Exam: AMEB

Composer notes

Burwood Park for solo flute was composed in 2008 for Brisbane-based flautist, Janet McKay, for a concert at the Queensland Art Gallery in South Bank.

This piece is named after a park situated in a Western Sydney suburb. Programmatically, Burwood Park consists of five sections depicting the sounds of nature and people we come across as we walk through the park: birds and the wind in the trees, children singing and playing, chess players getting stressed and agitated, screaming and shouting at each other and Tai Chi dancing.

Burwood Park begins in a slow, mysterious and improvisatory style. A quirky, rhythmic, birdcall motif emerges, gradually transforming into a scene of angry chess players. This is a very loud, fast, exciting and virtuosic passage which showcases the technical ability of the flautist. The final section is based on a pentatonic scale to imitate the Asian music typical of Tai Chi. A tranquil and meditative atmosphere should be conveyed to represent the Tai Chi dancers in the park; their slow dance movements moving along to the peaceful music. Whistle tone and singing techniques produce a range of soft harmonic effects to end the work.

Burwood Park features a range of extended techniques including bend, vibrato, flutter- tonguing, tongue-ram, air and key click articulation, jet whistle, whistle tone, singing, colour trill and multiphonic effects. All fingerings for the multiphonics and colour trills and other contemporary playing techniques are clearly shown on the score.

The duration of Burwood Park is 6 minutes.