Program notes

Dark Well, opus 107 (2019)


  1. 1. Cylinder Harmony
  2. 2. Piano Drum 1
  3. 3. Round Water
  4. 4. Piano Drum 2

Dark Well, opus 107 (2019-20) is an immersive site-specific composition of about 60 minutes duration for two pianos with audio-visual projections and staging created in collaboration with artist, Alyssa Rothwell and video editor, Martin Fox. This large-scale work explores darkness and emotion, the margins of hearing, and the borderlands of perception and the unconscious. Dark Well consists of a music score performed live with digital audio transformations, amplification and various extensions to normal performance technique. There are two main movements called Cylinder Harmony and Round Water and two shorter movements called Piano Drum 1 and 2. The work is dedicated to the pianists Sonya Lifschitz and Stephen Emmerson and was commissioned with funds provided by the Australia Council and the Ukaria Arts Centre.

 

© Andrew Schultz, 2020