Listen & tracks
3 of 22 tracks have a preview · 13 works · 76:55
-
1 In a Winter Landscape Madelyn Byrne 5:32
-
2 Ulpirra Ross Edwards 1:37
-
Three for TwoAdrienne Albert 3 movements11:19
- 3 Dark and Light 4:23
- 4 Lament for Sarah 4:15
- 5 Sassy 2:41
-
6 Dark Star Gary Schocker 3:40
-
Noisy OysterHilary Taggart 5 movements12:20
- 7 Noisy Oyster 2:01
- 8 Defragmented 2:14
- 9 Zephyr 3:45
- 10 Partita 2:33
- 11 Autumn Leaves 1:47
-
Serenade and BurlesqueVaughan McAlley 2 movements4:58
- 12 i. 2:39
- 13 ii. 2:19
-
14 Meditations and Memories Stanley M. Hoffman 3:58
-
15 Differing Dialogues Vincent Giles 4:53
-
16 Winter Sarabande David Loeb 3:42
-
Two SonnetsMike Mower 2 movements9:25
- 17 i. 4:10
- 18 ii. 5:15
-
19 Serenade Houston Dunleavy 5:20
-
20 Groaning Oceans Peter Sheridan 6:29
-
21 Quasi Latino Michal Rosiak 3:42
Following his earlier survey Below, Sheridan turns again to alto, bass, contrabass, subcontrabass and hyperbass flutes. Solo lines, multi-tracked ensembles, piano partners and electronics frame commissions and recent pieces by composers from Australia, the United States, Britain and beyond.
The title draws on monologue and dialogue as authentic exchange. That idea runs through the sequence: winter landscapes and Aboriginal dance, duets of light and lament, etudes and serenades, and the hyperbass groans of Groaning Oceans. The result is a generous portrait of instruments that reach below the piano’s lowest note and still speak with agility and warmth.
Reviews
Peter Sheridan is a low flute specialist who lives and teaches in Melbourne, Australia. On his web site, lowflutes.com, there is a photo of him with his instruments that has to be seen to be believed. Those flutes are what you'll be hearing on this recording, and they don't play as naturally or as easily as he makes them sound. One of the composers calls him "a cyclone disguised as a flute player", but I'll call him a wizard… The playing is superb. Everything sounds completely natural, and some pieces call for quite a bit of agility considering the instruments they're written for. You won't regret hearing this release, and you might enjoy returning to it as well.
Most people are well acquainted with the concert flute and its many cultural variants, but few of us are aware of the newest extensions to the flute family in the form of an ever-increasing variety of bigger and better bass flutes. Even for flute players who have experienced the limited potential of the traditional bass flute, this CD will come as a complete surprise. In the hands of virtuoso flute-player and champion of the low flutes, Peter Sheridan, the humble flute now confidently traverses a range once reserved for the lowest stringed instruments or organ pipes, and the result is astounding. Sheridan’s latest CD, Monologues and Dialogues, showcases these wonderful instruments in all their nakedness as solo instruments or in conversation with other flutes, only occasionally ‘dressing up’ the sound with piano accompaniment or the addition of electronics. Sheridan demonstrates the full expressive potential and versatility of the low flutes in a diverse program of works by contemporary composers from around the world… Monologues and Dialogues is testimony to collaborative creativity of composers, performers and engineers, including the creators of these new instruments (in particular, Jelle Hogenhuis, the creator of the hyperbass) and the recording engineers at Move Records who faced the challenge of capturing this ‘brave new world’ of flute sounds. In all, this CD represents a unique meeting of minds and the forward-thinking determination and skill of Peter Sheridan in bringing them all together. Sheridan’s performance breathes life-affirming joy into this tantalizing collection of newly-composed works for newly-invented instruments, and future installments will be eagerly anticipated.
Sheridan plays with an ease which belies the unwieldiness of the instruments… a generous 77 minutes of mellow delights.
Following on from Peter Sheridan’s CD Below, this remarkable flautist continues his exploration of the low flute family in this well filled and widely varying programme of mostly brand new music for at least a few almost brand new instruments. ‘The lower flutes’ are usually considered to start with the alto flute and downwards. Bass and contrabass flutes are no longer quite the rarities they once were, and now the subcontrabass flute is gaining an ever firmer foothold.
