| SPIKE | |||
| Composer | John Psathas | Category | Percussion music |
| Instrumentation | Marimba, vibraphone & piano | ISBN | 1-877218-19-7 |
| Format | Hardback score & part | Price | NZ$60.00 (+GST) |
| Parts | Included | Recording | RATD008 |
| Program note | Written at a time when I was employed as a professional multilingual arguer at a crooked exchange shop in Brussels, Spike was originally commissioned and conceived as a piano solo for Swedish virtuoso Peter Jablonski. It has also been performed by Dan Poynton, and by (the multi-talented) Evelyn Glennie. As a solo this piece has been described as one for which "nothing in the piano repertoire can prepare the performer". For this piece to have a life I had the choice of either waiting for genetic modification to produce twelve-fingered pianists with increased stamina, or to transcribe the work for more than one instrument. And so Rhythm Spike – as it was originally named – became Spike, for mallet percussion and piano. Taking as its starting point the most primitive of musical ideas, the repetition of a single note, Spike moves through many environments, rising and falling in waves of intensity – some ecstatic, some dark, some effervescent – all the while maintaining this primary impulse, tapping out a one-note rhythm. I once received an e-mail message from a music student who claimed to have deciphered the morse-code messages embedded in the piece. Spike has been recorded by Brian Resnick (percussion) and Stephen Gosling (piano) on the CD Rhythm Spike (Rattle Records) which features chamber and instrumental works by John Psathas. |
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| Credits | Spike was originally commissioned by the 1994 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts for pianist Peter Jablonski, with financial support from Creative New Zealand, Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa. | ||
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