Reviews

Winter Ground (1997)

“Andrew Schultz’s Winter Ground for solo vibraphone filled the hall with its icy harmonies.” [Harriet Cunningham, Sydney Morning Herald, 16/8/2005]


“Schultz’s Winter Ground (12’05”) for solo vibraphone is palpably reflective, establishing an ambiguous emotional state and working it over and over, winding and entwining, growing denser by accrual, expanding from a narrow note range into a stream of consciousness reverie with just enough of a rhythmic anchor to keep the work sensually engaging, often quite beautiful, right to the final residue of the repeated ringing of a single note. Something has been completed.” [RealTime Arts Magazine, October-November 2007]


“With Andrew Schultz’ Winter Ground we return to the vibraphone, this time with more of an ethereal, sustained feel. Schultz actually uses the vibrato function of the instrument, which is quite refreshing to hear, and the piece is far from being vaguely atmospheric, with a set of variations exploring timbre and contrapuntal technique in some depth.” [Dominy Clements, Music Web International, 2007]


“Andrew Schultz’s extended work, Winter Ground, is emotionally remote without bleakness.” [Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald, 29-30 December 2007]


“Listening to this in my warm study, by a window looking out at wintry York on one of its very few brilliantly sunny days, seems entirely appropriate… The vaguely mechanistic music with which this piece starts intimates, if not the claustrophobia, then the closesness of being in an interior space…There is a subtle understatement here that is captivating.” [Michael Hooper, MCA Music Forum, February-April 2008]