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
Tempo impetuoso d’estate sull’ esempio di Vivaldi : for ensemble / Elmer Schönberger
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
cl h perc pf/cemb 2vn vla vc db
Snow Prelude and Fugue : for violin, flute and three saxophones / Georgs Pelecis
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
vn fl sax-a sax-t sax-bar
Light Gets Lighter : for string quintet / Jobina Tinnemans
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
2vn vl vc db
composition
Transparent Waves : for two pianos and two percussionists / Douglas Knehans
Description:
Transparent Waves is formed in three movements: Shrouded Wave,
Luminous Wave and Coruscating Wave.
"Shrouded Wave" is a kind of loose chaconne whose veiled repetition of the initial section forms the basis for the work. Sometimes this initial idea is repeated entirely, sometimes it is added to and sometimes truncated while at other times expanded and all of the time at close interplay with the freely evolving interchange between all of the instruments. The movement is dark, dense and passionate and forms the deepest part of the three movement work.
"Luminous Wave" is a cooler, more transparent and more freely formed structure whose loose correlations tie section to section in a lighter and less dense atmosphere than the first movement.
"Coruscating Wave" is a kind of moto perpetuo that is at once brilliant and virtuosic yet also colorful, bright and sometimes surprising. It is loosely based around a small collection of ideas that recur in contextually related ways that are nonetheless always varied and bring the whole work to a vibrant and dramatic conclusion.
Transparent Waves is really about sea-based clouded mists and wavelets and how these are sometimes dark and almost impenetrable to light, reflective and brilliant. This serves as a metaphor for me of a type of human consciousness and how things are clear or murky to us in mixtures—sometimes equal, frequently unequal—which creates the mystery and magic of life and its waves of experiences.
Douglas Knehans