Anthology of Australian Music on Disc

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Alfred Hill : String Quartet No 2 'Maori' (1907) - I The Forest
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1907) Composer: Alfred Hill; Frost, Elizabeth Courtney
Alfred Hill was born in 1870 and died in 1960, living through the establishment of much of the contemporary musical infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand. He must have watched the first half of the twentieth century unfurl varieties of musical possibilities which, even if he understood them, were anathema to his own style which was already at least a quarter of a century old as the century changed. Hill was a prolific composer, writing in most musical forms, and finding a generally sympathetic audience in Australasia. He embraced larger forms, symphony and opera, as well as songs and a variety of chamber music. Of the seventeen string quartets he wrote, the eleventh (D minor, 1935) was his favourite. Audiences have demonstrated a preference for the second (G minor, 1907), a piece written whilst on holiday at Hampden in New Zealand's South Island. When published by Breitkopf and Hortel in 1913, number two carried the title 'Maori'. For Roger Covell (Australia's Music, 1967), the second quartet is 'none the worse for the fact that its tender, docile tunefulness makes us think less of the heroic legend attached to its 'Maori' subtitle than of Dvorak at his most pastorally engaging'. Covell compares Hill to the Australian poets Hugh McCrae and Henry Kendall, finding similarities in their clinging to the 'cool, wet greenness of the Australian coastal valleys [rather than] grappling with the immense, raw vistas of the inland'. The Queensland State String Quartet is led in this performance by Ernest Llewellyn, who later became the founding Director of the Canberra School of Music.
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Alfred Hill : String Quartet No 2 'Maori' (1907) - II The Dream
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1907) Composer: Alfred Hill; Frost, Elizabeth Courtney
Alfred Hill was born in 1870 and died in 1960, living through the establishment of much of the contemporary musical infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand. He must have watched the first half of the twentieth century unfurl varieties of musical possibilities which, even if he understood them, were anathema to his own style which was already at least a quarter of a century old as the century changed. Hill was a prolific composer, writing in most musical forms, and finding a generally sympathetic audience in Australasia. He embraced larger forms, symphony and opera, as well as songs and a variety of chamber music. Of the seventeen string quartets he wrote, the eleventh (D minor, 1935) was his favourite. Audiences have demonstrated a preference for the second (G minor, 1907), a piece written whilst on holiday at Hampden in New Zealand's South Island. When published by Breitkopf and Hortel in 1913, number two carried the title 'Maori'. For Roger Covell (Australia's Music, 1967), the second quartet is 'none the worse for the fact that its tender, docile tunefulness makes us think less of the heroic legend attached to its 'Maori' subtitle than of Dvorak at his most pastorally engaging'. Covell compares Hill to the Australian poets Hugh McCrae and Henry Kendall, finding similarities in their clinging to the 'cool, wet greenness of the Australian coastal valleys [rather than] grappling with the immense, raw vistas of the inland'. The Queensland State String Quartet is led in this performance by Ernest Llewellyn, who later became the founding Director of the Canberra School of Music.
Open Access
Alfred Hill : String Quartet No 2 'Maori' (1907) - III Scherzo. The Karakia (Incantation) & The Coming Of The Birds
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1907) Composer: Alfred Hill; Frost, Elizabeth Courtney
Alfred Hill was born in 1870 and died in 1960, living through the establishment of much of the contemporary musical infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand. He must have watched the first half of the twentieth century unfurl varieties of musical possibilities which, even if he understood them, were anathema to his own style which was already at least a quarter of a century old as the century changed. Hill was a prolific composer, writing in most musical forms, and finding a generally sympathetic audience in Australasia. He embraced larger forms, symphony and opera, as well as songs and a variety of chamber music. Of the seventeen string quartets he wrote, the eleventh (D minor, 1935) was his favourite. Audiences have demonstrated a preference for the second (G minor, 1907), a piece written whilst on holiday at Hampden in New Zealand's South Island. When published by Breitkopf and Hortel in 1913, number two carried the title 'Maori'. For Roger Covell (Australia's Music, 1967), the second quartet is 'none the worse for the fact that its tender, docile tunefulness makes us think less of the heroic legend attached to its 'Maori' subtitle than of Dvorak at his most pastorally engaging'. Covell compares Hill to the Australian poets Hugh McCrae and Henry Kendall, finding similarities in their clinging to the 'cool, wet greenness of the Australian coastal valleys [rather than] grappling with the immense, raw vistas of the inland'. The Queensland State String Quartet is led in this performance by Ernest Llewellyn, who later became the founding Director of the Canberra School of Music.
