Seeking an Australian Musical Identity a Personal Perspective by Mandy Stefanakis
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FEATURE ARTICLE Seeking an Australian Musical Identity A Personal Perspective by Mandy Stefanakis That there is a great diversity of music composed in Australia Most countries have a definable musical sound in a number is obvious, however identifying a uniquely Australian sound of musical styles. For example George Gershwin, Aaron is much harder. Copland, Duke Ellington and Robert Johnson represent different styles, but all have composed music which is Traditional Aboriginal music defines very purely the lifestyle undeniably American. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and environment of Aboriginal people. Traditional Aboriginal sounds like an American orchestra, even when it’s playing music has unique instruments. The didgeridoo is unlike any Wagner. And speaking of Wagner, and Bach and Schubert . other instrument on earth both in structure and function. It is . even the new German techno rock, though light years away a perfect vehicle for the expression of the hypnotic, cyclic, from the classics of German composers is still distinctively spacious, rhythmic, spiritual elements of traditional German. Elgar, Vaughan-Williams and The Beatles are Aboriginal culture and habitat. essentially English. The Cranberries and The Chieftains are passionately Irish, Vivaldi and Puccini elaborately Italian and Other Australians have quite diverse heritages and we could also wax lyrical about the unique characteristics of cultures. Many Australian musicians have tried to capture music in Asia, South America and Africa. The explanation for the essence of Australianness, often drawing on the the unique sounds of some of these countries, lies to a certain traditions of Aboriginal music for their inspiration. Some extent in the richness and length of their folk traditions. focus on a music which is representative of a particular However, in America for example, it is much more a aspect of Australia, such as space. For others the sound just reflection of the land and the enthusiasm with which a great happens. But we still seem to be in the process of finding cultural diversity of people have embraced it, which has had our voice. the most effect on their music. Australian visual artists have had it right for a long time, as Part of the reason we don’t know who we are musically is have Australian writers. Musically, we can’t even reach an because we keep changing. To our credit, Australia is agreement on an appropriate National Anthem! Perhaps probably less xenophobic than any other nation on earth. music, a much more abstract form of expression, is still Rather than having great enclaves of people from a few going through the discovery process for us. Perhaps our different cultures as happens in many countries, we are very composers are a little like Simba, in The Lion King, to much a United Nations and by and large very accepting (give whom the wise baboon Rafiki says, ‘I’m not the one who’s or take a few MPs) of our great cultural mix. This means that confused. You don’t even know who you are.’ we are continually absorbing and incorporating new ideas and different cultural aspects which change and enrich our Of course, quite justifiably, some composers don’t care. nation’s identity. They become so involved with romancing the music of other cultures and other times or adding to already existent There are things though which Australians of short and musical traditions, that an essential Australian sound long standing absorb and accept almost from the moment simply isn’t important. And the question needs to be asked, they decide to stay. Our distinctive environment for example, ‘Is it?’ has a profound effect on the way we perceive ourselves. Counterpoint 17 FEATURE ARTICLE The following is very much a personal list of those unique paradox in their ‘quiet achiever’ advertising campaign some qualities which make us definable as Australians. The years ago. The negative side of this trait is that we have given qualities are accompanied by personal favourites of away or sold for next to nothing, technologies which now composers and performers who somehow depict those benefit the whole world. And we often fail to recognise our elements in their music. The list is followed by activities best and brightest until another nation points them out to us. which are designed to encourage students to create, reflect Listening on and explore a variety of Australian music. Paul Kelly captures this paradox in his song writing perhaps better than any other musician in the country. Space His lyrics and melodies are often completely at odds with each other. His words are passionate, but his melodies The most essential of these elements is space. The vast are always understated. Also Greg Champion’s ‘That’s the amount of room we have available to us has a profound thing I like about