitalism and
economic (ir)rationalism, the arch-enemy of refinement, the spearhead of American
cultural imperialism and of the crass commodification of all Art; it is an unbridled
Frankenstein monster on the take (all body, but next to no intellect all image, yet
devoid of substance); it is often expensive and so hardly accessible to the battlers; its
low consumerist ethics and instant-gratification morality are highly questionable; indeed it
is spiritually, psychically, musically bankrupt; its absolute tyranny (nobody is about to deny
its hegemonic ubiquity, surely?) a perversion of real democracy: an inverted snobbery
which tolerates only the immediately comprehensible is definitely symptomatic of the
ongoing dumbing down of Australia. Just ponder the mobocratic hick mentality behind
the recent Pauline Hanson phenomenon. And if you can bear it, just listen (for a moment)
to and contemplate the ethos of that cretinous aural miasma known as country-and-
western. Oh dear God!... My case rests. The public, because of its cultural ignorance and
mental laziness, has been conned: mass culture although dished up by the
multinationals as being wonderful and full of life, a paragon of Western creativity is
nothing but toxic sludge consumed, gluttonously and uncritically, en masse. And its
pollution keeps spreading. Seduced, the Vox Populi cries out: serva simplex! or amo
nostalgia!. Alas, I truly despair for our future which looks to me like becoming an
apocalyptic cultural nightmare, an overcrowded Dark Age of Blandness and Blindness,
flooded by digital information indistinguishable from sewage. (Does anyone recall that
trashy movie Demolition Man, wherein Sylvester Stallone begs to be returned to his
past? Slys thorough disgust vents itself as soon as he realizes that 20th-century
advertising jingles have become the third millenniums most revered art-form.) Is it any
wonder, then, that some people those who are sensitive, discerning, intelligent, well-
informed and mystical creative souls feel that they and their art really should withdraw
from modern life?

But then we are informed that the only legitimate concern of modernist art [is] the
medium of the particular genre itself, and art must refer only to itself, must be about
those parameters peculiar to the medium? Cmon, Linda. That aint my angle (and never
was). As all of you shall see. Does this therefore make me a good, tame post-modernist
pet? Not bloody likely! ... and please dont traduce my name by glibly tagging me or my
work as such:

{Some will label me a complexist. OK ... if they really must. But Im definitely not a
bland, trendy, lobotomized post-modernist. Post-modernism aesthetically
oxymoronic, and therefore chimerical is just an academe-centred grab for power
whose lexicon is no less obfuscatory than any it seeks to supplant. And the canons
are still firing precisely because some of them are now stigmatized. Post-
modernisms espousal of plurality is a lie. In the field of contemporary music, post-
modernism has become, predominantly, a faade appropriated by Neo-
Capitulationists through which exudes intolerant reactionariness, wallowing in its
own impotent uncreativity: dull, necrophilic, pre-modern, a euphemism for theft, an

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 excuse to murder true artistic vision (for those who would prefer to see it eradicated),
a cowardly retreat out of the millennium, ... a badge of musical maggothood.}3

Anyway, to hell with slogans and those simpletons who affix them so frivolously. And
another timely denunciation, too: screw poststructuralisms twisted totalitarian new
orthodoxy.

Rather, I am happy for this statement (from the Abstract to A World of Becoming) to
stand at least for the time being as my composerly manifesto:

The Platonist expression World of Becoming signifies a physical manifestation, in

time and space, of abstract ideas and archetypes from the metaphysical World of
Being an absolute eternal realm, beyond space-time. All human art-forms
therefore belong to our World of Becoming. Yet music arguably the least tangible
of the arts is capable of bridging these two Worlds. The series of compositions in
A World of Becoming represent increasingly sophisticated attempts to build such a
bridge.

Composing music is intended, ultimately, to be a search for unity. As the sequence

of eleven pieces unfolds within A World of Becoming, it will become apparent that
multilevel architectonic self-similarity reconciles seemingly heterogeneous forms into
a unified whole. Self-similarity proves to be an efficacious tool for designing
multidimensional, life-like sonic objects unified holistic organisms whose
structural and acoustic richness begins to approach that of the Cosmos itself. The
result is a Natural music in the Boethian category musica mundana which could
even be a true musica humana, a mystical music that affirms diversity embraced in
unity rapprochement and interreferentiality in deep conceptual abstraction, beyond
superficial, fictitious dualisms.

Besides self-similarity, some of the principles and strategies resident in the authors
works that achieve such unity and imbue the music with meaning are: number,
pattern and proportion (from Sacred Geometry and gematria); systematic
permutation (elements of self-contained autopoietic Cyclic Groups); broken
symmetry; metaphor and acoustical symbolism. As abstract ideas, they comprise the
mechanisms for spanning the sensual and noumenal domains. ...

The semasiologies behind verbal directives and the emblematics of musical

instruments are just two compositional facets from a polydimensional nexus that outer
complexity4 which binds the creative outpourings of this Christianarchical5 Australian
Modernist to the cultural world out there.

VERBAL DIRECTIVES

In relation to twentieth-century compositions, it has long been accepted that words are
a legitimate tool for the notation of music. Being part of our prodigious modern notational
armoury, words comprise just one of the many types of code currently available for the
deployment of ideas by contemporary composers in their scores. Indeed, there exist text

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pieces, such as those by Karlheinz Stockhausen and La Monte Young, whose
symbologies consist entirely of words: Youngs Composition 1960 #10, for example,
merely asks its interpreter to draw a straight line and follow it; the score of Harold Budds
The Candy Apple Revision (1970) furnishes the ambiguous aphorism D-flat Major as
its sole instruction.6 The furthest that I have travelled along this path is to render the
Performance Instructions of Cosmos (One Note) purely in words; they all fit onto one
A4 score-page, along with my Programme Annotation (and my advice for entering data
into the Yamaha DX7 keyboard synthesizer):

[PERFORMANCE INSTRUCTIONS] Having preselected the DX7 voice ShanEvol 1,

depress the Middle C (C3) key only with the strongest possible attack! Now stay
perfectly still, statue-like, holding this key down until the sound definitely ceases to
evolve after approximately four minutes. Wait a few moments longer, then furtively
release this key, remaining as quiescent as possible until several seconds have
elapsed after the sound has finally faded into total inaudibility. (The piece is over
when you relax, at last.)

