One of my lecturers from Auckland University, John Rimmer, celebrated his 80th birthday in 2019 and The Karlheinz Company, which specializes in contemporary music performance at the university, honoured him with a programme of his music and some by a few of his former students. I was asked to compose a short piece (up to one minute) for this event. The finished piece, “What John Said” was performed on the night by soprano Te Ohorere Williams accompanying herself on balloon.

I wrote this as a programme note and additional tribute which I hope was distributed to the audience at the concert:

This piece was composed in April 2019 for the Rimmer at 80 recital by The Karlheinz Company at Auckland University on May 26th 2019, following a request by Eve de Castro Robinson for a 1-minute tribute to John Rimmer. It is a great delight and privilege to be part of this celebration, even though I cannot be there in person to honour such a wonderful friend, colleague and teacher.
John Rimmer was the first person who was nice to me when I arrived in New Zealand in January 1987. After difficult encounters with airport staff, other university staff, banking officials, the “hottest day of the year so far” and the university enrollment process, I found myself being greeted with great enthusiasm and kindness in the glorious bougainvillea-bedecked music department by a smiling John Rimmer. For the next several years John was one of my main guides through not only my composition studies but also through life in New Zealand. Now, John is my friend, and I see him and Helen each time they come to England to visit their family and we have a laugh and a reminisce, and talk composing.
John has always been exceedingly supportive of (and indeed makes me feel very proud of) my work as a composer and creative practitioner in schools, galleries, museums and other community settings. That is why there is ballooning in this song. I often turn up on a train to a workshop with a back-pack of balloons, a Tupperware container of assorted “things to put inside” and an up-pumper – hours of creativity awaits! John taught me a great deal about the foibles and craft of composing: the minute’s-worth that immediately leapt into my head when Eve requested this piece, are outlined in this song: 2nd performances are very hard to come by; each note should be considered very carefully before being committed to paper; the start of the piece is of great importance.

Things John Said – Lyrics
John used to say, “The first performance: an easy task. The second: Oh!”
John also used to say, “This note, this particular note, this particular note out of all the notes…Why is it there? What is its reason for being right there? Why? Why? Explain this particular note to me! This particular note!”
John also said, “Always start your piece with a bang!”

Things John Said – Music
I was told that there would be an excellent soprano available to perform the song, (this was indeed correct) so I decided to write a solo song with balloon accompaniment as I described. One of the first pieces I wrote when I got to New Zealand in 1987 was Prickly Oboe for John. He asked me to write something with a cellular melody, so that’s what I’ve done here too – a teensy idea repeats several times, evolving with each repeat. You can hear Prickly Oboe here, by the way!

The concert was reviewed by William Dart in the New Zealand Herald, and my song got a mention as you see in the screenshot. You can read the entire review here

Update December 30th 2019: The performance has appeared on the SOUNZ YouTube Channel now, as part of its “Rimmer at 80” series: