He is also a maestro of language.A fact I think that gives his compositions a reach and a depth that goes beyond what’s happening at the surface, where as Herakleitos said ‘deep equals true’. In short, one aspect of Kit’s genius (in the classical sense of that word) is that he knows how in his work to ‘risk delight’.It is always clear I think that this is so. The feeling quality of the work we do together owes a great deal to the musical intuition and sensitivity of his compositional imaginativeness. Working with Kit—and performers say this again and again—can be good, liberating ‘fun’, and sometimes serious fun, too.
He knows how to ‘play’ with the music of sounds, and words, and dance.This has the effect of ‘breathing life’ into otherwise musical conventions, and the sometimes flatness of prediction that formula music falls into.Hence, his adroit and I think very imaginative use of ‘chance systems’, which on the one hand provide a kind of formal structure and on the other create and re-create those ‘quick surprises’ and discoveries that truly can and do ‘shine a light in the ear’ as I think Coleridge suggested.
With a small bell-like coda: for a poet, and a listener-spectator too, Kit’s acoustic imagination--his really quite acute sense of the acoustic association of words and their inherent musicalness/musicality is to my way of thinking how word-thought and music-thought, and the thoughtfulness of both remind us that when thought is sung and music made we have the poetry of music.And for that (as they say ‘that’s the ticket’), there is much to be celebrated here in the ‘music poetry’ of Maestro Powell.
Michael Harlow (Lectuer, Poet, Psychologist)
Sept, 2012, Alexandra, NZ
. . . Then you go far away, and stay away. Back come more gifts, discs of your weighty, taut music: Maui, music for tape, a concerto for your son, a song cycle for your daughter: Whale, Koauau, the hilarious Various Pigs, Salmagundi . . .So you are never far away.
. . .Seven years ago. You and Brigitte staying in our cottage overlooking the bay and the channel beyond and, anchored beyond that, Kapiti Island. We are to launch across and climb it. I don't make it, but you do and out of the trip comes Kapiti for piano solo, your 111th work, four minutes of classical clarity and coherence, and sparkling liquid sound reminiscent of the French clavecin composers as well as Messiaen - is that too fanciful? - and mountain water tinkling down the hillside, and representations of our native birds frisking their tails and trilling and calling in the bush. You dedicate it to me. I am so touched.
It's in Abelian form you say and the proportions of the whole are to be found in the sections. . .
Barry Williams (Musicologist, Lectuer)
August 2012, Paekakariki, NZ
Persönliche Gedanken eines Sängers mehrerer seiner Werke über den Komponisten eben dieser Werke
Was ich an Kit liebe:
Seine menschliche Wärme / Seine Power und Bescheidenheit in einer erstaunlichen Abmischung / Seine Grenzenlosigkeit / Seinen Humor / Seine Sinnlichkeit
Seine Unvoreingenommenheit / Seinen Respekt für die menschlichen Schwächen
Seine Kindlichkeit, sowohl spielerisch als auch verletzlich / Seine Verletzlichkeit
Seine rhythmische Kraft / Seine Liebe zum Theater / Seine Liebe fürs gemeinsame Schöpfen / Seine Fähigkeit zuzuhören / Seine Klarheit / Seinen Mut nicht zu wissen
Seine Beharrlichkeit / Seine stilistische Eigenständigkeit / In Italia si dice: ha coglioni!
Seine Haare / Seine Schrägheit / Seinen Akzent
In Liebe
Personal thoughts from a singer of several of his works about the composer of those same works
What I love about Kit:
His human warmth / His power and modesty in an astonishing blend /
His boundlessness / His humor / His sensuality
His open-mindedness / His respect for human weaknesses
His childlikeness, both playful and vulnerable / His vulnerability
His rhythmic power / His love of theater / His love of creating together /
His ability to listen / His clarity / His courage not to know
His persistence / His stylistic independence / In Italia si dice: ha coglioni!