football’ and Gary Shearston, effect on our lifestyle and our psyche. For even though we particularly his album ‘Aborigine’. may live in a block of flats and work in a fifteen storey office block, there is something about knowing that you Asymmetry and arrhythmia can get in the car and drive and drive and keep driving Rivers meander waywardly across plains seeking slightly until you hit nothing, if you so desire. Or you can drive till lower ground, suburban housing sprawls into rural you hit the ocean, just as vast and just as accessible. Many settings, gum trees grow in an anarchic fashion. Our Australian composers embrace this element in their music. environment stretches itself broad and wide with little They often employ sparse instrumentation, drone like thought for where it is going. It infiltrates our best art and harmonies similar to the didgeridoo, melodies that go architecture. Musically it seems to present itself with a lack nowhere in particular and take a long time to resolve if at of rhythmic symmetry or arrhythmia, and with unexpected all, gaping holes between parts and the use of motifs rather melodic leaps. It is a continuum of the luxury of space we than large themes. possess. Ross Edwards has this to say about the evolution of Listening his composition, Mountain Village: Peter Sculthorpe, Helen Gifford, Ros Bandt, Ross Edwards, Brian Brown, Roger Smalley, Don Burrows, ‘Mountain Village was composed in a room opening onto Gary Shearston, Hoodoo Gurus, Midnight Oil, Hunters bushland. I worked mainly at night and there was a and Collectors, The Warumpi Band, The Go-Betweens. continuous interplay of insect and frog sounds outside my The Paradox window. I don’t know at what point I became aware of the extent to which these nocturnal sounds were We are over achievers and understaters. The two don’t determining the essential nature of the composition; its usually go together. But because of the smallness of our quirkish rhythms and asymmetrical phrases and, above population and the vastness of our continent, there’s a all, the fundamental mysteriousness of existence; but by sense that we must compete on an international level like the time I’d finished composing I recognised in them the those nations with many times our numbers. It is an elements of my new language.’ historical phenomenon too. People who have come to Listening Australia have often left places of poverty, war, political George Dreyfus, Ross Edwards, Stephen Cummings, differences, or because they were in strife in their own Midnight Oil country. They’ve had to prove themselves here. We do that very well in areas as diverse as industry, medical research Abrasion and sporting achievement. Then we brush it off. We don’t, by Australians cannot tolerate pretension. Though they may and large, seek accolades and anyway they aren’t handed respect certain members of the community, those people out. ‘She’ll be right’, ‘no worries’, and ‘forget about it’ are the must ‘fit in’ to the mainstream; still be mates. A Jeff Kennett way we cover up our achievements. If we don’t show billboard overhanging the Tullamarine freeway lasted a very humility we are ‘up ourselves’. BHP encapsulated this short time for this very reason. At the opposite end of the 18 Counterpoint FEATURE ARTICLE spectrum, lovable larrikins like Ted Whitten exit with a state Joe Geia (formerly of No Fixed Address), Christine Anu, funeral. One would hope that this were part of our egalitarian The Atlantics, Hoodoo Gurus, Midnight Oil, Daryl natures, but in truth, national and international pressures, Braithwaite, David Bridie, Neil Murray, Yothu Yindi, particularly the emphasis on money in our lives undermines James Morrison. this aspect of our personalities. More truthfully, rather than seeing people parading themselves in Yves St. Laurent Urban originals, everyone is more likely to be seen in jeans, shirts Cities are cities by and large and it’s hard to define an and jackets. Some may be Country Road jeans and shirts, Australian city as distinct from others. Some of the whilst others are Target but from a distance it’s hard to tell. younger bands though join older ones such as Jo Jo Zep We try to project an image of nonchalance and roughness a and the Falcons in sounding uniquely Australian. Urban bit like an echidna and yes, it is a form of protection but also music is rich in rhythm and harmony, has much broader of unity. It is often defined musically through the use of ranging melodies than a lot of Australian music, but still slightly abrasive textures and tone colours and by stretching manages that edge, that abrasiveness in texture and tone notes so that they are just slightly sharp. colour. Listening Listening Hunters and Collectors epitomise this element in their Stephen Cummings, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, James music. Also worth a listen are Cold Chisel and Peter Morrison, Paul Grabowsky, Chocolate Starfish, Skunk Sculthorpe.