Although superficially, this text score may seem to be just as indeterminate as the
Young and Budd examples quoted above, one must remember that the DX7 voice itself
(which I created, and whose parametric details append the score-page of text) is
completely responsible for the minutiae of this compositions sound-development. On
closer analysis of my text, furthermore, it will also be discerned that the only scope for
performative variation by players lies in their timing of the key-release and the moment
they choose to finally relax.

I have also written a subsection of another piece in unalloyed text notation. On p.3 of
the score of my Solar Dust: Orbits and Spirals, a single filigree passage itself notated
somewhat normally on a five-line stave, as usual is repeated numerous times while
continuously undergoing some rather straightforward transformations. However, these
metamorphic processes, which reach their zenith in performer overload, are not explicitly
notated (in the same precise, emblematic manner as the repeated music itself), but are
instead documented verbally, thereby permitting quite considerable interpretative leeway
by the mandolinist:

Repeat the material incessantly, for at most approximately 3 minutes! Imperceptibly

raise all dynamic levels [until every note is] f poss.! Very gradually and smoothly
increase the tempo and tension [to] AS FAST AND AS TENSE AS POSSIBLE! Push
yourself and your instrument to the limit! At such high tempi, some rhythmic
distortion together with performance errors such as wrong notes, incorrect
techniques as well as various string and plectrum noises will surely occur. Do not
worry unduly about this, and ABSOLUTELY do not lower the tempo: such mistakes in
moderation greatly enhance the piece! [The feel at this climactic point is
characterized as] Wild, ecstatic and vibrant with extreme virtuosity and flair! TRY to
maintain rhythmic accuracy WHEREVER POSSIBLE, if necessary sacrificing the given
timbral details (precise plucking position, vibrato etc.). At any rate, the main objective
here is to maximize excitement so really go for it!

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 Continue to repeat the material incessantly, for at most approximately another 3
minutes! Gradually lower the dynamic level [through to the] (dynamics as given
originally) [thence to] mp ... Steadily decrease the tempo and tension [through to the
initial tempo of] (metronome ca.64) [thence on to] Infinitely slow, distant and calm:
NO SENSE OF PULSE! Place the notes approximately as given relative to one another
... [ca.45 seconds beyond the climactic region, the feel is described as] Very
precise, calm, resonant and impersonal. A return is made to the material as stated
initially. Now also, for at most approximately 2 minutes, allow the rhythm to
progressively degenerate and become imprecise, at the same time gradually
transforming this material into the following final utterance: ...

Beyond these examples, I do not propose to reflect upon the usage of words in scores
when they merely supplement and explicate more conventional music notation, since this
textual rle is utterly commonplace. Yet one development does deserve more than a
passing mention. Whereas during the nineteenth century, composers often affixed
adjectives to tempo-terms in order to attempt a succinct portrayal of the musics mood,
nowadays, for certain composers, such descriptive functions have been intensified,
multiplexed, and elevated almost to the point of manneristic obsession: from recent
scores, one regularly unearths prolix yet exotic, whimsical, mystical, or enigmatic verbal
pronouncements. I confess that such poetics have been liberally peppered throughout
most of my own scores. But besides shedding light upon a composers interests, alliances
and psychological make-up, they do convey serious messages and so fulfil reasonable
objectives. My own poetic commentaries particularly those inscribed at the outset of a
score divulge composerly intent in that they seek to evoke vivid images which capture
the musics atmosphere and tone; as such, they therefore become crucial interpretative
props for accomplishing authentic performance practice.7

Some of the picturesque directives colourful, even arcane, inscriptions (always in

English) that I have attached to my scores include: Stone-like, hieratic and inexorable;8
monolithic: cloyingly lyrical...;9 Icy cold: a dead, still sound;10 Starry and shimmering;11
Extremely slow, infinitely calm and ritualistic, with a sense of suspended time;12 a
remote (and receding) tintinnabulation of chord-tones, somewhat obscure yet lyrical, like
sanctus-bells;13 rolling thunder, infinitely remote and radiant, auroral.14 Within Lines of
Light: Seven Improvisations on , sections 3 to 6 are each headed
respectively by the following rubrics: A complex interplay of photons: brilliant, expansive
and volatile; ... like all-embracing waves of light!; Free and spacious cosmic; and
Infinitely placid, timeless.

In themselves, none of these captions are really significatory beyond their inherent
evocativeness; others, however, also hint at my deeper compositional motives. The
opening sections of Dimensiones Paradisi and Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations
on I myself envisage as Creation myths cosmogonies etched in sound
a notion undergirded by both of these works initial metaphoric descriptors: Incantatory:

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a coalescence of interstellar matter...,15 and A volcanic yet ephemeral texture: glittering
unceasingly, with great luminosity and searing heat (bubbling lava, solar flares, core of the
sun...).16 Likewise, the percussion instruments representation of responsive Divinity in
153 Infinities is openly declared by: A glittering ecstasy: unceasingly brilliant, like divine
speech (in answer to prayer); infinitely radiant, luminous and bubbling; an avalanche of
light!.17

Rubrics such as these can even become structural referents, or (occasionally rather
cryptic) verbal clues that may be deciphered to identify the compositional artifices at play.
Both the celestial sound-world and the long-range cyclical structure of the main section of
Cycles of Vega are acknowledged by Extremely slow, distant and dream-like: timeless
and inexorable, but rhythmically precise, like a huge cosmic clockwork,18 whereas a
disruptive symmetry-breaking device is pinpointed later on in this piece by An
(uncoordinated) interruption in the process, like a brilliant, blinding, coruscative wave of
light!.19 (This intercut of foreign material into an unfolding cyclical tapestry is meant to
come as a total surprise to listeners, giving them an impression of time standing still, yet
thwarting their obvious expectation that the encircling clockwork mechanism will just wind
down inexorably, unimpeded.) The presence of polygonal rhythms20 that arise from, and
so are emblematic of, basic geometric shapes in 153 Infinities is signalled by tolling
bells (in arithmetic series),21 and rather more obliquely by Terrifying (in its
inexorableness and symmetry): geometries of the Abyss!.22 The formal design of
Dimensiones Paradisi and certain sections of 153 Infinities stem from a complex
mandala-like figure incorporating a dodecagon, several concentric circles, a hexagon, and
the Star of David23 whose central point, or omphalos,24 is

