composer
Though first known through his collaboration with director Barrie Kosky in the Opera Australia production of his The Ascension of Robert Flau (1990), Douglas Knehans (b. 1957) is perhaps best ...
related works
Black City : Concerto for violoncello and orchestra Nº 2 / Douglas Knehans
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
vc-solo dulc pf hp sopr(offstage) 2fl(picc) 2ob 2cl 2fg(cfg) 4h 2tpt 2trb-t trb-b tb timp 3perc str
Hypnosis : for piano / Chiel Meijering
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
Partita : per clavicordio, (o clavicembalo o pianoforte), 1957 / Jan van Dijk
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Harpsichord; Harpsichord; Piano
Scoring:
clav/cemb/pf
Fantasie : pour piano / Henk Klop
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
composition
Mist Sketches : for piano / Douglas Knehans
Contains:
Hell's Gates
In Bright
Air
Description:
"Mist Sketches" commemorates various times and places in my life where the natural atmosphere was so strongly impressive that the moments live vibrantly and wonderfully in my memory.
The work is in three movements. Movement one is called At Hell’s Gates and references Hell’s Gates in Western Tasmania, Australia - a notorious and treacherous stretch of water that claimed many convict and trade ships in the nineteenth century. The jagged, restless nature of this music, though not seeking to be pictorial, does reference this place of awesome beauty and danger.
Movement two is called In Bright and recalls a trip I made to Bright, Victoria, Australia as a teenager. I went with a group of painters during winter and the landscape, sunlight and brittle, refreshing air coupled with intense memories of art, friendship and landscape all coalesced in my memory of that wonderful place.
The last movement, Air is more references the lightness and freshness these memories bring as well as the wonderfully tactile and light sense of air rejuvenating our senses.
Douglas Knehans, 2012