NZ Symphony Orchestra promises something old, something new

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is about to explore the brave new aural world of composer Michael Norris. Photo / Latitude Creative

Composer Michael Norris mixes traditional Māori instruments with electronics in his new work for the NZSO.

I am utterly lost. Michael Norris is a couple of minutes into explaining – at my request – one of the computer programs he has designed and I am failing to understand a single word.

In part this is because Michael Norris is brainy and I am not. In part it is because Michael Norris knows how to program computers and I do not. Mostly it is because Michael Norris, who is head of composition at the New Zealand School of Music, understands electronic classical music, with all its aural complexities and mathematical formulae, in a way that I cannot.

Let's just say, then, without describing how, Michael Norris has designed computer programmes that do clever things with sound. If you want to hear them, you can do so when the NZSO sweeps into Auckland next Saturday for one of the orchestra's most intriguing concerts of the season.

For many, the draw will be the wonderful Scottish pianist Steven Osborne playing Mozart, or Nielsen's elemental Fourth Symphony, Inextinguishable. But the keen-eyed will no doubt spot new-music fans eager to hear Norris's latest piece, Mātauranga, a work for orchestra, taonga puoro and live electronics.

That live element is important to the composer who says everything will be created in real time, with none of the electronic effects pre-recorded. Norris himself will twiddle the knobs in response to the traditional instruments, which are played by Alistair Fraser.

"The live electronics all come from the sounds of the taonga puoro," explains Norris, "they're not coming from the orchestra at all. The electronics sustain and shape the sounds of the traditional instruments, and highlight and amplify them, because they're quite delicate, fragile sounds."

Taonga puoro can be difficult to play, too.

"Those instruments are hard to control," Norris agrees, "it takes a lot of skill to get a sound out of some of them, let alone play a tune I've written."

Devotees of Norris's atmospheric, textured music may be surprised that Mātauranga contains any tunes at all. His work is always fascinating and often quite wonderful, but melody rarely seems to be a major concern. The composer's SOUNZ Contemporary Award-winning Sygyt, a concerto for orchestra and throat singer, is among the more remarkable pieces of recent years but you'd struggle to whistle along.

Michael Norris brings a range of interests together to create award-winning electronic classical music.

Norris happily describes his work as post-tonal; Michael Norris: why do you hate tunes?

He laughs.

"Post-tonal music doesn't have to be non-melodious at all," he insists. "Post-tonality incorporates much of the film music we hear today. I guess I'm interested in harmony that is not your traditional way of harmonising a melody but in Mātauranga you'll hear the taonga puoro play a lot of melodies."

Mātauranga is one of several pieces commissioned to commemorate the 250th anniversary of James Cook's arrival in Aotearoa. Norris acknowledges the different views people will have of that event.

"I'd be lying if I said it was an easy piece to write. It's caused me a lot of thought and I've been to my local marae at the university and talked about it. We've had some interesting discussions. I would say that this piece doesn't directly confront the legacy of colonialism; it's more an evocation than a celebration."

Norris says he tried to capture the unique flora and fauna Cook and his botanist, Joseph Banks, came across, noting that Fraser's instruments are made from the natural wildlife of New Zealand. Another theme is Mātauranga Māori, the indigenous cultural and artistic knowledge Cook would have encountered.

That's represented in several ways, including musical depictions of harakeke (flax) weaving, which comes through in the fading in and out of electronics. Elsewhere, Norris uses his gadgets to transform the distinctive whir of a porotiti, or humming disc, into the sound of breaking waves.

There are other ways Norris could have generated that effect, why create a computer program?

"I'm not just doing it for fun," he says. "It's usually because I've dreamt up some sort of vision of what I'd like to achieve and then realised there's nothing off the shelf that'll do it, so I have to create something myself."

Norris finds connections – where others might not – between writing code and writing orchestral scores.

"There's something about composing and programming that's on a similar scale in terms of intellectual challenge. Trying to break problems down into smaller components and work through them is a similar kind of task. And when I'm half way through I sometimes wonder why I did it."

Lowdown
What: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra – Mātauranga
Where and When: Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, Saturday July 13. Auckland Town Hall, Saturday 20 July.