Vibe Rant (2016)

for flute/piccolo, bass clarinet/clarinet, and vibraphone

Duration: 7’

Commissioned by Penny Le Couteur and Greg Dickson, and first performed by Ensemble Offspring

Program Note

Vibe Rant not only refers to the abbreviated form of vibraphone: ‘vibes’, but also ‘rant’, which originally comes from the Dutch word ‘ranten’: to talk nonsense, connecting with my interest in Lewis Carroll’s nonsense literature. Together these words form ‘vibrant’, which is the overall mood of the piece. Like its earlier sister trio, Frogstomp (also written for Ensemble Offspring), Vibe Rant sets up a series of juxtapositions, creating a stylistic patchwork that embraces influences from vernacular genres including jazz, pop, hip-hop, dance, rock, and metal. Vibe Rant is written with three main moods in mind: rambunctious and cheeky, pitted against glimpses of a lighter, more ethereal and, perhaps, ‘cuter’ sound-world, and a darker passage inspired by rock and metal elements.

Performances

11 April, 2021, Oceanis Collective (formerly ‘Timmins and Friends’), Temperance Hall, South Melbourne, VIC

28 March 2020, Ensemble Offspring, Bowral Autumn Music Festival, NSW

11 December 2019, Walters-Coleman-Wiering, Musica Viva Sessions, Wigg and Sons Building, Adelaide, SA

15 May 2018, Ensemble Offspring, Richard Gill Presents: Texture and Timbre, City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney, NSW

4 March 2018, Ensemble Offspring, ArtisTree, Hong Kong

28 November 2017, Ensemble Offspring, The Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, VIC

23 April 2017, Ensemble Offspring, Sizzle @ Petersham Bowling Club, Sydney, NSW

30 March 2017, Ensemble Offspring, Playhouse Theatre, Western Sydney University, NSW

12 November 2016, Ensemble Offspring, Kontiki Racket, Nest Creative Space, Sydney, NSW World premiere

Reviews & Words

Vibe Rant by Holly Harrison was a piece with wild attitude. Like a conversation, the instrumental lines alternated between communicating with one another and having an individual ‘rant’ so to speak, going on their own trains of thought but then meeting again with one another. By the end of the work, that that become a chaotic conversation, it seemed overwhleming for the flute line, with overblown flute techniques and wild foot stomping, trying to make a scene and be heard and noticed over the ‘nonsense talk’ (well done to Lamorna Nightingale on flute). This received a laugh from the audience! Full article here.

(Kathryn Robinson, classikOn)