[in] the myths of various peoples, ... a symbol of the center of the world from which
creation is supposed to have originated. The omphalos of Delphi is famous; it is a
cylindrical stone with a rounded top that was also a symbol of the connection
between the realms of the gods, of man, and of the dead. The pole star is
sometimes thought of as the navel of the sky around which the heavens seem to
rotate.25

The structural cores of these pieces are therefore labelled omphalic!26 and
Omphalic (of the Universal Axis, the Navel of the Earth) ... infinitely fluid.27 Raphael
Patai further explains the significance of the Omphalos within Jewish mythology:

In the middle of the Temple [of Jerusalem], and constituting the floor of the Holy of
Holies, was a huge native rock which was adorned by Jewish legends with the
peculiar features of an Omphalos, a Navel of the Earth. This rock, called in Hebrew
Ebhen Shetiyyah, the Stone of Foundation, was the first solid thing created, and was
placed by God amidst the as yet boundless fluid of the primeval waters. Legend has
it that just as the body of an embryo is built up in its mothers womb from its navel,
so God built up the earth concentrically around this stone, the Navel of the Earth.
And just as the body of the embryo receives its nourishment from the navel, so the
whole earth too receives the waters that nourish it from this Navel.28

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 It is not a coincidence that Patais embryonic analogy here is also an elegant
summary, a puissant encapsulation, of the compositional strategies, force-fields, and
ground-plan that gave rise to Dimensiones Paradisi; and so the symbolism behind my
omphalic score-captions above is by no means fortuitous either. I shall now highlight
several additional instances of florid verbal descriptors that evince underlying symbolisms
in my scores.

As implied by its title (and stated candidly within its Programme Annotation), there are
intimate correspondences tangible as well as metaphoric between rainbows and the
music of Arc of Light. The caption at the beginning of its score stresses this link:
Monolithic, but glistening like a rainbow: hieratic. Music of the Spheres.29 Similarly
[p]s(t)ellor/mnme, whose abstruse Graeco-Latin name accommodates the idea of
astral memory,30 utilizes an homologous verbal ruse to symbolize periodic astronomical
phenomena such as Earths leisurely cycle of precession, from which this pieces
chronomorphology is calculated: Inexorable (like an orrery), hieratic, luminous: beautiful
and cosmic, yet with a distant strangeness....31

But it is perhaps within the score of Dimensiones Paradisi that poetic-symbolic

directives reach consummation, through reference to heavenly bodies and thus, by
corollary, to their many semiotic counterparts. Within this work, there are eight subtle
passages of multiphonics which are each marked pale, lunar: one fluid gesture;32 the
spans of these gleamy multiphonic subsections are all correlatives of certain small circles
that symbolize our Moon within Dimensiones Paradisis foundational mandala.33 The
Moon itself

plays an important role in the magical and graphic symbolic thought of most peoples.
In this regard, it is especially important that the Moon appears to live due to its
constantly changing shape, that it is apparently associated with various life rhythms
on the earth, and that it became an important fixed point in the measurement of time.
In the ancient Orient, it thus often played a more significant role than the Sun.
Among many peoples, it was revered as a god or (usually) goddess (such as among
the Greeks, who knew it as Selene, and among the Romans, who knew it as Luna).
Because of its waning and waxing and its influence upon the earth (especially
upon the female body), it has been associated with female fertility, rain, moistening,
and with all becoming and passing in general since time immemorial. ... In contrast
to the self-luminescent Sun, which is usually interpreted as being masculine and is
closely related to the Yang principle ... the Moon usually appears as a symbol of that
which is gentle, in need of support, and feminine, and is usually associated with the
Yin principle. ... In many myths, the Moon appears as a sister, woman or lover of the
Sun. In astrology and in depth psychology, the Moon is thought of (among other
things) as a symbol of the unconscious, of fertile passivity, and of receptivity.34

The score of Dimensiones Paradisi also displays several textual instructions that
instead invoke Mercury in its various forms planet, chemical element, and Ancient
Roman god and consequently Hermes, Hermetic doctrines, alchemy, and the idea of
macroscopic-microscopic self-similarity (which is of course manifested by Dimensiones
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Paradisi): mercurial...;35 quicksilver!;36 Crystalline, luminous/numinous, quicksilver....37
Let us now seek out some of the pertinent mercuric symbolisms. Mercury was the

Ancient Roman God of trade (later identified with Hermes). [Mercury is the name] of
the planet closest to the Sun; in alchemy, Mercury is the sign for quicksilver (the
earthly counterpart of the planet) and for materia prima (primeval matter) as well as
for the Philosophers Stone. Next to salt and sulphur, mercury is considered in
alchemy to be one of the philosophical elements and world principles; it represents
the ephemeral (spiritus). In contrast to the masculine planets Sun, Mars, Jupiter
and Uranus and the feminine planets Venus, Saturn and Neptune, Mercury was
interpreted as hermaphrodite; it thus played an important role as a symbol of all
practices of alchemy that mediate opposites.