Open Access
Alfred Hill : String Quartet No 2 'Maori' (1907) - IV Finale: The Dedication And Launching Of The Canoe
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1907) Composer: Alfred Hill; Frost, Elizabeth Courtney
Alfred Hill was born in 1870 and died in 1960, living through the establishment of much of the contemporary musical infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand. He must have watched the first half of the twentieth century unfurl varieties of musical possibilities which, even if he understood them, were anathema to his own style which was already at least a quarter of a century old as the century changed. Hill was a prolific composer, writing in most musical forms, and finding a generally sympathetic audience in Australasia. He embraced larger forms, symphony and opera, as well as songs and a variety of chamber music. Of the seventeen string quartets he wrote, the eleventh (D minor, 1935) was his favourite. Audiences have demonstrated a preference for the second (G minor, 1907), a piece written whilst on holiday at Hampden in New Zealand's South Island. When published by Breitkopf and Hortel in 1913, number two carried the title 'Maori'. For Roger Covell (Australia's Music, 1967), the second quartet is 'none the worse for the fact that its tender, docile tunefulness makes us think less of the heroic legend attached to its 'Maori' subtitle than of Dvorak at his most pastorally engaging'. Covell compares Hill to the Australian poets Hugh McCrae and Henry Kendall, finding similarities in their clinging to the 'cool, wet greenness of the Australian coastal valleys [rather than] grappling with the immense, raw vistas of the inland'. The Queensland State String Quartet is led in this performance by Ernest Llewellyn, who later became the founding Director of the Canberra School of Music.
Open Access
Alfred Hill: Berceuse
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Alfred Hill
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Alfred Hill: Highland Air
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Alfred Hill
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Alfred Hill: One Came Fluting
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Alfred Hill
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Alfred Hill: Quiet River
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Alfred Hill
Open Access
Alfred Hill: Retrospect
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Alfred Hill
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Alfred Hill: The Broken Ring
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Alfred Hill
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Alfred Hill: Valse triste
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Alfred Hill
Open Access
Alison Bauld: Banquo's Buried (1982)
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1982) Composer: Alison Bauld; Webster, Belinda
"Banquo's Buried was commissioned by Roger Covell for a concert given by the Music Department of the University - of New South- Wales in October 1982. The text is Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene. The treatment of it owes a little to the composer's memory of a powerful and idiosyncratic performance of the role by Dame Sybil Thorndike. The manner was operatic and perhaps unfashionable, but there was a 'go-for-broke' spirit which made sense of the tragedy. Elizabeth Campbell has performed the work both in Europe and in Australia. The piece was conceived for all sopranos who enjoy a sense of theatre." -- Alison Bauld
Open Access
Alison Cloustan and Boyd: Backburn
Composer: Alison Cloustan; Composer: Boyd
Two artists working on the volunteer crews during the New South Wales bushfires of January 2002 were inspired to interview their fellow Wollondilly Brigade members. Boyd is a saxophonist and composer who uses environmental sound to inspire his instrumental compositions, and Alison is a visual artist who has incorporated sound in her installation work. Here they collaborate to weave the diverse voices of their brigade together in a metaphorical soundscape of the backburning process. The rumble of the fire-pump is recorded live, the extinguishing hiss of steam is a log doused in a billy of water. An inferno of flames is suggested in the roar of wind and spit through a saxophone, and the baritone sax harmonics mimic the metallic shriek of bulldozer tracks on rock. Through this assemblage of aural materials people's memories are woven to make a fabric as dense and bright as standard-issue overalls, with the same reflective flashes stitched in.
