Phoenix Songs

Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, the recorder is enjoying something of a renaissance. Six well-known Australian contemporary composers pair it with piano, harpsichord, voice and live electronics.

Robert Chamberlain piano
David Corbet live electronics
Genevieve Lacey recorder
Ann Murphy harpsichord
Hartley Newnham vocals

Amanda Baker composer
Ros Bandt composer
Brenton Broadstock composer
Neil Currie composer
Ian Shanahan composer
Benjamin Thorn composer

The opening work, Brenton Broadstock’s Aureole 3, is concerned with the dichotomy between holy and unholy, good and evil, consonance and dissonance. A fierce conflict between these opposing elements is fought out as harpsichord and recorder continually exchange roles.

Amanda Baker’s title piece Phoenix Songs is an interplay of struggle between two forces. Robert Chamberlain’s ethereal piano shimmers and thunderous outbursts match the violently articulated fragments of Genevieve Lacey’s recorder, pushing both instruments to their limits – and sometimes beyond.

In Ros Bandt’s Flight, birds hover and swoop, caught and sustained by air currents. Here the recorder soars effortlessly, flying free from all stereotypes.

Also heard are Ian Shanahan’s Helical Ribbon, Benjamin Thorn’s spectacular Yellow Bats, and Neil Currie’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

This project began with the idea that, as a young musician soon to go overseas, I needed to find and to take with me something of my own country’s recorder repertoire.

The majority of the composers whose works are presented on this recording are also recorder players, so these pieces are written with an intimate knowledge of the instrument, and real respect for it. They draw on all the subtleties of recorder-specific effects, playing with (and often denying) the expectations we have of recorder sounds, in order to demonstrate the instrument’s extraordinary versatility and chameleon-like qualities.

I fly from my beloved Australia into a new world, deeply grateful to be taking these gifts with me…

— Genevieve Lacey

Reviews

plenty of new territory to explore.

— Tony Way, The Age - Green Guide

... a testament to the strength of compositional and performing talent in Australia.

— Australia's Journal of Recorder and Early Music

This excellently devised and performed program displays the recorder as a valid instrument of contemporary expression.

— Bill Hoffmann, Canberra Times

Artist

Genevieve Lacey

Genevieve Lacey is an Australian recorder virtuoso, creator and curator who has opened new ground for her instrument. She commissions and premieres contemporary work, performs music across ten centuries, and records extensively.

Audio previews

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Tracks

Aureole 3 Brenton Broadstock 11:25
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Neil Currie 5:40
Lingua Silens Florum Ian Shanahan 1:41

Pipistrelli gialli (Yellow bats) Benjamin Thorn

i. 2:28
ii. 2:45
iii. 3:13
Cathy's Song Ian Shanahan 1:16
Helical Ribbon Ian Shanahan :54

Phoenix Songs Amanda Baker

Prelude 5:02
Arabesque 4:12
Rhapsody 9:12
Flight Ros Bandt 1:42

Performers

Genevieve Lacey
Hartley Newnham · track 2
Robert Chamberlain · tracks 9–11
Ann Murphy · track 1
David Corbet · live electronics · tracks 4–6

Composers

Ros Bandt

Ros Bandt is an Australian composer, performer and sound artist whose work joins ancient instruments, environmental sound and live electronics in spatial music, installation and sound sculpture.

Brenton Broadstock

Brenton Broadstock is one of Australia’s most established, respected and successful mid-generation composers. Over several decades he has built a substantial, varied catalogue distinguished by expressive range, structural assurance and strong engagement with performers and audiences, nationally and internationally.

Neil Currie

Currie has been the recipient of numerous commissions, including over a dozen funded by the Australia Council and a recent commission from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which resulted in Glenside for Chamber Orchestra. He now resides in Canada.

Ian Shanahan

Ian Shanahan is an Australian composer and recorder player, widely regarded for his command of contemporary techniques and for widening what the instrument can do.

Benjamin Thorn

Benjamin Thorn is an Australian composer and recorder player based in Armidale, New South Wales. He is best known for his works for the recorder.

Amanda Baker

Amanda Baker is a Melbourne composer whose work ranges from electronic pieces to chamber, choral and piano music, shaped by an early turn away from conventional idioms toward new sound worlds.