In ancient mythology, Hermes was the god of trade and commerce; as a messenger
of the gods, he held Caduceus in his hand. Astronomically and astrologically,
Hermes was known in antiquity as the planet ... that could be seen by all with the
naked eye but that was the most difficult to observe (only in the morning and evening
skies near the sun). Hermes is quicksilver in alchemy and metal and Mercury in
astrology.38

Although the fantastic directive for section 2 in Dimensiones Paradisi Like freshly
cut steel: extremely pure, brittle, bright, innocent ... glossolalial! (In one breath...)39
would, at first blush, ostensibly be unrelated to the foregoing matrix of associations, this
turns out not to be the case: in antiquity, there was an alchemical bond between steel and
the planet Mercury.40

Finally, one of the last of Dimensiones Paradisis planetary poetics Music of the
Spheres: bursting upwards, through crystal orbits...41 accompanies an ascending
legato phrase of ever higher, overblown harmonics. To my mind, the union of these words
with a harmonic series perspicuously symbolizes a soul that, having transcended its
earthly shackles, penetrates in succession each of the eight harmoniously vibrating
Platonic spheres (which bear all celestial bodies),42 and then soars on to God in Heaven.43
But I must emphasize that this image is not exclusively Platonist: these spheres could
equally be the three heavens of Christianity,44 or even the Gnostics regions of archontic
dominance:

The Gnostic believed that at death, his soul would ascend beyond the earth and on,
though occasionally obstructed by archons or starry governors, to the source of
Light within the Pleroma of the Father. In Alexandria, this possibility was seen as
one which might be enjoyed before death. The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth
in the Nag Hammadi Library [ed. Robinson (1990)] describes such an ascent and the
wonder of revelation that accompanied it ...45

INSTRUMENTAL SYMBOLISM

Although consideration of the symbolism of musical instruments cannot by any means

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be regarded as a compositional technique, it must be said that for me, in deciding upon
the instrumentation for a new piece (as part of the compositional process), instruments
imageries and cultural associations are indeed a secondary musical criterion after my
primary concern for their actual sounds themselves. I ensure that such iconology always
accords with, and so reinforces, a compositions extramusical themes and meanings.

Being a recorder player as well as a composer who has written for this instrument,46 I
am particularly sensitive to the recorders symbolism: over several centuries, it has
become strongly identified with among other things death, the metaphysical,
supernatural and religious (and thus, by extension, with things astral). [p]s(t)ellor/mnme
and Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on , both of which feature
recorders prominently, were both written in memory of deceased persons and encompass
astronomical phenomena; Zodiac: Crystal Orbit Improvisations (as can be ascertained
from its title and Programme Annotation) focusses upon the Cosmos. According to Ron
Skins:

Among instruments used allusively ... the recorder must rank high in the richness
and depth of its associations. Along with the flute it brings with it from times far
recesses an atmosphere of magic and mystery. More than any other instrument it is
a direct extension of the human breath (and thereby, to our ancestors, of the soul),
and its quiet, often owlish sounds are conjured from a tube by nimble fingers. This
has created associations with the supernatural, thus with death and religion and
deep emotion ... Further on into the mainstream of Elizabethan and Jacobean
drama, the recorder is continually used to create an atmosphere of the supernatural,
of religion, and of death.47

Similarly, idiophones like sleighbells, the Kenyan bell tree, strings of bronze jingle
bells,48 sanctus-bells (rung during Mass at the instant of transubstantiation), gourd rattles,
ghungr (i.e. Indian bell straps), sistra, and other shakers or rattles as well as, perhaps,
by extrapolation, windchimes49 are, in many cultures apparently, often sounded in
worship as a sign of the numinous. And, as I have observed within the Programme
Annotation to Cycles of Vega, besides being a symbol of New Age sympathies,
windchimes may be seen as entropic metaphors or emblems:

... The fascinating stochastic behaviours at play within the windchimes themselves
a prominent element of the piece, simply because these instruments are so
numerous provide a metaphorical mirror for the complex tumultuousness of the
Cosmos itself: Cosmological Entropy, Chaos, and the Second Law of
Thermodynamics ... as well as the seemingly random chaotic perturbations
nutation of the Earths polar axis, which wobbles periodically in conjunction with
the precession-of-the-equinoxes phenomenon, itself evinced by equinoctial points
retrogressing ever so slowly along the ecliptic. (Such labyrinthine concepts,
exhibiting disorder within meta-order, are encapsulated beautifully by James
Joyces neologism chaosmos!) ...

Metallic percussion instruments in general (such as vibraphones or crotales)50 by not

comprising any of the alchemical elements of earth, water, fire and air, but whose

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metals are instead extracted from them would traditionally have been connected with
the Divine (through planetary correlations):

[T]he extraction of metals from ores and their refinement were a symbol of
purification and spiritualization. In certain metals, the alchemists saw earthly
correspondences to the individual planets, which were thought of as the seven
wandering planets of antiquity ... Scheme of alchemistic correlations between metals
and planets: Sun = gold; Moon = silver; Mercury = quicksilver (in antiquity, steel and
pewter); Venus = copper; Mars = iron; Jupiter = pewter (in antiquity, brass or
electrum); Saturn = lead.51

Perhaps this reverence of metal as a sacred material originated, in antiquity, due to the
smelting of iron out of meteorites:

... iron from meteorites that have fallen from the sky is frequently considered to be
heavenly and divine.52

Two specific instances should suffice to verify this point. Bells, which play such a
pivotal rle in [p]s(t)ellor/mnme, are obviously associated with Christian churches and
cathedrals, and therefore with the mythologies of Christianity itself. Moreover, bells aura
of sanctity could be held to suggest things celestial, and hence non-teleological cyclical
structures like those of campanology (and also of [p]s(t)ellor/mnme itself); indeed, this
inference could just as easily be reversed. From within an Oriental culture, too, rin53 i.e.
Japanese temple bells are treated as sacred ceremonial objects that have an integral
part to play in Japanese Buddhist rituals, like the Hy.54 Bells are

[f]requently a symbol of the connection between heaven and earth; bells call one to
prayer and remind one of obedience toward Gods laws. The sound of the bell
frequently symbolizes (in China, for example) the cosmic harmonies. In Islam as in
Christianity, the sound of the bell is regarded as the echo of divine omnipotence, the
voice of God that, when heard, leads the soul beyond the confines of the mundane.
It is a very common notion that bells ward off misfortune. During the late Middle
Ages, magic bells played a particular role in conjuring up good spirits (white magic)
of the planetary realm.55

