Vincent Plush: Bakery Hill Rising (1980)

Abstract

Bakery Hill Rising is the product of the composer's preoccupation with the idea of republicanism. Plush's piece is based upon two contrasted folksongs. The Duke of Ma;/borough is a relic ofEnglish imperialism, notated and set by Percy Grainger to form his Duke of Marlborough Fanfare, whereas Freedom on the Wallaby i a strident call for republican revolution in Australia: We'll make the tyrants feel the sting Of those that they would throttle; They needn't say the fault is ours If blood should stain the wattle. By quoting Grainger's setting and this Australian folksong Plush establishes a continuity with Australia's political and musical history; yet without a knowledge of the background, the listener might simply hear a set of free variations on two attractive traditional tunes. Bakery Hill Rising calls for solo French horn with eight accompanying horns, which may be either pre-recorded or played live. In addition, one of the horn players doubles on a bass drum and tarn-tarn. The composer dictates the spatial positioning of the accompanying players ( or the loud speakers). Their placement is intended to resemble the Eureka flag, symbol of republican aspirations, which consists of a large silver cross on a dark blue background. This flag is to be hung prominently near the solo player. The composer requires the player to enter having already begun the piece, and to exit while still playing its final bars. As the title suggests, the background to the work is the Eureka Stockade gold miners' riot of 1854 at Bakery Hill, near the Victorian city of Ballarat. The incident at Eureka Stockade arose as a protest against the high cost of miners' licences levied by the colonial authorities. The armed clash that ensued cost the lives of about thirty miners and four soldiers. Whilst various historians have placed differing interpretations on the significance of these events, it remains a unique and symbolic moment in Australian history as the only violent political uprising of its type in pre-Federation history. The work is shaped by freely worked variations on the original melodies. The solo player presents the tunes and related material against a mostly quiet and slowly moving background of the accompanying horns (which are muted for a large part of the work) playing repetitive fragments and sustained chordal material. The extent to which the work is intended to be programmatic can be gauged by the climax of the work at bar 95. The work increases in intensity and textural complexity until a sffz stroke on the bass drum is heard. It is intended, according to the instruction in the score. to sound 'Like a cannon shot'. Although the cannon shot at the chmax may suggest that the work is a kind of antipodean battle piece, it has few other directly descriptive features rather than representing violence in musical form, the restrained and gradual manner in which the work fades away ultimately calls to mind a wistful and nostalgic reminiscence, but not a victory." -- Andrew Schultz