Listen & tracks
5 of 14 tracks have a preview · 7 works · 60:56
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Sonata for flute and piano (2014)Harry Sdraulig 4 movements15:17
- 1 i. Prelude 2:37
- 2 ii. Badinerie 2:54
- 3 iii. Romanza 4:20
- 4 iv. Finale 5:26
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5 Rosella (1999) Alan Holley 2:37
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6 River Song (1997) Alan Holley 5:42
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7 Bali Moods (1987) Anne Boyd 7:32
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8 Folding outward into traces (2024) Joshua Hyde 11:28
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9 Firefly’s Dream (2024) Linda Verrier 7:19
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Sonata for flute and piano (1991)Keith Humble 5 movements11:01
- 10 i. 3:08
- 11 ii. 1:25
- 12 iii. 3:42
- 13 iv. :50
- 14 v. 1:56
Featuring collaborations with acclaimed artists Jerry Wong (piano) and Joshua Hyde (electronics), Flute Perspectives 4 explores innovative soundscapes and diverse musical voices through works by Harry Sdraulig, Alan Holley, Anne Boyd, Joshua Hyde, Linda Verrier, and Keith Humble.
The album features bold new works and reimagined classics. Joshua Hyde’s Folding outward into traces is a striking fusion of flute multiphonics and electronics, developed through a deeply collaborative process. Linda Verrier’s Firefly’s Dream for alto flute offers shimmering textures and detailed sonic colour, while Alan Holley’s lyrical solo works Rosella and River Song evoke a delicate Australian landscape. The recording also includes the first commercial release of Harry Sdraulig’s Sonata for flute and piano, praised for its emotional depth and structural sophistication, and a powerful new rendition of Keith Humble’s avant-garde five-movement Sonata, showcasing the technical and expressive breadth of both flute and piano.
With Flute Perspectives 4, Jones continues his mission to champion Australian music and expand the horizons of contemporary flute performance. This album invites listeners on a journey through bold new sonic landscapes and reimagined classics, each track a testament to the collaborative spirit and musical vision at the heart of this project.
In the artist’s words
The Sonata for Flute and Piano was completed in 2014. With this piece, it was my intention to compose a work of virtuosic demand for both instrumentalists, full of contrast and containing a wide variety of expression to give the performers an opportunity to showcase the breadth of their musicality. The work is in four movements. A mysterious, introverted Prelude precedes a humorous, flickering dance, entitled Badinerie. The third movement, a more expansive and outwardly expressive Romanza, is followed by the Finale: a fast, virtuosic show-piece to round off the work.
Rosella, (Singing to his Mate), for solo flute, was written as the second movement of my chamber orchestra work My Summer Garden. The intent was to portray a lone male Eastern Rosella, one of Australia’s most beautiful parrots, first of all finding a mate and then calling to her over a little distance. This is not a direct transcription of birdsong, but more an impression of the tremendous energy the rosella puts into his mating efforts.
In the opening of my River Song I used a descending seven-note pattern which leads to a quasi-improvisatory central section before a return of the opening statement, here embellished with rapid ornamentation. As a young composer I was entranced with the way J. S. Bach created not only melody but inferred harmony and texture in his Sonata for Solo Flute in A minor and in this small-scale impressionistic work I acknowledge the influence of the great Baroque master.
Both these solo works were premiered in Sydney by Christine Draeger, a wonderful musician who was a great supporter of my music from the 1980s and on for three decades.
Bali Moods was composed in 1987 and is representative of the unique style of Anne Boyd’s Balinese influenced writing which can be heard across many of Boyd’s compositions. Bali Moods is notable for the contrast between the slow meditative sections and fast percussive sections that both the flute and piano execute through short fast staccato repeated motives giving a wonderful energy to the music. The several slow improvisatory sections bring forth the spirit of the Balinese culture and the instruments of the land, namely the suling (Balinese flute) and gamelan percussion.
Folding outward into traces (2024), written for Derek Jones, is a contemplative work that takes inspiration from ambient electronica. The flute plays exclusively multiphonics, the instrument is used to create rhythmic and textural elements, rather than melodic or linear elements. This sound world is combined with and treated with live electronics. The work doesn’t necessarily involve a linear dialogue, it’s more like looking at different parts of a garden, the parts are both connected and interdependent, but each exists in its own temporality.
In my youth, I recall seeing multiple fireflies emitting their wondrous, magical lights at my family’s summer cottage. Returning recently, and seeing only a lone firefly, I began to wonder where they had all gone – would his mating light be flashing in vain if there were no others to find. This led me to the haiku by Japanese poet (and Buddhist) Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828): A giant firefly: that way, this way, that way this – and it passes by.
Firefly’s Dream is a meditation for alto flute. It is dedicated to Derek Jones.
