Crafting Connections:
original music for the dance
in Australia, 1960-2000.
by
Rachel Hocking
BMus(Hons) LTCL ATCL AMusA
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
School of Music and Music Education Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of New South Wales
August 2006 Originality Statement
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.
Signed ______
Date ______
ii Abstract
This thesis documents the artistic connections made between composers and choreographers in Australia during the period 1960-2000. These 40 years saw a growth in the establishment of dance companies, resulting in many opportunities for composers to write original music for original dance works. The findings of original dance-music are tabulated in an extensive database giving details of 208 composers and over 550 music compositions written specifically for dance. Examples of choreographer and composer collaborative relationships and attitudes to each other’s artforms are discussed. Further examination of how these relationships have affected the sound of the music is detailed in four case studies. These concern the works The Display (music by Malcolm Williamson, choreography by Robert Helpmann, 1964), Poppy (music by
Carl Vine, choreography by Graeme Murphy, 1978), Ochres (music by David Page, choreography by Stephen Page, 1994), and Fair Exchanges (music by Warren Burt and
Ros Bandt, choreography by Shona Innes, 1989). These case studies look at dance- music collaborated in different styles: ballet, modern dance, dance-theatre and experimental dance. This discussion is carried out through the analysis of the context of the collaborative relationships, and the temporal and interpretive aspects of the original dance-music. It is found through the investigation of collaborative relationships and discussion of these case studies, that similar methods of writing are used when composing music for theatrical dance, regardless of the type of dance. These methods show that composers have intentionally crafted scores that fulfil needs in the dance works and that are suited to choreographers’ intentions. Importantly, it is also found that involvement with dance has influenced some composers’ styles, aided musical innovation and added significantly to the corpus of Australian music.
iii Acknowledgments
Firstly I would like to thank my family, especially Tim, Rebecca and Keturah (and my unborn child who has physically endured the final stages of a PhD!), as well as my extended family, for their enormous love and encouragement that they have shown in both a practical and familial way. A huge amount of respect and affectionate gratitude also goes to my supervisor Jill
Stubington who has been amazing with her help and support throughout the process - I have learnt so much from her supervision. Thank you also to my co-supervisor and Head of School at UNSW, Christine Logan, who has not only provided fantastic feedback, care and encouragement, but with Dr Stubington’s help, also allowed me to regularly use a private office at UNSW. Thanks also to the staff and colleagues at UNSW, including Dorottya Fabian, Emery
Schubert and John Peterson who provided help and regularly answered queries. Thank you to
UNSW and DEST for the financial assistance received through the Australian Postgraduate
Award: without this, I could not have considered undertaking such a large project.
Secondly I would like to acknowledge the large amount of support and assistance I have received from composers who have provided or confirmed information and discussion as well as resources including recordings, copyright permission (where needed) and assistance. These include the composers and their representatives: Robyn Archer/Olivia Meehan; Andy Arthurs;
Michael Atherton; Richard Austin; Laurie Scott Baker; Ros Bandt; Kirsty Beilharz; Stephen
Benfall; Lee Bracegirdle; Brenton Broadstock; Gerard Brophy; Colin Brumby (thank you for the numerous relevant articles); Andrew Byrne; Brett Cabot; Mike Caen; David Chesworth;
Bruce Clarke; David Corbet; Jim Cotter; Iva Davies (thank you for the CD recordings); Sarah
De Jong; Marion Foote (on behalf of Malcolm Williamson); Andrew Ford; Greg Foster (from
Galapagos Duck); James Franklin; James Gordon-Anderson; Andree Greenwell; Richard
Hames; Wendy Hiscocks; Sarah Hopkins; Philip Houghton; Mark Isaacs; Graham Jesse;
Anthony Linden Jones; Elena Kats-Chernin; Stephen Lalor; Alan Lamb; James Ledger; Tony
iv Lewis; Robert Lloyd; Mary Mageau; Chris Mann; Themos Mexis; Frank Millward; Robert
Griffin Morgan; Jonathan Mustard; Padma Newsome; Catherine Oates; Garth Paine; Vincent
Plush; David Pye; Edward Primrose; Paul Sarcich; Peter Schaefer; Peter Sculthorpe (thank you for the NLA manuscripts permission); John Shortis; Larry Sitsky; Michael Smetanin; Jason
Sweeney; Cathie Travers; Paul Turner; Richard Vella; Darrin Verhagen; Simon Wade; Gillian
Whitehead; David Worrall; David Young and Julian Yu. Thank you especially to Warren Burt and Carl Vine for providing extra information, articles, discussion, copyright permission, and sound and video recordings of their work.
