专辑简介

Clique began as part of a larger project under the title The Secret Noise: a cycle of works exploring cultural practices that deliberately shield music from public life. Other works in the series explore a variety of secret and private music-making phenomena from sacred forms of ceremonial music to ‘legally extinguished’ compositions, backmasking and personalised music players. With Clique I was interested in the occurrence of closed musical circles and the use of music as an identity-commodity to advance one’s own (and exclude others’) social standing. In conceiving the work I was particularly conscious of the West’s own chamber music tradition: from its pre-concert function as music heard only by royalty to music exclusively composed and played by groups of friends in private settings. Clique takes as its starting point a Haydn Baryton Trio composed for the “exclusive pleasure” of his patron Prince Esterhazy. In composing the work I treated an Adagio from one of the Haydn trios (No.97 in D major) as though it were a mysterious foreign script that I imaginatively translated and reconstructed into my own peculiar language featuring an unusual sonic combination of instruments and a highly ornate and microtonal clarinet. Clique is a Centenary Commission of the Sydney Conservatorium where it was premiered on the 13th April 2013. (Damien Ricketson)