Piano Solo - Level 5 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1226201

By Andrew Harrison. By Andrew Harrison. 21st Century,Classical,Contemporary,Historic. Score. 31 pages. Phantom Dog Music #822230. Published by Phantom Dog Music (A0.1226201).

The Drumfire Was Incessant, and Continued All Night With Unabated Fury is a solo piano piece, inspired by Newton Wanliss’s harrowing account of the Battle of Pozieres in his 1929 war biography The History of the 14th Battalion, A.I.F. The Battle of Pozieres ran between July and August 1916, as part of the First World War’s Somme Offensive. The composition focuses on the days leading up to August 9th, 1916, when my great-great uncle Private Leslie Robins, an infantryman in the 14th Battalion, was shot and wounded.

In the early stages of writing the piece, whilst conducting preliminary research into the Battle of Pozieres, I was struck by the disparity between the British High Command’s notion of formulating a ‘plan’ for the battle, and the actuality of what occurred once soldiers ‘went over the top’ into no-man’s land. This dichotomous concept – exerting control over an inherently fluid and dynamic situation – I found to be most intriguing. It segued neatly into my aesthetic explorations of the role of improvisation (a dynamic process) within a larger notated context (a controlled environment). I decided that this dichotomy would play a fundamental role within the piece.

Australian pianist Zubin Kanga commissioned The Drumfire… for his 2012 Spectrum concert series. The piece was given its world premiere on August 11th 2012 at the Melbourne Recital Centre, and was also performed at the Independent Theatre in Sydney on August 16th 2012.