Sadie Harrison: Aster: Chamber Ensemble: Score

Aster was expertly composed in 1995 by Sadie Harrison. The piece was written in 6 different movements all varying in texture and mood. All six movements featured on Harrison's2001 album Taking Flight. This piece is for Female Voice Flute Violin Viola and Cello.Australian born freelance composer and performer Sadie Harrison’s unique fusion of elements fromindigenous Lithuanian music and poetry with her own modernist often abrasive style have led her to be compared with Bartok but with her own warmth and grandeur.Since 2012 Harrison has been working alongside a long list of well accomplished musicians; Paul Carey Peter Sheppard Skaerved Sergej Okrushko Alex South Duncan Honeybourne are among many who have had the privilege work with Harrison so far.Performances of Harrison's works have been given across the world by Lontano London Chamber Symphony Music Projects/ London Ixion Okeanos Bournemouth Sinfonietta Kokoro and the St. Christopherus ChamberOrchestra and many others.

Dast Be Dast ('Hand to hand in friendship') was commissioned by Cuatro Puntos a pioneering ensemble of chamber musicians dedicated to global cooperation and peace through the writing and performance of new music worldwide.The piece was written specifically for their violist Kevin Bishop and for Rubab player Samim Zafar a student of the extraordinary Afghanistan National Institute for Music (ANIM) in Kabul. Kevin suggested that the piece should represent the two distinct but equal musical cultures of the performers and as such both players are required to adopt characteristics of each other's traditions both techniques andlanguages.Dast Be Dast illuminates various aspects of Afghan and Western music-making with both instruments exploring improvisation alongside notation controlled imitation with spontaneous elaboration and Western tonality within Afghan scales. The piece is based on three Afghan songs each heard clearly in the three movements which are played without a break:I Anar Anar (Pomegranates): a fast song where the two instruments imitate each other gradually becoming more and more elaborate.II Allah Hu (This is God): a meditative movement for solo viola based on a specific interpretation of Allah Hu sung as a lullaby by Veronica Doubleday in 2004.III Watan Jan (Dear Homeland): based on a whirling atan dance in 7/8. Gradually getting faster and faster the players have to keep up with each other's virtuosity.The work was premiered by Samim and Kevin on 23 June 2014 at ANIM Kabul Afghanistan.The work is dedicated to them both with admiration.