"Love to love your strings, baby" is an affectionate homage to disco strings.  I've taken inspiration from Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra, from the New York, Philadelphia and many other symphony orchestras, and the great arrangers who had a role in developing the disco sound.  My piece takes motifs and fragments from the golden era of disco and weaves them together with my own original themes to present a fantasy montage.  The title refers, of course, to the 1975 Donna Summer hit "Love to love you, baby."  It was composed for, and is dedicated to the Camerata of St. Johns.  Many thanks to the Australia Council for the Arts for their generous support.

Camerata of St. Johns string orchestra, Brisbane.
Performed 14th December 2013 at Queensland Conservatorium.
Created with generous support from Australia Council for the Arts. 

www.erikgriswold.org
www.camerata.net.au

Love To Love Your Strings Baby (2013) - Camerata of St. Johns string orchestra

From the album "From Small Things Grow"
Summer of Wisteria was composed for Topology and Clocked Out, and premiered on the “Seven Headed Music Machine” show in Brisbane Powerhouse.  Both of those ensembles thrive on rhythm, and the three movements of Wisteria abound with intricate cross-rhythms and syncopations.  When I came up with the opening motif, a line from William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! popped into my head – “It was a summer of wisteria…”  This seemed to capture something about the relaxed feeling and the dreamy textures which wend their way in and out of the music.  Mint juleps on the veranda, anyone?

Performers:
Soprano Sax - John Babbage
Violin - Christa Powell
Viola - Bernard Hoey
Bass - Robert Davidson
Piano - Erik Griswold
Recorded at Brisbane Powerhouse
copyright 2007 Erik Griswold all rights reserved

Premiered at Brisbane Powerhouse, 11 November 2007.

For more information about this work, or to view/purchase scores and recordings, visit:
www.erikgriswold.org

Summer Of Wisteria - from From Small Things Grow (2007)

Performed by Janet McKay (flute), Rianne Wilschut (clarinet), Liam Viney (piano), Vanessa Tomlinson (percussion), Graeme Jennings (violin), John Addison (cello). 
Queensland Conservatorium, 6 October 2010

 I've often come back to the poetry of T.S. Eliot over the years, especially his mystical ruminations on time in The Four Quartets, pondering evocative phrases such as “the music from a farther room,” or “you are the music while the music lasts.”  Without drawing conscious connections, I sometimes recognize phenomena in his poetry that I strive to create in my own works.  When I was composing, lines or images from the poetry sometimes popped into my head, which inspired me to explore a variety of moods, depths, and time relationships among the performers.  In some sections, such as parts 1 & 3, the performers play independently of each other, following their own fluctuating tempos and dynamic swells.  In others, such as part 4 and 5, they perform with very precisely interlocking rhythms.  The piece ends and begins with the same movement, mirroring Eliot’s line from “East Coker”:  “In my beginning is my end.” 

After the kingfisher's wing, part 1 (2010)

Performed by Anna Grinberg.

FOUR PLACES explores four unique Queensland landscapes, taking as its inspiration the sounds of the natural environments of Mt. Nebo, Cunningham’s Gap, Girraween, and Condamine.  Griswold is joined by three of Queensland’s most celebrated pianists – Stephen Emmerson , Anna Grinberg, and Liam Viney, to reflect on the natural wonders of Queensland.

"Erik Griswold's Cunningham's Gap for solo piano was a largely reflective meditation on the natural wonder west of Brisbane, featuring a sublime, extended passage for right hand only and an ending of profound beauty." - Martin Buzacott, The Australian, 1 June 2012

Bell Birds - from Four Places in Queensland (2009)

Clocked Out 
Erik Griswold and Vanessa Tomlinson
Prepared Piano and Found Objects
from the album "Foreign Objects"
Clocked Out | 2009

Foreign Objects (2009)

Performed by Margaret Leng Tan

Old MacDonald's Yellow Submarine is an exploration of sounds with which I've been fascinated since childhood.  Its varied sections range from nostalgic and wistful to playful and cheeky, drawing on influences as diverse as John Cage and John Lee Hooker.

