Ararat

1996

Program Note

Although ararat should not be viewed as an overtly programmatic exercise, there is an undoubted connection between the flood myth and the rhetorical flow of the music. The opening is pensive, and is occupied largely with the building of the three rhythmic figures whose interactions and transformations drive the music throughout. The second section is fast, and initially seems to be the logical response to the opening, but ultimately leads up to a humorous backwater which quite suddenly changes as the spirit of the opening is revisited, in a less tentative, darker mood, and sets the stage for a collision between two of the rhythmic figures which ends abruptly – on Ararat if you like. The music dies out quietly, with a quotation from Alban Berg’s song Warm der Luft, set within an elusive reference to the opening rhythm. —Shaun Naidoo

About Shaun Naidoo

Shaun Naidoo (b. 30 June 1962, South Africa, d. 18 May 2012, CA, United States) was a South African composer. Naidoo obtained a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition…

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