Farr from Heaven

Gareth Farr is really a composer who lives off his notes and that’s it: he lives off his wits, and there’s great courage in forging out an existence like that . . . It’s not below him to write an advertisement for washing powder if it pays the bills, and at the same time he can turn his hand to some of the greatest poetry that has ever been written.

– Roland Peelman, Artistic Director of Australian vocal ensemble the Song Company, early in part three

I thought it was the most ironic thing, when I was first approached to write a piece for the army. I mean…it seemed very odd to me that I’m writing a piece for an organisation that doesn’t allow gays to enter it, as it were.

– Gareth Farr on being commissioned by the NZ Army Band, in part two

In 1989 I heard an Indonesian gamelan orchestra for the first time and it just blew me away. And I just immediately said right, I want to play that, and ever since then I’ve been playing gamelan and my music has been gamelan inspired, and I just absolutely fell in love with the music.

– Gareth Farr on being inspired by Indonesian gamelan music, in part two

The only brief we gave to Gareth was to write the loudest piece in the world.

– Murray Hickman from percussion group Strike on Gareth Farr’s NZ Army Band composition commemorating the 90th anniversary of Gallipoli

I should know this by now: eight people banging drums is loud… 

– Gareth Farr acknowledges that he needs to makes changes to his 2005 Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, in part three

We put the schedule and budget together and started shooting, then a bomb went off in Indonesia. We were set to travel to Bali with a full crew . . . We couldn't get insurance to cover the crew in Bali, as the whole of Indonesia was suddenly under an official 'travel advisory'.

– Producer John A Givins, in his backgrounder on the making of this documentary