String Quartet No. 4: Glimpses from my Book of Dada (2010)
(Glimpses from my Book of Dada)

Commissioned in 2010 with assistance from the Australia Council and dedicated to the Flinders Quartet for their tenth birthday.

I. The circumspect ibis -- II. The rise of the airheads in public life -- III. Rêve circulaire du wombat -- IV. Rare umbrella dance of Molly Hourigan -- V. Scheming & latté drinking -- VI. The octopus quadrille -- VII. Dulcie Holland says no -- VIII. Anto tango from berlin as premonition of invasion by Russian herbalists -- IX. A prayer for Nonna Thora.

First performance: by Flinders Quartet at Flinders Quartet (Montsalvat Barn Gallery) on 27 Nov 2010

Written for Flinders Quartet on their tenth birthday and commissioned with help from the Australia Council, this work is one Richard had wanted to write for years and is based on his observations of life and people. The Dada movement began around 1916 with a group of artists, including Hugo Hall and Tristan Tzara, who denounced war and rejected what they saw as the meaninglessness of the modern world. It was a movement which posed the difficult questions about society and even more difficult questions about the function of art and its purpose. x Most of the movement titles are self-explanatory. The circumspect Ibis comes from a holiday in Broadbeach where a particular ibis viewed everything with suspicion. Richard has a great fondness for wombats, and Rêve circulaire du Wombat was inspired by a wombat called Elspeth at the Healesville Sanctuary burrowing madly and looking for food. Molly Hourigan was a neighbour who liked to dance in the rain while Scheming and latte drinking is a celebration of those glorious coffee conversations full of froth and bubble to the accompaniment of the espresso machine. The octopus quadrille comes from a line from Richard’s piece The Little Mermaid, a line the late Dorothy Porter particularly enjoyed. Dulcie Holland says No is based on Dulcie Holland’s aversion to fifths, which appear aplenty in this movement! Anyone who has studied theory through the AMEB system will be familiar with the brightly coloured text books and she has educated many generations of budding musicians in this way. She was also a very talented composer in her own right. The Anti Tango refers to a dream Graham Koehne’s mother had in which she believed we were being invaded by Russian Herbalists. The Prayer for Nonna Thora was written after her passing.