His hair / His weirdness / His accent
Love
David Thorner (Singer, Painter, Teacher)
Meine erste Begegnung mit Kit hatte ich 1997 bei der Mitwirkung der Uraufführung seines Dies Irae, anlässlich derer ich auch sein Stück «Flötenspieler und Fledermäuse» für Flöte und Tonband zu spielen hatte. Kit besuchte mich zum ersten Mal, um das Stück, welches auch szenische Gesten vorschreibt, mit ihm durchzunehmen. Sofort war eine Atmosphäre gegenseitigen Vertrauens hergestellt, ich wusste gleich, wie er es wollte und er blieb auch neben mir im Raum, wann immer ich später alleine mit dem Stück war, auf der Bühne, beim Einstudieren oder Auffrischen.
Auf Grund dieser anregenden Erfahrungen gab 1998 ich Kit im Namen des Flötenensembles les joueurs de flûte den Auftrag für ein Oktett für Flöten. Er besuchte mich wieder in meinem Atelier in Aarau und liess sich alle Typen von Flöten demonstrieren - besonders auch die relativ neuen Kontrabassflöten in C und F, Flöten in B und F, die er begeistert und rapide erfasst hat. Dabei hatte er schon eine Menge konkrete Fragen parat, was geräuschhafte Spieltechniken betraf. Einiges wurde später in Korrespondenz nochmals verfeinert. Bei der ersten Probe mit dem Ensemble war er zugegen und hat mit seiner liebeswürdigen Art bald alle hinter sich gebracht, dabei durchaus streng bleibend, was seine Vorstellungen anging.
My first encounter with Kit was in 1997 when I participated in the premiere of his Dies Irae, where I also played his piece "Flute Player and Bats" for flute and tape. Kit visited me for the first time to go through the piece with him, which also requires scenic gestures. An atmosphere of mutual trust was immediately established; I knew right away how he wanted it, and he stayed in the room with me whenever I was later alone with the piece, on stage, rehearsing, or refreshing my skills. Based on these stimulating experiences, in 1998 I commissioned Kit, on behalf of the flute ensemble les joueurs de flûte, to write an octet for flutes. He visited me again in my studio in Aarau and had all types of flutes demonstrated to him – especially the relatively new double bass flutes in C and F, and flutes in Bb and F, which he enthusiastically and quickly mastered. He already had a lot of specific questions ready regarding noisy playing techniques. Some of them were later refined through correspondence. He was present at the first rehearsal with the ensemble and, with his amiable manner, quickly got everyone over with, while remaining quite strict about his ideas.
Dominique Hunziker (Flautist, Founder of “les joueurs de flute”, Painter)
Aarau, August 2012
Kit Powells Vertonungen meiner Gedichte und kurzen Geschichten zeigen mir immer wieder ein fremdes Gesicht meiner eigenen Sprache. Sie illustrieren nicht die Vorlagen, sie scheinen sich an ihnen zu entzünden. Viele der musikalischen Bewegungen, vor allem der neuesten Stücke, haben tatsächlich etwas Flammendes. Sie bevorzugen die Vertikale. Kit Powells Kompositionen emanzipieren sich von meinen sprachlichen Gebilden, um in brüderlicher Nachbarschaft Eigenes zu errichten.
Kit Powell's musical settings of my poems and short stories repeatedly show me a foreign side of my own language. They don't illustrate the originals; they seem to ignite from them. Many of the musical movements, especially the most recent pieces, do indeed have something fiery about them. They favour the vertical. Kit Powell's compositions emancipate themselves from my linguistic constructs to create something of their own in brotherly proximity.
Jürg Schubiger (Writer, Psychologist)
Zürich, Sept. 2012
In 1979 when we were music colleagues in Christchurch New Zealand you told me: The whole of life is a multiplicity of chance systems. There are semblances of order. Chromosomes tell us to grow in different ways. But chance gives us the variety. I guess this is what I do with my compositions. I create systems. Chance then operates on these systems. There’s Kit the composer ahead of his time in conservative New Zealand. . . .
Chance music which developed with Cage’s “Music of Changes” had many facets . . . Cage used tossing of coins and number charts to determine the durations, silences, pitches, dynamics and modes of attack in the work. This randomness is central to remove all conscious human control, inspiration and personality of the artist from the compositional process.