Old Mac comprises six movements - On that farm, e-i-e-i-o, Pink Memories, Chooks! (Australian for "chickens"), Bicycle Lee Hooker, and Old MacDonald's Yellow Submarine - each using a different combination of instruments, including prepared piano, toy piano, wood blocks, and miniature music boxes.  Knowing the skill and dedication of Margaret Leng Tan, I pushed the limits of toy instrumental virtuosity by asking her to coordinate a bicycle bell, bicycle horn, train whistle, and toy piano in Bicycle Lee Hooker, a right brain-left brain extravaganza.

I arrived at the title of the suite, a conjunction of Old MacDonald had a farm and Yellow Submarine, when I took the tines (or melody) of one music box and crossed them with the barrel (or rhythm) of another to produce the surprising hybrids heard in the sixth movement. (The third movement similarly combines the pitches of The Pink Panther with the rhythm of Memories).

Old Mac is dedicated to Margaret Leng Tan, and was created with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts.


"On that farm" - from Old MacDonald's Yellow Submarine (2004)

"Every night the same dream" is the title track of Clocked Out Duo's first album.  It set the benchmark for subsequent exploration of warped grooves and atmospheric soundscapes.  The album is an eclectic collection which includes compositions by Vanessa Tomlinson, Graeme Leak, and Warren Burt, as well as improvisatory pieces.

Recorded by Wayne Baker at ABC Studio 520 in Adelaide.

Every Night The Same Dream (2000)

Prepared Piano Solo
from the album "Pain Avoidance Machine" 
Room40 | 2015

Pale Yellow Frontier - from Pain Avoidance Machine (2015)

Solo Prepared Piano
Composition by Thelonious Monk
Self release

Brilliant Corners (2008)

Performed by Karin Schaupp and Alex Raineri.
Brisbane Music Festival.
28 October 2023.

Los Sueños del niño y la niña

Clocked Out
Erik Griswold and Vanessa Tomlinson
Prepared Piano and Vibraphone
from the album "Time Crystals" 
Innova | 2015

Time Crystals (2015)

Part 1 of "Four Places in Queensland"
Performed by Anna Grinberg

01 Mt. Nebo - Bell Birds

Grevilleas of Myall Park - Paniculata

From the suite "Grevilleas of Myall Park"
Performed by The Australian Voices
and Clocked Out

Grevilleas of Myall Park - Sericea

Walk on by Take Session

From the album The Wide Alley.
A 10-piece band of Australian and Sichuan musicians, exploring connections between traditional, contemporary, and experimental culture.

Bicycle Groove - from The Wide Alley (2009)

The Night Parrot is Australia’s most elusive bird. Once presumed extinct, there have been a handful of sightings in recent years (some of dead birds). The Night Parrot is a ground dweller that can fly, but prefers not too. Legend has it that on a 1990 field trip in West Australia, the director of the South Australian Museum stopped by the side of the road to relieve himself, looked down, and realized he was peeing on a decapitated night parrot. He avoided further damage and took the specimen. Very little is known about the bird’s habits, and almost nothing is known about its song, which is reimagined for this piece.  The Forgotten Call of the Night Parrot is dedicated to the Viney-Grinberg Duo.  It was created with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts.



The forgotten call of the night parrot

Written for solo prepared piano, this is my version of the Cuban guaguanco rhythm, from the piece "Three Latin Rhythms". It was recorded for my album "More than my old piano" as well as Gabriella Smart's album "Chinese Whispers". It was the theme music for ABC Classic FM's coverage of the ICSM World Music Days in Sydney 2010. Gabriella Smart also recorded this for Move Records.

For more information about this work, or to view/purchase scores and recordings, visit:  www.erikgriswold.org

Guaguanco - from Three Latin Rhythms (2002)

Prepared Piano Solo
from the album "Wallpaper Music"
Room40 | 2007

Erik Griswold

Pinned to spotlight

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