Keith Humble has been described by an Australian critic as “without question the finest all-round musician this country has produced since Percy Grainger.”
Keith Humble unquestionably holds a prominent place in Australian music. Humble’s influence and innovation inspired many in the field of contemporary music and particularly electronic music at La Trobe University where he was the Director of Music for some time. The Sonata has five movements which create an intense and exciting journey for the performer and listener. The “avant-garde” style is very noticeable here with highly complex rhythmic patterns punctuating a quasi-twelve-tone approach to the motivic and melodic content. The third movement highlights a frenetic and highly energised flute cadenza giving the effect of a hypnotic dance perhaps reminding of Jolivet’s well known flute writing. Noticeable are some beautifully coloured soft sections, with flute and piano exchanging a dialogue in these potent moments, particularly heard in the final movement.
The Sonata, which also exists in a version for flute and eleven strings, was first performed at the Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut, on 26 April 1993, by Margo Askin and Fumiko Miyanoo.
Artists
Derek Jones
flute, alto flute
Derek Jones has enjoyed an extensive performing career throughout Australia, Europe, the USA and Asia. Solo appearances include the Melbourne Symphony, the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the last of these taking him to Carnegie Hall, New York.
Jerry Wong
piano
Steinway Artist Jerry Wong has been described by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Martin Bernheimer as "eloquent…sensitivity and a finely-honed sense of style" and the Orange County Register praised him for "clean technique, forthright sound and a straight forward approach to classical textures".
Joshua Hyde
electronics
Joshua Hyde is a composer and electronics performer whose work centres on live electronic sound and collaborative pieces for flute and electronics.
Anne Boyd
composer
Anne Boyd enjoys a distinguished career as a composer and music educator. A graduate of the University of Sydney (BA Hons in Music, 1967) and the University of York (PhD in composition, 1972), she has shaped Australian musical life through both her writing and her teaching.
Alan Holley
composer
In recent years Sydney born composer Alan Holley (b.1954) has been a featured composer at numerous music festivals and received composer profile concerts in Croatia, Serbia, Albania and Australia.
Keith Humble
composer
Keith Humble won the National Critics Award in 1977 as the most outstanding recitalist working in Australia, and was appointed AM in 1982 for services to music. He was a constant champion of Australian contemporary music and of Percy Grainger.
Harry Sdraulig
composer
Harry Sdraulig is a composer whose Sonata for flute and piano, completed in 2014, was conceived as a work of virtuosic demand, contrast and wide-ranging expression for both instrumentalists.
Linda Verrier
composer
Linda Verrier was born in 1962 in Canada. She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, in Manchester, and has had her music played and recorded in the UK, US and Australia and broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Digital booklet
Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDFPerformers
- Derek Jones · flute, alto flute
- Jerry Wong · piano · tracks 1–4, 7, 9–14
- Joshua Hyde · electronics · track 8
Technical credits
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Recording Engineer
Martin Wright
Vaughan McAlley
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Editing Engineer
Vaughan McAlley
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Mastering Engineer
Martin Wright
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 60 minutes 56 seconds
- Release date
- 1 May 2025
- Categories
- Australian, Classical
- Musical work copyright
- © 2025 Move Records
- Sound recording copyright
- ℗ 2025 Move Records
- Catalogue
- MD 3476
- EAN
- 9314574347623
More to explore
Flute Perspectives, Vol. 3
The third release in Derek Jones’s series, Flute Perspectives 3 continues to convey the synergy of Australia’s varied classical flute repertoire, with newly commissioned works, some recorded here for the first time.
Flute Perspectives, Vol. 2
Derek Jones (flute) and Cameron Roberts (piano) present a programme of Australian works by Anne Boyd, Stuart Greenbaum, Rohan Phillips, Mark Pollard and Richard Meale.
Flute Perspectives, Vol. 1
Flautist Derek Jones and pianist Leigh Harrold present this anthology of contemporary Australian flute music, from Sculthorpe’s Torres Strait cycle to solo and duo works by leading local composers.
Spirit Wind
Flautist Derek Jones presents seven free-flowing improvisations inspired by a universal spirit shared across musical cultures, layering flute lines over synthesiser soundscapes, drones and deep gamelan-like bells.
Peter Sculthorpe
A retrospective compilation of favourite chamber works by the late Peter Sculthorpe, drawn from Move’s own catalogue. Torres Strait song, Kakadu landscapes and intimate string writing are heard in performances by leading Australian musicians.
China Wind: the clarinet music of Julian Yu, Vol. 1
Five chamber and concertante works for clarinet with strings, piano and flute show Julian Yu drawing on the inner structures of Chinese tradition rather than its surface colour, with remarkable versatility and emotional range.