Nothing could be further from Powell’s aims. He knows precisely what he wants from chance. “Most of my music expresses my own feelings very strongly and the chance systems I devise are always intended to serve that purpose The aesthetic I strive for has a balance of logic and irrational, symmetry and chaos, order and surprise.”
Ian Dando, (Lecturer, Music Critic)
New Zealand, Sept. 2012
Was habe ich Dir nicht alles an wertvoller Inspiration zu verdanken! Seit unserer ersten Begegnung im Jahre 1981 an der Kanti Bülach, wo ich als 15-jähriger Gymnasiast Deinen Komponierkurs besuchte, sind über 30 Jahre vergangen, in deren Verlauf wir unsere freundschaftlichen Bande fortwährend pflegten und vertieften.
Wenn ich an die Anfänge unserer Bekanntschaft zurückdenke, fällt mir wieder ein, wie wir mit Revox-Spulen experimentierten, dabei die Magnettonbänder zerschnitten und die Stücke in anderer Reihenfolge und auch verkehrt herum wieder zusammenklebten zu faszinierenden Klangcollagen. Wenn ich meine Skizzen zur damaligen Gemeinschafts-arbeit »Christophorus«, einem Weihnachtsspiel, heute betrachte, kann ich etwa abschätzen, welche Aufgabe es für Dich gewesen sein muss, mich als Pädagoge zu begleiten undmeine wild wuchernden Fantasien und Ansprüche in praktisch realisierbare Bahnen zu lenken. Es ist Dir in hohem Masse gelungen, mich sanft aber bestimmt zu führen. Du warst mir immer – und bist es bis heute – ein künstlerisches und vor allem auch menschliches Vorbild. Deine unerschöpfliche Fähigkeit zu begeistern und Dein beinahe kindlich zu nennendes Vertrauen in das Potential Deiner Mitmenschen beeindrucken mich.
How much valuable inspiration I owe you! Since our first meeting in 1981 at Kanti Bülach, where I attended your composition course as a 15-year-old high school student, over 30 years have passed, during which time we have continually cultivated and deepened our friendship. When I think back to the beginnings of our acquaintance, I remember how we experimented with Revox reels, cutting up the magnetic tapes and gluing the pieces back together in a different order and even upside down to create fascinating sound collages. When I look at my sketches for our collaborative work "Christophorus," a Christmas play, today, I can appreciate what a task it must have been for you to accompany me as a teacher and to guide my wildly proliferating fantasies and aspirations into practically feasible paths. You succeeded greatly in guiding me gently but firmly. You have always been—and still are—an artistic and, above all, human role model for me. I am impressed by your inexhaustible ability to inspire and your almost childlike trust in the potential of your fellow human beings.
André Fischer (Lectuer, Composer, Conductor)
Eglisau, Oktober 2012
Kit's electroacoustic music always seemed to me effortless, but this cannot possibly be true. Electroacoustic music is always difficult, nothing sounds as one hopes the first time, and one works very slowly. But Kit eradicates any trace of difficulty and slowness from the music itself so that it seems as if it were just being invented. In addition, his electroacoustic music has a physicality which I greatly admire: it sounds as though it is being played that very moment on strange and wonderful instruments that we have neither seen nor heard before. The sound often sparkles with a freshness and liveliness which are far from the rule in electroacoustic music, and the gestures the music suggests--the movements our mind's eye attributes to the imaginary players of these imaginary and imaginative instruments--are evocative, poetic, often full of gentle humor and always captivating. Kit's electroacoustic compositions make up only a small part of his astonishingly rich list of works, but they constitute a body of completely original pieces whose composer has seemed to be able to convince the basically intractable medium of electronics to do precisely what he wants.