Another much-favoured metal idiophone of mine, which I call the triangle windchime56
i.e. three triangles grouped together (as a windchime) in such a way that each triangle
bangs against the others without losing much of its natural resonance possesses a self-
evident multiple-triangular geometric shape that is richly symbolic (perhaps more so than
its metallic essence). Its profile automatically invokes the numbers 3 and 9 (being 3 3),
as well as the Holy Trinity:

[3 is the] basic number of the masculine principle next to 1 (the number of the divine)
and 2 (the number of the feminine); water is the [alchemical] element of 3; the
triangle is its coordinate geometrical figure. The triangle and water are also
associated with one another in alchemist-medical signs. 3 plays an unmistakably
fundamental role in all religions. The second and third powers of three [i.e. 9 and 27]
are of particular significance, ... [being] regarded as a strengthening of the symbolic

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 power of 3. 3 is the basis of numerous systems and ordering schemes; thus,
Christianity, for example, has the 3 virtues of faith, love, and hope, and alchemy has
the 3 basic principles of sulphur, salt and quicksilver ... Divine triumvirates are known
in many religions, for example in Egypt (Isis, Osiris, Horus), in Hinduism (Brahma,
Vishnu, Shiva), etc. Such divine triumvirates often appear in conjunction with
heaven, earth and air (which binds them together). In contrast to this, Christianity
has a triune God who is often envisaged as being a unity of three persons (a trinity).
As the number of fulfillment of a self-contained entirety, 3 is frequently encountered
in fairy tales as the number of tests that one must withstand or riddles that one must
solve, etc. In philosophy, the triad or triple-step plays an important role, for example,
as the principle of mediation between thinking and being or, as in the case of Hegel,
as the principle of dialectical progress (thesis, antithesis, synthesis). ...

The number 9 is the second power of 3 [i.e. 32] ... the amplification of the sacred 3;
this is the reason why the Kyrie eleison in the Roman Catholic liturgy is repeated
nine times and why there are 9 choirs of blessed spirits; 9 plays an important role in
Indo-Germanic and Central Asian mythology as well, as in the case of the 9-storied
pagoda, which is a symbol of heaven.57

For the assemblage of its three triangle windchimes, 153 Infinities amasses a total of
nine triangles, so that the number 27 is alluded to by it as well:

As the third power of 3, i.e., 33 = 27, [the number 27] is the amplification and
perfection of 3; it is the number of the element fire ... Under favorable conditions, the
Moon is visible for 3 9 = 3 3 3 nights.58

On the symbolism of the triangular form itself, Udo Becker asserts that:

To a large extent, the triangle shares in the symbolic significance of the number
three. In antiquity, it was sometimes regarded as a symbol of light. For many
peoples, it is a symbol of fire and masculine virility when its tip points upward [as with
the idiophonic triangle] and a symbol of water and the female sex when its tip points
downward. The equilateral triangle is often used as a sign for God or for harmony. In
Christianity, it is a symbol of the Trinity (especially since the 17th century, it
frequently appears in conjunction with a hand, a head, an eye, or the Hebrew name
of God, Yahweh). ... For the Freemasons, the triangle plays an important role as
(among other things) a symbol of Gods strength, beauty and wisdom; of the
cornerstone of the Freemasons temple; of the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms;
of the three stages of a persons spiritual development (Separatio, Fermentatio and
Putrefactio); of correct speech, thought, and action; of birth, maturity and death; and
so forth.59

Even for musical instruments invented during the twentieth century, older metaphors
still resonate. The ethereal and other-worldly timbral caresses of a waterphone, heard
throughout the final section of [p]s(t)ellor/mnme, manage to connote the hereafter and
starry firmaments despite the waterphones exploitation in film-scores from the 1970s to
depict mental instability and delusional character.60 Yet new symbolisms do emerge. A
striking visual image is created by the autocoil:61 for a modern spectator, its helical form
clearly brings to mind the double-spiral of DNA, that complex molecular structure which
contains the genetic code of each human being; but because autocoils are manufactured

~ 11 ~
from steel, the abovementioned significations of the Holy and Cosmic also remain intact
(thereby invoking, through polysemy, the perennial Hermetic view of Man as the Universe
in microcosm). For the helix-as-spiral, other esoteric relationships also spring forth to
render the autocoil semiotically abundant:

Even in pre-historical times, the spiral was a favorite ornamental motif of

controversial symbolic meaning that nevertheless is probably associated with cyclic
development, the phases of the moon and their influence on water, fertility, etc., the
movement of involution and evolution in the entire cosmos generally (especially the
double-spiral), with recurrence and renewal, and perhaps with the labyrinth as well.62

Furthermore, like brake drums,63 the autocoil was originally designed (as its name
implies) to be a car- or truck-part so one could even think of these unintendedly musical
automotive sound-sources as industrial or technological icons as well, symbols of the
twentieth-century machine age.

Many of these metaphorical tributaries flow together to reach their culmination,

perhaps, in 153 Infinities, whose three zones of percussion instruments are meant to
signify the Holy Trinity. Aside from the intricate patterning of the percussion music itself in
this piece, scrutiny of its instrumental forces will reveal that (except for the orchestral bass
drum) every one of its percussion instruments is metallic, and they do span quite an
extensive range of colours and categories: various bells; vibraphones, crotales, and a
glockenspiel; metal windchimes, rattles and shakers; autocoils and brake drums; three
triangle windchimes; cymbals, a tam-tam, and gongs. These idiophones semiologies all
emphatically underscore my signification of triune Divinity within 153 Infinities.

