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"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

The title “a leaf falls” is taken from the e.e. cummings poem with the first line “l(a leaf falls)oneliness.” Though I’ve never really lived in a place with an autumn, I nevertheless feel a sense of nostalgia for the coming of autumn, the leaves turning bright oranges and reds, and is it a sense of emptiness when the leaves fall? Eugene Carchesio captured something like this sense beautifully in his “Dead leaves of Tokyo” series. I enjoy raking the leaves in my backyard, it’s a kind of meditation. And who doesn’t love jumping into a pile of leaves? (Erik Griswold 31 August 2011)

Performers: 
John Addison - Cello
Soundstream Collective - Percussion Quartet

Performed 30 September 2011 in Elder Hall, University of Adelaide.

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


a leaf falls, part 1 (2011)

A road trip through the deserts of California and Arizona was the inspiration for Drifting Cowboys in a Mist.  The passing scenery from Route 66 and Interstate 40 through the western badlands and cactus strewn landscapes rekindled my secret love of country and western.  Loading up Hank Williams’ (and the Drifting Cowboys) Greatest Hits on my laptop, I began to absorb the Hawaiian tinged steel guitar of Don Helms and the poignant fiddle solos of Jerry Rivers.  As I studied and analyzed their music I somehow began to draw a connections with impressionism (Debussy), early jazz (Bix Beiderbecke - “In a mist”), and Bartok (String Quartet No.3).  All these influences merged together in a wide ranging homage.  I was delighted to have the opportunity to compose this, my first string quartet, for Kurilpa String Quartet, who bring immense talent, dedication, and inspiration to Queensland Conservatorium.

Performers:
Graeme Jennings - Violin
Brendan Joyce - violin
Yoko Okayasu - viola 
Katherine Philp - cello

 Composed for and premiered by Kurilpa String Quartet at Crossbows Festival, Brisbane, 13 May 2012.

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

Drifting Cowboys in a Mist (2012)

Toy instruments have been part of my musical language since 2000 when Vanessa Tomlinson and I (Clocked Out Duo) created “Felaminikuti,” a light-hearted homage to Afrobeat master Fela Kuti.  Since then I’ve created several pieces and done many improvised performances using toy piano, melodica, miniature music boxes, ukuleles, lots of toy percussion, and any number of noisemakers.  “Three Secret Gardens” was my first piece that used toy piano with chamber ensemble.  In each ‘garden’  I’ve tried to create a very intimate and immediate mood.  Perhaps dreamy, wistful, or whimsical, I envision three magical, private places.  I created “Three Secret Gardens” for an inspiring collaboration with Continuum Sax, who really brought it to life!


Three Secret Gardens (2011)

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)

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

Pale Yellow Frontier - from Pain Avoidance Machine (2015)

'Crocodile' - from Rogue

'Swimming' from Rogue

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

Time Crystals (2015)

Bells

This Land is Mine (arr. Neal)

Heather
by James Wilkinson 
( & Steve Heather)
Strings: Neal

Heather (strgs: Kate Neal)

Afterall - from the staged theatre work 'Permission to Speak', produced by Chamber Made, directed/conceived Tamara Saulwick, sung by Gian Slater, Georgie Darvidis, Josh Kyle, Ed Fairlie

Afterall

Annie's Violence - from the staged theatre work 'Permission to Speak' produced by Chamber Made, directed/conceived Tamara Saulwick. Sung by Gian Slater, Georgie Darvidis, Josh Kyle, Ed Fairlie.

Annie's Violence

From the animation 'Novel Instrument' - animation Sal Cooper, Piano Jacob Abela

Novel Instrument

Falling from staged show While You Sleep. Strings: Phoebe Green, Zac Johnson, Isabelle Hede, Katherine Philip

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

Erik Griswold

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