The recording A Garden Of Earthly Delights(1997) featured the piano concerto 53 by Australia’s eminent composer Peter Sculthorpe,played on the Stuart piano also by Ian Munro.
Australian Compositional Subjects: Indigenous and Environmental.
Two compositions Earth-Flowering –Time(1987)by Colin Bright and Etym along (1984)by Ross Edwards are played on the Stuart pianoin the recordings Mere Bagatelles (1996) and Alternating Currents (2010). Both compositions exemplify the oblique connection between Australian contemporary music and Australian Aboriginal culture.These compositions reflect the growing swell of interest in Aboriginal culture experienced in the 1980s across non-Indigenous sectors of Australian society, especially in the Arts. The compositions by Peter Sculthorpe with Australian Indigenous imagery, Djilile, Kakadu,Earth Cry,Jabiru Dreaming and the Irk and a series were composed in the 1980s. The landmark decision in 1992 to establish Native Title, could be said to be a consequence of constant portrayals of Indigenous Australian issues in the mainstream media throughout the 1980s.
Native title is a property right which reflects a relationship to land which is the very foundation of Indigenous religion, culture and well-being. The non-discriminatory protection of native title is a recognised human right. 54
Both Earth-Flowering –Time and Etym along depict colours and sounds of natural Australian environments. The abstract characteristics of the music enable the listener to focus on the aspects of sound suggesting elements of land and place. The tonal spectra of the Stuart piano soundscape is on show in both these pieces.The bright attack tone and clarity of tone, the tonal balance within dissonant harmonic layers, and the steady sustain in the higher registers are qualities heard in both the recordings.
Earth-Flowering –Time(1987)track 31 on the Mere Bagatelles CD is composer Colin Bright’s adaptation of his musical ideas to the Australian Aboriginal word Tya, which means ‘earth’ and/or ‘flowering time’. 55Bright’s composed sounds depict the intricate patterns created by small Australian wild flowers as they grow out of an aged earth.
The picture these words paint seemed to suit the ideas in this piece.
It is one of what I think of as ‘1-2-3’ pieces, that is, the minimal musical materials (harmonic, melodic, rhythmic and tessitural) are derived from relationships between these numbers. The essence, consequently, is STASIS.
The piece belongs to the ‘psyche of place’ bag . That is, where we live and how it affects the way that we think. Even if you live on the more densely populated east coast of Australia, you are nevertheless still aware of the vast distances involved in travelling towards the centre (center), the north and west. 56
53Peter Sculthorpe, “Piano Concerto” A Garden Of Earthly Delights Ian Munro pianist, Diego Masson conductor, Australian Youth Orchestra,recorded 1997,Tall Poppies TP113, 1983, Compact disc.
54 “ Native Title,” Australian Human Rights Commission, 9th November, 2015,
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/projects/native-title
55 2Mere Bagatelles
56Colin Bright, Earth FloweringTime For Piano – notes, 9thNovember,2015,
http://members.dodo.com.au/~colinbright/eftime.html