Finally, by introducing electronic synthesizers into my instrumental arrays,64 fresh,

relatively unexplored sound-worlds begin to materialize: these yield a sense of high-tech
modernity, of looking forward (perhaps to things celestial) notions underpinned by the
incorporation, ever since the 1950s, of electroacoustic timbres in film sound-tracks to
portray futuristic or extraterrestrial contexts. Yet because almost all of my electroacoustic
voices were synthesized through Frequency Modulation [FM] to be deliberately somewhat
bell-like, hypervocal, or akin to and an extension of the sonorities of metal
instruments, the old evocations of divine or cosmic genesis might, arguably, be retained.
(To some degree, this nexus between metals and FM-synthesized tones is a quite natural
consequence of the acoustical formulae for freely vibrating metal bars being potentially
encapsulatable within the mathematics of FM.) Anyway, my attitudes are declared within
the Programme Annotation to Arcturus Timespace:

Pascals wonderful aphorism The eternal silence of infinite space terrifies me

evokes certain images which Arcturus Timespace attempts to capture. Truly, I have
been spellbound by astronomy, cosmology, and the Cosmos itself since I was a child
and even now, I am constantly awed when I look up at the clear night sky with all
of its breathtaking beauty, brilliance and grandeur, savouring the realization that I am
peering through both infinite space and time. Is it therefore not surprising that (as a
~ 12 ~
composer and as a human being) I am really not concerned with the deification of
music history and the attendant compositional supplication before musical idols of
the past, with petty nationalisms and benighted tribal mentalities, with grubby politics
and all that is mundane ... but more with the mystical and the sacramental,
spirituality, new technologies, and in particular with the limitless extension of
sonic and artistic possibilities? I am a musician who looks primarily to the future, and
the future of Mankind is out there. ...

The stereophonic tape [fixed media] part of Arcturus Timespace was realized at
the Sydney University Experimental Sound Studio, directed by [Dr] Ian Fredericks;
being computer-generated, it utilizes the Frequency Modulation Algorithmic Sound
Synthesis techniques of two Yamaha CX5M music computers. The mlange of
computer timbres are mostly bell-like, possessing a glassy, metallic, or ceramic
sheen (modelled to some extent upon the acoustical signatures of the percussion
instruments themselves). Although I do confess that this timbral world is in danger of
becoming an FM clich ... I just love bell sounds! In composing Arcturus
Timespace, my intention ab initio was to have the electroacoustic part intermingle
with, yet also extend, the sounds of the mandolin and percussion ... The percussion
instruments employed in Arcturus Timespace, all played by the soloist, form a kind
of sonic bridge between the mandolin and the electroacoustic part. They include:
various types of glass fruit-bowl or ceramic flowerpot-like objects (eight clay bells);
a collection of six Korean stainless-steel mixing bowls; shell-disc, ceramic-disc, and
brass-tube windchimes; and a large tam-tam.

~ 13 ~
 ENDNOTES

1. In ed. Broadstock (1995), pp.265275.

2. ibid., pp.267268.

3. Shanahan (1995), p.25.

4. See Truax (1994).

5. I thank Dave Andrews for his radical concept of Christi-Anarchy, and highly recommend his book
carrying the same title Andrews (1999). Andrews text is a blueprint of a cure for the accidie, fear and
extreme alienation experienced by many within contemporary Western society.

6. These two works are cited in Cope (1984), p.310. Karlheinz Stockhausens collection of text scores,
Aus den sieben Tagen (1968), is discussed in Smith Brindle (1975), pp.9698.

7. These observations could just as validly be made about the titles of my compositions. (Indeed, in the
case of Zodiac: Crystal Orbit Improvisations, with the exception of its programme note, the only
poetic text I have supplied anywhere within its score that immediately portends this works ethereal
Music-of-the-Spheres web of sound not to mention its orbital structural preoccupations is its
name.)

8. Solar Dust: Orbits and Spirals, score, p.1.

9. Dimensiones Paradisi, score, p.14.

10. Cycles of Vega, score, bar 213 (vibraphone).

11. ibid., bar 180.

12. Arcturus Timespace, score, p.1.

13. 153 Infinities, score, p.2 and passim.

14. ibid., p.2.

15. Dimensiones Paradisi, score, p.1.

16. Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on , score, p.1.

17. 153 Infinities, each percussion part, p.1.

18. Cycles of Vega, score, bar 40.

19. ibid., bar 208.

20. See A World of Becoming, section 1.2.11.1.

21. 153 Infinities, score, p.5. (The arithmetic series here springs from a sequence of triangular
numbers: 1; 1 + 2 = 3; 1 + 2 + 3 = 6; 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10; etc.)

22. ibid., pp.2 & 8.

23. Dimensiones Paradisi, Programme Annotation.

24. Omphalos (transliterated from the original Greek ): Navel.

25. Becker (1996), p.210.

26. Dimensiones Paradisi, score, p.9.

27. 153 Infinities, score, p.8.

28. Michell (1988), p.19 quoting Dr Raphael Patai.

~ 14 ~
 For a broader cultural overview of omphaloi in religion and sacred architecture, see Fideler (1993),
pp.274279 & 374378 (and passim), and Humphrey & Vitebsky (1997), pp.140143.

29. Arc of Light, score, p.1.

30. [p]s(t)ellor/mnme, Programme Annotation.

31. ibid., score, p.1.

32. Dimensiones Paradisi, score, pp.1, 5, 67, 9 (twice), 10, 12 & 16.

33. Michell (1988), pp.3342.

34. Becker (1996), pp.202203. See also Diana Bruetons book Many Moons: The Myth and Magic, Fact
and Fantasy Of Our Nearest Heavenly Body (1991) for a more exhaustive study of the Moons
symbolism.

35. Dimensiones Paradisi, score, p.8 and passim.

36. ibid., p.16.

37. ibid., p.1.

38. Becker (1996), pp.194 & 142.

39. Dimensiones Paradisi, score, p.3.

40. Becker (1996), p.195. However, though its complementary passage of text for section 1 might be
considered just as evocative (Somewhat diffuse and woolly: distant, impersonal, detached ...
glossolalial! (In one breath...) Dimensiones Paradisi, score, p.14), this latter directive lacks such
meaningful symbolisms.

