Jade CDs are widely heard on national and fine music stations throughout Australia, and are recognised as a valuable resource by educational authorities as being uniquely representative of the work of Australian composers. They are manufactured in limited runs of 500 and stocks are therefore may be regarded as collectors' items! Fortunately this music is now available in digital downloads. All Jade CD covers are distinctive. Most Jade CDs have an anthology format and include works by several composers. It's great to have these CDs on offer for a wider audience at CD Baby. "SONATA" JADCD 1047 Works by: Colin Spiers, Robert Allworth, Dulcie Holland, Ann Carr-Boyd. Duration: 72.30 Track 1. ERIC GROSS - MANDIGAR 2 (1993) This piece of music shows the composer at his most relaxed and enigmatic. The composition is superbly crafted. Performance: Sydney Mandolins. Track 2. COLIN SPIERS - PIANO SONATA N0.1 [DERANGED CONFESSIONS] (1990). Like those sonatas that follow it, my first for the piano is cast in a single movement. It attempts to chronicle in purely musical terms an imaginary soliloquy made by someone who was mentally disturbed. In order to accommodate the fractured nature inherent in this programme the form of the work consists of eight short contrasting segments which may be summarised as follows: 1. meaningless raving. 2. bombast mixed with raving. 3. heroic rhapsodising. 4. energetic and lucid debate contrasted with quiet, sentimental reflection. 5. an intense eulogy delivered upon the death of the protagonist's pet grasshopper. 6. quiet raving 7. bombast mixed with raving 8. Coda - a concentrated restatement of most of the above elements. The First Sonata is dedicated to the memory of my great-uncle Alec Spiers - one of the innumerable victims of the madness of the First World War. Performance: Colin Spiers, piano. Track 3. ROBERT ALLWORTH - MOONLIGHT ON THE SEA (1986) This composition is a post-Impressionistic piece using the twelve note system, and shows the Composer's love of the compositional technique of Anton Webern. Performance: Sydney Mandolins. Track 4. COLIN SPIERS - THE DAY OF DEATH AND DREAMS. This work, a type of solo cantata, was written in 1989 for the fine Brisbane tenor Greg Massingham who is the performer on this recording. The text is taken from the brief final chapter of "The Tree of Man" by Patrick White which concerns itself with a young boy's musing on life, death and the future on the day of his grandfather's funeral. This text was chosen for its strong poetic quality manifested musically in a clear, sectionalised structure made up of dramatic, lyrical and rhapsodic thematic material. Performance: Greg Massingham, tenor; Colin Spiers, piano. Track 5. COLIN SPIERS - PIANO SONATA NO. 2 [DESPERATE ACTS] (1992)- Unlike my First Sonata, the Second concerns itself with portraying the emotions of the sane person who fears he is losing his sanity. Formally it consists of a fractured sonata form (with five thematic groups), which is in turn interrupted by a demonic scherzo, an eerie nocturne and four interludes, the third of which adopts the tone of a French drinking song bearing the sub-title "Childish Song" - an effect reinforced by the fact that it is played at lightning speed. The present recording is made live at the University of Queensland's Nickson Room and the Sonata is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather Colin Gordon Spiers. Performance: Colin Spiers, piano. Track 6. ANN CARR-BOYD - FOXTROT (1993) This delightful piece of music is a miniature masterpiece written in the similar style of Fandango, one of the composers most popular compositions. Performance: Sydney Mandolins. Cover Photo - Scott Cameron / Tasman Sea