Open Access
Alistair Riddell: Atlantic Fears (1983)
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1983) Composer: Alistair Riddell; Stines, Niven
"Atlantic Fears was written for a specially prepared modified piano. The instrument has wooden hammers and an unusual dampening method for the strings. It was constructed in order to take advantage of operation under computer control which meant extended performance capabilities and a greater degree of control over acoustic events. Atlantic Fears has three main sections. The first is made up of an opening thematic group followed by bridging material. The second thematic group is followed by the return of earlier bridging material with some variation. In the final phase the earlier two groups of thematic material are overlaid. A process of compression begins in vhich the tempo is increased and the ttack characteristics are changed. In this type of stretto the motives are presented in free major functions. First, it translates a higher level repentation of the work into a data type that the computer sends to the instrument. Second, it performs this machine level form of the score, by interpreting the score timings inherent in it and sending data to the instrument. These operations are quite separate, although they belong to the same software system which, incidentally, is no longer used. Atlantic Fears is the result of a fusion of technology with a traditional instrumental medium, and is thus an expression of the application of the new to the old. In this respect it simply reflects the invisible and omnipresent use of technology in contemporary society." -- Alistair Riddell
Open Access
Allan Walker: Six Scenes for Flute and Piano (1992)
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1992) Composer: Allan Walker; McSullea, Mardi; Harvey, Michael Kieran; Grafton-Greene, Michael
"The origin of Six Scenes is a collection of pieces for clarinet and piano. This new form for flute and piano invited changes to the original pieces, so some were extended, and most demanded substantial recomposition in order to maintain convincing harmonies, melodic shapes and a balanced sound. The pieces are very simple - essentially composition studies - each briefly exploring a different musical idea. The common thread is the same source pitch material (an ordered twelve-tone collection) which tends to create recurring melodic and harmonic patterns. The Scenes are: i) a recitative; ii) an embellished, shared line; iii) an aphorism; iv) gradually changing pitch fields defined by notes in fixed registers; v) a texture of four elements: staccato chords, rapid ornamentation, and two melodies; and vi). a dance which vaporises." -- Allan Walker
Open Access
Andrew Ford: Like Icarus Ascending (1984)
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Andrew Ford; Grafton-Greene, Michael
"A number of my pieces have multi-referential, extra-musical dimensions to them. Like Icarus ascending is one of these: the title comes from a Joni Mitchell song about Amelia Earhardt; there is also a punning reference in the title to Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending. The Icarus myth itself, clearly, is another source of reference, and particularly the large number of works of art it has inspired. For all this, the music describes no fall; Icarus continues his ascent, drifting off into the stratosphere. But has he avoided disaster? If, to us, he seems to be gliding effortlessly, it could just be that we are too far away to realise he has lost control and will not be returning. Like Icarus ascending was first performed at the University of New South Wales by Dene Olding in October 1984." -- Andrew Ford
Open Access
Andrew Kettle: Cunningham's Gap
Composer: Andrew Kettle
Cunningham's Gap explores Kettle's shared love for the landscape and its perceived spirit that moulded his childhood in Uragupul territory. The remnant language that was documented of the Uragupul people of Whinpullin died with Bunjoey. Most languages of South-East Oueensland were considered to be irreversibly destroyed by 1923. As a result, no fluent speaker of the language particular to this landscape survives. Thought of as a wind, the tones and rhythms of the words are part of the landscape themselves. As a child in Boonah, I enjoyed standing in strong wind and listening to the buffeting on my ear drums. I used to think that I might hear voices. Giberair bukhar kootchi murri dhago whinpullin. Yagari darum yummer. Oonar. Wallingera bung undin tandur. Denyarivar Murri buaraoa wiam. Murri bun gundin Gunool. Yagari Cappoong. Kootchi murri yugara wi repi.