Extreme flutes or not, this is a highly attractive programme and stands up well as listening for non-specialist audiences, as well as those keen on auditioning big flutes, or testing the range of their hearing or their hifi. Madelyn Byrne’s In a Winter Landscape provides a full and atmospherically resonant opening, with a bass flute creating lyrical lines over some highly attractive electronic sounds which work in sympathy with the soloist, making it sound as if the performer is in a vast space, “an austere winter landscape after a powerful storm.” This is followed by a chirpy miniature by well known Australian composer Ross Edwards. Ulpirra is an Aboriginal word for pipe or flute, and this striking little piece is full of tricky mixed-metre rhythms.
As I mentioned at the start of this review, this is a programme which has wide appeal and a high entertainment factor, and should by no means be considered as only of interest to flute players, mad or otherwise. With typical dryness, Houston Dunleavy describes Peter Sheridan as “a cyclone disguised as a flute player”, and this release stands witness to the breadth of Peter’s achievement as a performer and stimulator of new work for low flutes.
Artists
Peter Sheridan
alto, bass, contrabass, subcontrabass and hyperbass flutes
Peter Sheridan is a low-flute specialist whose bass, contrabass, subcontrabass and hyperbass playing has opened a new sound world through more than seventy commissions and a substantial body of recordings.
Adrienne Albert
composer
Adrienne Albert (born 1941) is an American composer living and working in Santa Monica, California.
Houston Dunleavy
composer
Houston Dunleavy was born in Ulster and has pursued a wide-ranging international career as a musician, conductor and composer, working across Australia and the United States.
Ross Edwards
composer
One of Australia's best known and most performed composers, Ross Edwards lives and works in Sydney. His commitment to music as a positive and regenerative force has led him to explore beyond the confines of Western art music.
Vaughan McAlley
composer
Vaughan McAlley is a composer and arranger, alto and tenor, a capable flautist and French horn player, and the recording engineer behind countless Move releases.
Gary Schocker
composer
Gary Schocker is an accomplished flautist, composer and pianist of outstanding versatility. He has composed sonatas and chamber music for most instruments of the orchestra.
Madelyn Byrne
composer
Madelyn Byrne is a composer and computer-music specialist at Palomar College in California. Her writing often pairs acoustic instruments with electronics in atmospheric, lyrical textures.
Dominy Clements
composer
Vincent Giles
composer
Vincent Giles is an Australian composer whose music explores the extended flute family, from intimate low-flute textures to works for larger flute ensemble.
Stanley M. Hoffman
composer
Stanley M. Hoffman is a composer of chamber music for flutes, including works written and arranged for the modern low flute family.
David Loeb
composer
Mike Mower
composer
Michal Rosiak
composer
Michal Rosiak is a composer of contemporary works for flute ensemble, writing for the full range of the extended flute family from the familiar concert instruments to the deepest low flutes.
Hilary Taggart
composer
Hilary Taggart is a composer of short works for flute, including pieces written for the lower members of the flute family.
Digital booklet
Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDFPerformers
- Peter Sheridan · alto, bass, contrabass, subcontrabass and hyperbass flutes
- Lisa-Maree Amos · c flute · tracks 12 and 13
- Jane Hammond · piano · tracks 6, 17 and 18
Technical credits
-
Recording Engineer
Vaughan McAlley
-
Venue
Move Records Studio
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 76 minutes 55 seconds
- Release date
- Aug 2011
- Categories
- Australian, Classical
- Musical work copyright
- © 2011 Move Records
- Sound recording copyright
- ℗ 2011 Move Records
- Catalogue
- MD 3349
- EAN
- 9314574334920
More to explore
Continental Drift
Continental Drift features compositions for two bass flutes and cello. As the Earth’s continents drift across the ocean floor, new music makes its own slow migration around the globe, across time and space into various lands and cultures.
Sonorous Sonatas
Peter Sheridan set out to bring the larger, lower flutes to centre stage, testing their sound and colour within one of Western music’s most traditional forms: the sonata. Commissioned works and substantial duo writing put alto, bass, contrabass and subcontrabass flutes in the foreground.
Fantasie Australis
Compositions by living Australian composers, most based in Melbourne, performed by the Monash University Flute Ensemble under Peter Sheridan. Australia’s flute-ensemble repertoire is still small beside other national traditions, yet the country has a rich store of fine woodwind writing.
Below: Music for Low Flutes
This charming and rare recording features predominantly commissioned chamber music for low flutes, written to showcase their lyrical and colourful tonal qualities and to expand a small yet growing repertoire.
PRTZL
This release of original compositions by Harvey centres on the monumental Piano Sonata No. 4, a homage to the anti-fascist Antonio Gramsci. That theme runs through solo and ensemble works whose moods range from nostalgically whimsical to furiously satirical.
Move 50
Twenty-four Australian composers mark Move Records’ fiftieth year with short new works gathered on this commemorative disc.