When I had a meeting at her studio (early last year (2015) to discuss the new work we were to embark upon in 2016) as always, I took an open mind, a pen and a notepad to write down the ideas, themes, approximate tempos and length of each piece required.
As an opener, this time Amy says “think Kirstenbosch Gardens!” – We’re doing flowers.
Okay. I thought, we’ve done The Jungle, The Seasons (with Small Rain, Medium Rain and Big Rain), we’ve done The Orchestra, The Girl with Enamel Eyes, we’ve done Penguins, so why not Flowers?!?
A while before our first meeting, I had been playing around with a few new sounds I had discovered and had recorded, what I thought to be a rather Majestic sounding piece of music. It conjured up thoughts of Royalty and Palaces with Court Jesters at play etc.
The first piece we discussed was The Queen Protea and I thought, perfect, that piece is almost there already. What I hadn’t realized was that I only had a handful of chords to play around with! Back to the drawing board… and the concept of an Indigenous South African Polonaise.
Utilizing the chord structure that I had, the work developed around it and using more and more “Regal” sounds, if you can call them that, the piece evolved into The Queen Proteas.
The Strelitzias: I had discovered this amazing instrument called an Armenian Duduk and was fiddling around with it and remembered Amy saying that she saw the Strelitzia transforming from an earth bound flower into a more flamboyant being and then into ultimate flight. This instrument, the Armenian Duduk, just felt right! When I brought in the French Horns the work elevated to a new level and I knew that it was going to work.
Whenever Amy and I meet, talk on the phone, email etc., I often think here is a Lady with deep thinking, incredible ideas and an artistic intuition. However, when she asked me to write an African Waltz for the Plectranthus, I thought Whoa!
There is no such thing as an African Waltz! Google proved it! I looked on the Internet for some ideas, maybe a clue as to what an African Waltz Rhythm would sound like – there was nothing!
I had had an idea for Plectranthus, wrote it, presented it to Amy – she said it would maybe be fine for a future work, but not for the Plectranthus she was looking for.
I sat at the keyboard for a while, then came up with this waltz rhythm, which is not really a waltz – it’s 3 beats to the bar (3/4) and with the music going round it, it works out to be a Waltz, albeit an African one!
Amy phoned me and said,” I was listening to it and all of a sudden realized I was tapping my foot in 3/4 rhythm to it!” – African Waltz done.
When it came to the Irritating Bees, once again it was determined by sounds. I had this really horrible ingratiating sound on one of my synths which I thought I would never use for anything! I re-looked at it and realized it would work for the Bees, so that was the basis for that work. Other annoying sounds followed…
With The Arum Lilly once again I had discovered some really cool sounds. There is no definite melody here, just an accumulation of layered sounds that in my humble opinion, define the flower in all its beauty.
Amy told me she would like a Caterpillars in amongst the flowers, except it had to be a Latino Caterpillar! I love Latin American music, so this wasn’t a challenge, this was a pleasure! It started off with a trumpet (on the keyboard), followed by the bass (on the keyboard) and then the percussion (on the keyboard)!
I repeat all this just in case anyone thinks I play all these instruments! I play keyboards, guitar, violin and sing.
I never had the opportunity to study orchestration, but have performed in various orchestras and have therefore acquired a feel for how the instruments should work together.
As always, working with Amy is a pleasure, a challenge and most rewarding. Rewarding to see the amazing choreography she presents that transforms my music into a living creation.