Commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra for the 2009 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Wakatipu is a virtuoso romp around the violin, employing angular driving rhythms and unusual scales built on minor seconds and minor thirds.
The title of the piece refers to Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand, and the Maori legend behind it.
One of the great mysteries of the lake is that its level rises and falls every few minutes. Scientists explain that it is due to changing atmospheric pressure – but the legend has it that this fluctuation is caused by the beating heart of a giant demon. Long ago, the demon abducted the daughter of a local Maori chief and took her to his home in the heights of the ice clad mountains. After the long climb he became tired and lay down to sleep – however, the girl's lover had followed close behind them all the way, and set the giant on fire as he lay sleeping. His burning flesh carved into the ice and snow and created a huge lake – but his heart remained indestructible, causing the rising and falling of the water level to this day.
Wakatipu is a lake in New Zealand in which the water level mysteriously rises and falls every few minutes. The mythical explanation for this involves love, abduction, a giant demon, a daring rescue, and a great fire: fine inspiration for a work of art.
Gareth Farr's namesake piece for solo violin lives up to the challenge beautifully. It's rare to find a composer who is able to sustain and develop intensity as effectively as Farr. He catches the listener's ear right away with unfamiliar scales and angular rhythms. But these choices are not alienating - the way he introduces this unconventional vocabulary, the way he weaves the story, draws listeners into the spellbinding tale. There is enough of the expected to engage audiences, but the constant evolution keeps them on the edge of their seats. Wakatipu is a breathtaking thrill ride that uses exotic musical language to invoke all the drama of its namesake legend.
Farr begins with a beautiful melody, using only ethereal harmonics to set the mood and the harmonic vocabulary. He then introduces the story with the catchy rhythmic motif that pops up repeatedly throughout the piece. Farr skillfully develops this phrase into higher pitch centers, longer iterations, and shifting phrase lengths. He juxtaposes it with his second motif, the smooth, quick runs that also expand in pitch and duration as the piece develops. These two contrasting themes work together to bring the piece to a fever pitch, at which point the exquisite melodic line of high-pitched minor sixths played slowly and mournfully caps the action before the last mad dash for the end.
The symmetrical diminished scale that is the harmonic backbone of the piece may be familiar to jazz players and fans of such Romantic composers as Ravel and Debussy. In this piece, it sounds otherworldly, adding to the supernatural flavor of the story. The scale is introduced in pieces, a few notes at a time. By the end of the piece, Farr writes sweeping runs three octaves long that catapult the listener into the next event.
Despite all this unusual vocabulary, Wakatipu is truly violinistic. It's certainly not easy, but the piece's technical demands are within the reach of any good violinist. Wakatipu should become part of the encore repertoire.
It's a gem of drama and adventure, just like the story that inspired it.
