1 Jan 1987

Gillian WHITEHEAD: Out of this Nettle, Danger

From Resound, 12:00 pm on 1 January 1987
Gillian Whitehead

Gillian Whitehead Photo: Supplied

"Out of this Nettle, Danger is intimate, acute, fleet, with a fascinating sensitivity to the deep implications of the text. There is a big range of percussion instruments, used with the greatest economy and power of suggestion so that no sound or thematic fragment is perfunctory, each has a voluptuous, expressive, original shape. The piece moves forward in small episodes, held together partly by text, partly by the sheer consistent quality of the imagination." (Oakes, The Independent)

The work was commissioned by the NZ Literary Fund and funded by the Australia Council and composed in 1983.

The text is by Fleur Adcock, compiled from Katherine Mansfield's writings and it is scored for mezzo-soprano and chamber sextet.

Recorded 5 March 1987 by RNZ Concert

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