Maninya V (1986)
(for Voice & Piano)

Maninya V, for voice (originally counter-tenor) and piano, is part of a series of vocal and instrumental pieces which I began in 1981. Its text consists of randomly chosen phonetic units grouped together to form rhythmic cells, or pseudo-words, one of which, maninya, came to connote certain characteristics of the music I was writing: its chant-like quality; quirky rhythms and repetitive structures similar to those used to heighten awareness in much non-western functional religious music. Far more important an influence than any music, however, was the natural environment, a timeless continuum from which much of the material was drawn and which remains the supreme generative force behind my work. 

Maninya V was commissioned by the counter-tenor Hartley Newnham and the pianist Nicholad Routley, who gave the first performance in the Old Darlington School, Sydney University, on April 23rd 1987. The work is in two movements connected by a short interlude. The text is a re-ordered version of that of Maninya I. Maninya V is dedicated to Peter Sculthorpe.