Open Access
Andrew Schultz: Silk Canons
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University) Composer: Andrew Schultz; Grafton-Greene, Michael
Silk Canons is a single movement piece based on a brief duet for two sopranos, bass clarinet, vibraphone and double bass. The duet, called Silk, was a setting of an anonymous Chinese poem: When you sat in your dark chair Ripe with fat fruits of yellow and red silk Alive with blue lithe animals. Pressing your scented rose-ended Peach-coloured feet against my face, I was humiliated, as you desired. The original duet was only four minutes long; in building on the original material, Silk Canons adds a lot of new music and elaborates the idea of interwoven duet lines over a repetitive harmony. The ensemble of two flutes, two bass clarinets, piano and vibraphone is used in a series of episodic duets and full instrumental refrains. The harmonic structure and melodic possibilities of the original are also greatly expanded by the continuous counterpoint between the equal voice parts.
Open Access
Anne Boyd: Book of the Bells (1981)
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1981) Composer: Anne Boyd; Davies, John
"Boyd has composed only two works for solo piano: Book of the Bells and the earlier Angklung (1974). Her musical style is well suited to the instrument. The use of exotic modes in both vertical and horizontal structures, delicate ornamentation in the upper registers and the accumulation and dispersal of sonorities result in a texture that resembles the piano writing of Debus y and perhaps Messiaen, rather than the percussive style adopted by many twentieth century keyboard composers. The inspiration for both works is found in nonWestern musical traditions. Angklung refers to a type of Balinese gamelan instrument and also to the gamelan angklung, an instrumentaJ ensemble. Book of the Bells also has its origins in the music of Asia, recalling the delicate tintinnabulation of Buddhist temple bells. As inAngklung, interest is focused primarily on sonority. However the fundamental material of Book of the Bells is more wide ranging, and the resultant colours are more vibrant, less soporific than those of Angklung. Each bell is assigned certain characteristics of mode, registration, rhythm and in some cases melody or ornamentation. The first bell to be heard occupies the upper middle register of the piano. Initially just three notes, it quickly accumulates two more, adding a characteri tic minor second and minor ninth (or augmented octave) (see Figure 10). seems that Boyd's purpose is to emulate the untempered tuning of the bells. The spelling of the chord provides insight into the composer's thought processes: the D sharp and E flat are clearly not considered equivalent pitches, even though they are, of course, the same key on the piano. The first bell sound is characterised throughout by this tonal structure. For the first few minutes of the work it tolls insistently, providing a backdrop of sound for the entry of other bells. The second bell is in a lower register, and contains the interval of a major seventh or diminished octave (see Figure 10). The third bell initially occupies a similar register to the first, but is distinguished by its melodic role. Again the minor ninth is clearly heard. of extreme difficulty; however the tempo throughout is unhurried and the numerous long and tied notes allow time for the performer to leap, as it were, from bell to bell. The predetermined characteristics of each bell assist the pianist in the rapid location of chords. As the work progresses, the bells seem to develop personalities: musical dialogues ensue, and the 'characters' come and go, sometimes dramatically, sometimes imperceptibly, as if in some wordless drama. Like Angklung, Book of the Bells has a timeless, otherworld quality: gamelan performances can last for days, and the passing of time has little meaning in a Buddhist monastery. It seems as if there is no beginning and no end to this piece, as if the listener just happened by as it was going on. As new bells enter, each with its distinctive timbre, the range of sound is extended outward until by the middle of the work the whole keyboard is employed, the low sonorities adding sympathetic vibrations to the texture, the uppermost bell adding splashes of colour. The notation of the piece has by now become very complex indeed (see Figure 11), and again the Debussy/Messiaen analogy might be drawn. At first glance the appearance of the notes on the page gives the impression Book of the Bells was written as a special challenge to the virtuosity of the Australian pianist Roger Woodward and it was commissioned by him with assistance from the Music Board of the Australia Council in 1981. In fact the first performance was given in London some five years later by Sally Mays." -- Deborah Crisp
Open Access
Anthology of Austraian Music on Disc: CSM: 17 Herscovitch/Schneider Music for Violin and Piano by Whitehead, Werder, Exton, Whiticker & Hollier
(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1994) Crisp, Deborah

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