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
audio sample
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.