41. Dimensiones Paradisi, score, p.16.

42. Godwin (1987), pp.123193.

43. Notice that the musics details here clinch this symbolism. Emerging from the flutes Ck 3 [middle C]
fundamental ( Earth), one hears in turn the next eight elements of Ck 3s harmonic series: thus, each
of these higher harmonics is matched with one of the eight celestial spheres. (But even though Dk 6,
which corresponds to the ninth harmonic of Ck 3, is not played literally as a harmonic i.e. the ninth
mode of vibration of Ck 3, this stratospheric notes pitch, Dk 6, undoubtedly conforms to this harmonic-
series pattern. And being projected with maximal purity!, its pure! timbre could indeed be evocative
of the outermost, lustrous star-bearing sphere.) Beyond the Dk 6 sphere, and having passed through
the increasing nebulosity of random air-noise and whistletones, the flute sound then vanishes
breathlessly into quiescent total silence at the end of section H ( Heaven).
My Programme Annotation for this work also insinuates an image of being Heaven-bound: ... there is a
statistical tendency imposed upon the material of Dimensiones Paradisi to rise, inexorably, as if to
Heaven....

44. These Biblical verses are apropos: II Corinthians 12:24; Ephesians 4:10; Hebrews 4:14; and Hebrews
7:26. The three heavens of Christianity here are earth, the night sky (i.e. all of the stars and the
extraterrestrial planets), and paradise (i.e. Heaven beyond the other two lower heavens, wherein
one basks in the nearby presence of God).

45. Churton (1987), p.44.

46. Within A World of Becoming, for example, the works of mine that showcase the recorder are Five
tudes, Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on , Zodiac: Crystal Orbit
Improvisations, and [p]s(t)ellor/mnme.

47. Skins (1985), p.234.

48. These three instruments form part of the battery of percussion found in Cycles of Vega and 153
Infinities.

49. Arcturus Timespace, Cycles of Vega, Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on ,

~ 15 ~
 and 153 Infinities all employ windchimes.

50. Metal percussion instruments are utilized in Arcturus Timespace, Cycles of Vega, Lines of Light:
Seven Improvisations on , 153 Infinities, and [p]s(t)ellor/mnme.

51. Becker (1996), pp.194195.

52. ibid., p.158.

53. In Cycles of Vega, Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on and 153 Infinities, the
rin serve as highly resonant, lower-pitched timbral cognates of the crotales although they are
physically and acoustically quite distinct from them.

54. Kishibe (1984), Plate 40 shows a particularly large rin (known as a dbachi) being struck by a Buddhist
monk during a Hy. See also ibid., pp.4446.

55. Becker (1996), p.39.

56. Triangle windchimes are fastidiously deployed in Cycles of Vega, Lines of Light: Seven
Improvisations on , and 153 Infinities.

57. Becker (1996), pp.298 & 212.

58. ibid., p.267.

59. ibid., pp.308309.

60. This latter interpretation is not at all out of place here, however. Although I do concede that I was
entirely oblivious to this association while [p]s(t)ellor/mnme was being composed, I later realized that
the waterphone represented perfectly my late father, Jim Shanahan (to whom this work was written in
memoriam): he suffered from psychosis, and from many other ailments, as a direct consequence of the
numerous extreme traumas inflicted upon him during World War II.

61. I have promoted the autocoils very distinctive sound within Cycles of Vega, Lines of Light: Seven
Improvisations on , and 153 Infinities.

62. Becker (1996), p.277.

63. Brake drums are called for only in 153 Infinities.

64. Arcturus Timespace, Cosmos (One Note), Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on
and Zodiac: Crystal Orbit Improvisations all require electroacoustic sound-sources, either to
be performed live in concert, or as in Arcturus Timespace to be played back from a pre-recorded
medium.

~ 16 ~
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANDREWS, DAVE: ChristiAnarchy: Discovering a Radical Spirituality of Compassion, Lion Publishing

PLC, Oxford, England, 1999.

BECKER, UDO (English translation by Lance W. Garmer): The Element Encyclopedia of Symbols, Element
Books Ltd., Longmead, Shaftesbury, Dorset, England, 1996.

ED. BROADSTOCK, BRENTON: Sound Ideas: Australian Composers born since 1950 A Guide to their
Music and Ideas, Australian Music Centre, Sydney, Australia, 1995.

BRUETON, DIANA: Many Moons: The Myth and Magic, Fact and Fantasy Of Our Nearest Heavenly
Body, Prentice Hall Press, New York, 1991.

CHURTON, TOBIAS: The Gnostics, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1987.

COPE, DAVID H.: New Directions in Music, 4th edition, William C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa,
U.S.A., 1984.

FIDELER, DAVID: Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism, Quest
Books (The Theosophical Publishing House), Wheaton, Illinois, U.S.A., 1993.

GODWIN, JOSCELYN: Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: The Spiritual Dimension of Music from
Antiquity to the Avant-Garde, Inner Traditions International Ltd., Rochester, Vermont, U.S.A., 1987.

HUMPHREY, CAROLINE and VITEBSKY, PIERS: Sacred Architecture: Models of the Cosmos; Symbolic
Form and Ornament; Traditions of East and West, Duncan Baird Publishers, London, 1997.

KISHIBE, SHIGEO: The Traditional Music of Japan, 3rd edition, Ongaku No Tomo Sha Edition, Tokyo,
Japan, 1984.

MICHELL, JOHN: The Dimensions of Paradise: The Proportions and Symbolic Numbers of Ancient
Cosmology, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1988.

ED. ROBINSON, JAMES M.: The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 3rd edition, HarperSanFrancisco
(HarperCollins Publishers), New York, 1990.

SHANAHAN, IAN: The view from my laboratory, April 1995, Sounds Australian: Journal of Australian
Music No.46, Winter 1995, pp.2526.

SKINS, RON: The Recorder as Image-Maker, Recorder and Music Magazine Vol.8 No.8, December 1985,
pp.234236.

SMITH BRINDLE, REGINALD: The New Music: The Avant-Garde since 1945, Oxford University Press,
London, 1975.

TRUAX, BARRY: The Inner and Outer Complexity of Music, Perspectives of New Music Vol.32 No.1,
Winter 1994, pp.176193.

~ 17 ~
 SELECTED COMPOSITIONS BY IAN SHANAHAN

1. Arcturus Timespace (1987/1994), for soloist (amplified mandolin and percussion) and tape, with
optional light- and slide-projection.
Duration: ca.12'. Commissioned by ELISION ensemble. Performed by Stephen Morey during an
ELISION Concert at Melba Hall, the University of Melbourne, 6 May 1987.

