In creating this work, I became very inspired by the following quote by the 20th century philosopher, Alan Watts.

​

“In the history of philosophy and poetry and art, we always find the interchange of two personality types, which I call prickles and goo. The prickly people are advocates of intellectual porcupinism. They want rigor, they want precise statistics, and they have a certain clipped attitude in their voices—and you know this very well in academic circles! They accuse other people of being disgustingly vague and miasmic and mystical. But the vague, miasmic and mystical people accuse the prickly people of being mere skeletons with no flesh on their bones. They say [to them] ‘You just rattle! You’re not really a human being. You know the words but you don’t know the music.’ And so therefore, if you belong to the prickly type, you hope that the ultimate constituent of matter is particles. If you belong to the gooey type, you hope it’s waves. If you’re prickly, you’re a Classicist. And if you’re gooey, you’re a Romanticist. And going back into Medieval philosophy, if you’re prickly, you’re a Nominalist—if you’re gooey, you’re a Realist. And so it goes. But we know very well that this natural universe is neither prickles nor goo exclusively. It’s gooey prickles and prickly goo.”

​

As a composer, I faced the challenge of using available timbres to convey both prickliness and gooeyness in my music. To achieve this, I sought inspiration from surrealist painters like Salvador Dali and Max Ernst, whose works evoke a sense of time both slowing down and speeding up simultaneously. My aim was to create a musical piece that struggled to maintain its form, constantly melting, and quickly solidifying into a jarring spike. To create a 'melting' sound, I employed cascading movements between extreme pitches of the ensemble, and unexpected speed changes. Additionally, I used popular music genres and forms familiar to most people, deliberately aiming for an uncanny familiarity. For example, the main theme of the piece was a standard tango, similar to what one might find in their grandfather's old record collection. I used this familiarity to lead the listener before completely throwing them off, much like a skipping and lagging broken record.

​

The music contains several satirical elements that contribute to an overall sense of the uncanny. These include the use of multiple bike bells to create the atmosphere of a busy street, the exaggerated sound of a pompous audience yelling 'bravo', the sounds of a meditation guru inhaling and exhaling, and the brief, jarring sound of people collectively being spanked. This last element is portrayed through the use of a whip sound effect and a gasping 'ahh' sound, both of which are indicated in the score.

​

I remain deeply interested in musical surrealism, and I hope to incorporate some of its elements in my future works. Gooey Prickle, Prickly Goo was premiered by The West Australian Symphony Orchestra as part of their composition program, and it was conducted by James Ledger. I am grateful to WASO for playing the piece so beautifully and for fully embracing its surrealist nature.