A Mad Tea-Party (2009/Revised 2018)

for clarinet and electronics (Ableton Live)

Duration: 7’

Written for and first performed by Jason Noble

Lloyd Van’t Hoff plays A Mad Tea-Party

Program Note

As the title suggests, A Mad Tea-Party is inspired by chapter seven of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The piece explores a dialogue between two opposing characters, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse, in a type of dreamscape setting. The lively, playful material is representative of the Hatter, and the longer, dreamier lines of the Dormouse, who continuously (and frustratingly!) falls asleep at the most inconvenient of times. The use of live electronics highlights the ‘dream within a dream’ and ‘we’re all mad here’ themes of the book, warping and fracturing the clarinet’s sound with multiple delays. In the middle, the Hatter and Dormouse characters morph together. In this way, the piece could be interpreted as the Dormouse’s dream within Alice’s overarching dream. Or is it the other way around? Who dreamed who?

Performances

28 July 2022, Jason Noble, Australian Music Day, MLC School, Burwood, NSW

29 July 2022, Jason Noble, Australian Music Day, MLC School, Burwood, NSW

18 November 2019, James Morrissey, The Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC

17 September 2019, Lloyd Van’t Hoff, Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, VIC

8 February 2019, Eljo Agenbach, Callaway Music Auditorium, Perth, WA

13 October 2018, Lloyd Van’t Hoff, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, St John's Church, VIC

31 March 2018, Lloyd Van’t Hoff, Sideshow Alley, Four Winds Festival, Bermagui, NSW

October 28 2009, Jason Noble, Creative Explosion in the West, University of Western Sydney Playhouse Theatre, NSW