Gerald Bennett (Lectuer, Composer, Founder of the ICST)
Muttenz, October 2012
. . . From a simple beginning in providing noises off, and some short linking pieces for O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock” done at Linwood, to productions of highly complex plays such as Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage”, which was performed in conjunction between the Christchurch College of Education and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Kit’s music was original and at the same time perfectly in keeping with the spirit and underlying meaning of the script as interpreted by me and other directors with whom Kit worked. One of these was John Kim who undertook some enormous dramatic projects with High School pupils, for example an adaptation of “The Odyssey”, and another from history called “Harold and William” concerning the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Kit’s music added tremendous depth to these pieces which had been arrived at in part by an improvisational dramatic process in which pupils helped to build the text as they studied the source material, and Kit’s well tuned ear enabled him to provide some great music for these shows. . .
To sum up, it has always been a great pleasure to work with Kit on the various dramatic performances we have undertaken. . . It has been a many and varied road, most of it now well in the past apart from some visuals I provided for Kit’s recent piece on Maui’s fishing up of the North Island which has received an in house performance by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Don McAra (Lecturer, Play Producer, Painter)
Christchurch, NZ, June 2012
. . . As our friendship grew I found in him more surprising contradictions.An obvious one was that, though employed principally as a mathematics teacher, Kit's contribution to the school was far greater in the areas of music and drama.With several other talented teachers he inspired students to write, produce and perform an annual musical drama of a scale and standard unheard of at secondary school level.Under Kit's leadership students composed and performed the music (and sometimes invented unconventional 'instruments' for the purpose).
I think all Kit's friends are aware of his perseverance - sometimes to the point of stubbornness. One of his stubbornly held beliefs is that everyone is capable of musical expression at some level. He applied this belief to me, despite my accounts of regular rejection by music teachers and choirmasters as being un-musical beyond any redemption. To my delight and pride he eventually had me perform (not well, but without totally disgracing myself) in a small choir of students and staff which he assembled to sing excerpts from his opera The Fisherman and his Wife, though after one brief 'season' involving two or three performances we both felt the point had been adequately made! That he managed to make me sing in tune at all is a testament to his great talent as a teacher."
Philip Woollaston (Teacher, Politician, Wine Grower)
Upper Moutere, NZ, Sept. 2012
Any children who were lucky enough to come under Kit’s spell were privileged. They learnt that it is possible to be creative musically with found objects, and this way of approaching a subject could be applied to life itself. . .
These compositions were often played on instruments they had constructed from objects that they had found, like pipes and tubes of every kind length and shape and size. Wondrous sounds came out of corrugated caterpillar plastic pipes and flutes made from abandoned tubes. They weren’t restricted to conventional instruments or sounds. Afterwards when I came to collect them they would have hopped out into the garden and be striding about on stilts, so even walking was topsy-turvy and unconventional, enabling them to approach life from an inventive point of view.
Gennie de Lange (Ceramic Artist)
Auckland, NZ, Oct. 2012
. . . We performed ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ late in the week and the excited reception it received was overwhelming. The applause seemed to go on endlessly and my memory of Kit facing the standing ovation with a mixture of pride, modesty and surprise has accompanied me ever since. It was also a bonding moment, so that Kit and I, even when we have our disagreements and temperamental conflicts, remain staunch friends.
A few weeks later, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ was recorded for broadcasting with the National Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) conducted by John Hopkins. Performing with the country’s only professional orchestra under its distinguished conductor was a little intimidating and very satisfying. No doubt Kit, who assisted at rehearsals and listened to the performance in the studio, shared those feelings.
Kit wrote two works for me – to be performed by me and others. The first of these was “Nelson Songs”, which had its first performance at a conference for “The New Literatures in English” at Laufen in Bavaria. The work is a setting of poems by Michael Harlow, whose speaking voice can be heard on the accompanying tape, mixed with electronic sounds. We made several recordings of the work, in Cologne, Wuppertal, Zurich and Wellington.
The other work Kit wrote for me and which I was privileged to premiere was “Father’s Telescope”, again using Harlow poems. It, too, was performed in Europe and New Zealand, and the most notable recording used the actor Barry Empson for the spoken text which is in dialogue with the singer. . . .
Nelson Wattie (Singer, Writer, Lexicographer, Translator)
Wellington, NZ,Sept. 2012