Variation on a theme of Brenton Broadstock
for orchestra (1997)
2 (picc.).2.2.2 (contr.) 2.2.2.1 pno, hrp, timp+2 strings
duration: 2’
GRT • 043
score available from
Australian Music Centre
program note
For the 45th birthday of Brenton Broadstock, a number of colleagues and students wrote orchestral variations (in miniature) based around the opening flute theme from Aureole 4. Those contributing variations included Chris Dench, Linda Kouvaras, Tim Davies, Daniel Bendrups, William Hughes and Matthew Hindson – all of whom at some stage had been students of Brenton. These were then recorded in the Iwaki Auditorium by the Melbourne Symphony under Sir William Southgate.
In this miniature, I decided to use all of the pitches from the opening (in sequential order) but with an altered harmonic centre and a metrical scheme in 4 that effectively ‘quantises’ the fluid original into a new pulsing context.