2. Cosmos (One Note) (1987/1997), for solo Yamaha DX7 keyboard synthesizer.
Duration: ca.6'. Performed by Ian Shanahan at The Performance Space, Music Department, the
University of Western Sydney (Nepean), Kingswood Campus, 13 November 1997 [World
Premire].

3. Solar Dust: Orbits and Spirals (1988/1999), for solo (amplified) mandolin.
Duration: ca.10'. Commissioned by Adrian Hooper and The Sydney Mandolins. Performed by Paul
Hooper at the Netherlands Uniting Church, Quarry Street, Ultimo, Sydney, 9 September 1988
[World Premire].

4. Five tudes (19881991), for solo recorder.

i. Helical Ribbon (1990), a terse tude for solo alto recorder.
Duration: ca.0'.40". Published in Recorders at Large, Volume Two (ed. Benjamin Thorn),
Currency Press, Sydney, 1995. Commissioned by the Australian Music Centre. Performed by Ian
Shanahan during a Sounds Australian Awards Presentation Night at the Sydney Dance Company
Space, Sydney, 11 April 1990 [World Premire].
ii. Lingua Silens Florum (1991), a garland for solo prepared alto recorder.
Duration: ca.0'.50". Published by Red House Editions No. RH 938, Melbourne, 1995. Performed by
Ian Shanahan during the Eric Gross Farewell Concert at the Everest Theatre, the University of
Sydney, 8 August 1991 [World Premire].
iii. Cathys Song (1988), an encore piece for solo sopranino (or alto) recorder.
Duration: ca.1'. Published in Recorders at Large, Volume Two (ed. Benjamin Thorn), Currency
Press, Sydney, 1995. Performed by Ian Shanahan during Recorders Unlimited, a concert held at
The Old Darlington School, the University of Sydney, 8 December 1989.
iv. Dysfunctional Habaera (1990), for solo alto recorder.
Duration: ca.0'.30". To be published by Red House Editions? Commissioned by Benjamin Thorn.
Unperformed in public!
v. Graeme Petrie, scallywag (1990), for solo alto recorder.
Duration: ca.0'.45". To be published by Red House Editions? Commissioned by Benjamin Thorn.
Unperformed in public!

5. Cycles of Vega (19881991), for ee clarinet and 2 percussionists.

Duration: ca.10'. Commissioned by Roslyn Dunlop. Performed by Roslyn Dunlop (ee clarinet), Daryl
Pratt and Anthony Cowdroy (percussion), during the Second Sydney Spring International Festival of
New Music, at the Sydney Art Gallery, 2 November 1991 [World Premire].

6. Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on (1991/1993), for amplified recorders (1

player), two Yamaha DX7 keyboard synthesizers (1 or 2 players), and metallic percussion
instruments (1 or 2 players).
Duration: ca.9'.30". Commissioned by austraLYSIS. Performed by Ian Shanahan (amplified
recorders), Roger Dean (two Yamaha DX7 keyboard synthesizers) and Daryl Pratt (percussion),
during an austraLYSIS concert (Redesigning the System) at the Joseph Post Auditorium, Sydney
Conservatorium of Music, 27 November 1993 [World Premire].

7. Arc of Light (1993), for solo piano.

Duration ca.2'.15"4'. Published by Grevillea Editions (The Yitpi Series [ISBN 1876266546]),
Maybole via Ben Lomond NSW, September 1997. Commissioned by Robert Allworth. Performed
by Simon Docking at The Old Darlington School, the University of Sydney, 14 August 1994 [World
Premire].

~ 18 ~
8. 153 Infinities (1996), for solo (amplified) piano and optional percussion (6 players).
Duration ca.11'. Commissioned by Roger Woodward and the Sydney Spring International Festival
of New Music. Performed by Tamara Anna Cislowska (piano) and the Sprung Percussion
Ensemble (Guy du Blt, Claire Edwardes, Richard Gleeson, Kevin Man, Luke McAvenna, Timothy
Paillas) during the Eighth Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music, at Eugene Goossens
Hall, ABC Centre, Harris Street, Ultimo, Sydney, 12 September 1997 [World Premire].

9. Zodiac: Crystal Orbit Improvisations (1996), a mandalicon for amplified soprano recorder, MIDI wind
instrument, keyboard synthesizer, and optional real-time interactive computer control.
Duration: variable. Commissioned by austraLYSIS. Performed by Ian Shanahan (amplified soprano
recorder), Sandy Evans (Yamaha WX11 MIDI wind instrument), Roger Dean (Yamaha DX7
keyboard synthesizer) and MAX software, during an austraLYSIS concert at The Performance
Space, 199 Cleveland Street, Redfern, Sydney, 20 July 1996 [World Premire].

10. [p]s(t)ellor/mnme (1997), a mandalicon for soprano recorder and a consort of early-music
instruments.
Duration ca.8'10'. Commissioned by Winsome Evans and The Renaissance Players (for The
Renaissance Players thirtieth anniversary). Performed by Ian Shanahan (soprano recorder) and
The Renaissance Players (Nick Wales [alto rebec and waterphone], Eleanor Lewis [bass viola da
gamba], Cathy Tabrett [bass viola da gamba], Jenny Ericksson [bass viola da gamba], Kim Poole
[mandola], Winsome Evans [Celtic harp], Andrew Lambkin [handbells], Sally Treloyn [handbells],
Barbara Stackpool [handbell], Tim Chung [finger cymbals and timekeeper] and Simon Lobelson
[small clash cymbals]) during the Eighth Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music, at
Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre, Harris Street, Ultimo, Sydney, 19 September 1997 [World
Premire, with live broadcast].

11. Dimensiones Paradisi (1991/1998), for solo alto flute.

Duration ca.9'. Commissioned by Laura Chislett. Performed by Kathleen Gallagher during the Ninth
Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music, at Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre, Harris
Street, Ultimo, Sydney, 26 September 1998 [World Premire].

~ 19 ~