The Tempest, Episode 1, produced by Castlemaine Theatre Company. Directed by Kate Stones with original contemporary score by David Thrussell. More info https://www.castlemainetheatrecompany.com/the-tempest-a-sound-project/

As the play opens, we find ourselves deep in the eye of a storm with a cohort of nobles bound home to Italy after attending a celebrity wedding in Tunis. On the island, Prospera reveals her true identity to her daughter Miranda, and tells the story of how she came to be banished to the enchanted island. Caliban the fish monster sulks, while young Ferdinand is washed up on the shore. Dishevelled and disoriented, he is convinced his father, the King of Naples, has drowned. Sparks fly when he meets Miranda...

The Tempest: Episode 1

‘Bush Telegraph 2’ was composed by Peter Willis in collaboration with Adrian Croucher, who performed the work on his Cyclical Tubophone (made entirely of bicycle parts, conceived and built by Adrian), on Tiritiri Island, as part of the ‘Sounding Tiritiri’ event, 8th March 2014. This was performed in the bush – one of many surprise sonic events which the audience encountered as they walked the tracks around Tiritiri. The work references natural features of Tiritiri, especially the wind and bird song (kokako, saddleback, bellbird). 

Bush Telegraph #2

John Cage's 1943 prepared piano piece, "A Room", arranged for prepared Cyclical Tubophone (an invented mallet percussion instrument made entirely from bicycle parts).

Preparations include: bicycle inner tube sleeves, wrapped spokes, gear cable threaded through tubes and dead leaves, both inside and outside the tubes.

"Happy new ears"...

Performed and recorded by Adrian Croucher, 2023.

John Cage - A Room

This is a reworking of Erik Satie's solo piano piece 'Vexations' (1893). The original has a variety of features expressing frustration and misfortune, including the almost constant presence of tritone intervals (the dissonant 'diabolus in musica'), the 13-beat length of the main theme and the extremely inconvenient use of enharmonic notation to designate pitch.

The inscription on Satie's original score advises performers that if they are to play the theme of the piece 840 times in succession, they should prepare beforehand 'in deepest silence, by serious immobilities'. John Cage, who championed the piece in the 1960s, interpreted this literally to mean that the theme should be played 840 times, and organised the first public performance of it- an 18-hour marathon played by a relay team of pianists. Since then, the 840-repeat interpretation has been performed by some dedicated solo pianists (many of whom report side effects such as hallucinations, agony, evil thoughts and strange creatures emerging from the sheet music).

The version played here has been arranged as a duet for cyclical tubophone and prepared piano, and introduces additional rhythmic vexations. The original material is hocketed between the two instruments, with the fragmented parts played together or alone. Inspired by the oddities of the melodic notation, further eccentricities have been introduced in the notation of rhythm. The piano also has various physical vexations or irritants (more commonly known as 'preparations', also pioneered by John Cage) inserted into its strings, to create a more perplexed timbre.

The word 'Chronic' in the title refers both to time (Greek 'chronos'), alluding to this version's additional rhythmic vexations, and also to the Buddhist notion of 'dukkha', the endlessly unsatisfying nature of unenlightened existence.

The number of repeats to be played is left open to performers' discretion. Nevertheless, Satie's advice regarding silence and immobility remains very pertinent.

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Composed by: Adrian Croucher, based on Erik Satie's "Vexations"
Performed by: Adrian Croucher (cyclical tubophone), Peter Willis (prepared upright piano)
Recorded on: 12 April 2015

Chronic Vexations

Kitchen Interlude was performed on February 27, 2016 as part of a house-warming ritual-performance I created on moving into my new house in Onehunga, Auckland.The performers were inside the house (in the kitchen), while the audience was outside (in the rain). The work takes the form of a structured improvisation, centering on Adrian playing my kitchen sink (with dish brushes), with brief interludes of common kitchen sounds from the other performers.

Performers: Adrian Croucher (kitchen sink, venetian blind), Claire Scholes (stove) Charlotte Rose (knife, jar lids) Peter Willis (drawers, cupboards, toilet)

Recording by Adrian Croucher and Peter Willis, edited by Adrian Croucher. Photograph by Sally Mcara.


Kitchen Interlude

Peter Willis and I collaborated on the piece "Bush Telegraph #2" for the "Sounding Tiritiri Matangi" event in 2014, curated by Phil Dadson, in which over 25 musicians performed at different locations along walking tracks on an island native bush reserve. The piece is a reworking of an earlier one written by Peter for recorder, clarinet and flute, based on transcriptions he made of native New Zealand birdsong (including the calls of kokako, saddleback and bellbird).

For Bush Telegraph #2 the piece was adapted for Cyclical Tubophone and referenced some of the natural features of Tiritiri Matangi Island, most notably the wind. It called for the instrument to be played, in some sections, with twigs or native forest leaves, or by blowing through the tubes. During the event, the voice of the tubophone was joined by those of the birds in the surrounding bush.

The version recorded here is a further reworking of the piece for performing in more conventional "indoor" venues, and features an extended section of polyrhythmic bellbirds.

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Composed by: Peter Willis
Performed by: Adrian Croucher (cyclical tubophone)
Recorded and edited by: Adrian Croucher (October 2016)

Kitchen Interlude

Peter Gregory Willis

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