This research would not have been complete without the additional information provided by choreographers and dance companies. A number of choreographers also provided permission for access to interviews in the Australian National Library, and for this I would like to thank:
Keith Bain; Jacqui Carroll; Nanette Hassall; Paul Mercurio; Graeme Murphy; Robert Ray;
Cheryl Stock; and Meryl Tankard. Thank you also to the dance companies and their artistic directors and/or representatives including: Music Director and Chief Conductor Nicolette
Fraillon at the Australian Ballet; Artistic Director Phillip Adams at BalletLab; Venue Manager
Sarah Kelly at Bangarra Dance Theatre; General Manager Claire Pannell at BuzzDance;
Assistant Producer Kate Steele at Chunky Move; Artistic Director Jose Calarco at
Descendance; Artistic Director Maggie Sietsma and Administration Officer Diane Leith at
Expressions Dance Company; Artistic Director Kate Denborough at Kage Physical Theatre;
Artistic Director and Choreographer Ruth Galene, Red Opal Theatre; Company Manager Nick
Hughes at Restless Dance; Tour Manager/Assistant to Artistic Directors Andris Toppe and
International Business Manager Janine Kyle at Sydney Dance Company; Annie Greig at
TasDance; Director Mark Reddish at Tasmanian Ballet Company; and Community Access and
Events Coordinator Anna Matthews at WA Ballet. Special thanks goes to Education Manager
Colin Peasley at the Australian Ballet who provided information, wonderful anecdotes,
v resources and arranged access for viewing in Sydney and Melbourne the only known filmed recording of The Display.
Also I would like to thank staff at the numerous libraries and archives used for this research including: Anna Kamacz at Screensound (National Film and Sound Archives); Robyn Holmes,
Rashmi Madan, Michelle Potter and others in the Penberthy Room, Oral History section and the
Manuscripts collection at the Australian National Library; and Judith Foster at the Australian
Music Centre.
Finally I would like to express my gratitude to a number of colleagues and informants who have helped with queries and discussion including: Carolyn Taylor (University of Tasmania) re
Malcolm Williamson; Jean Jarrell (Laban Centre UK), Renate Braeuninger and Melinda Jewell
(UNSW) for advice re Labanotation; Shirley McKechnie (VCA) and Kate Stevens (UWS) for general helpful advice and discussions; Amanda Card for help (University of Sydney) with finding the video for The Display; Charles Schwer for proofreading; and Chris Brown for permission to copy Sir Robert Helpmann’s diary held at the Australian National Library. I believe there is One who was able to make all of this fall into place for me and for this I am eternally grateful.
vi Table of Contents
VOLUME I Originality Statement ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vii List of Figures ix List of Musical Examples x List of Tables xi
1. Introduction to the study of music for dance in Australia 1960- 2000: definitions and scope; context and methodology. 1 i. Scope. 2 ii. Historical context. 9 iii. Analytical context. 22 iv. Plan. 37 v. Conclusion. 44
2. Collaborative opportunities for Australian composers during 1960-2000. 47 i. Prominent national dance troupes. 48 ii. Other dance companies. 59 iii. Freelance choreographers. 72 iv. Other areas of dance including events for commissioning. 76 v. Conclusion. 81
3. Collaborative relationships 1960-2000: conflict and compromise in creativity. 84 i. Choreographers’ attitudes towards music. 86 ii. Composers’ attitudes towards dance. 100 iii. Examples of collaborative relationships. 108 iv. Conclusion. 117
4. Music for ballet. 120 i. Ballet themes in Australia. 121 ii. Collaborative context of The Display. 127 iii. Analysis of The Display. 137 iv. Conclusion. 152
5. Music for modern dance. 155 i. Collaborative context of Poppy. 157 ii. Analysis of Poppy. 163 iii. Comparison with Piano Sonata. 196 iv. Conclusion. 203
6. Music for dance-theatre. 206 i. Dance-theatre companies and aesthetics. 208 ii. Collaborative context of Ochres. 218 iii. Analysis of Ochres. 228 iv. Conclusion. 239
vii 7. Music for experimental dance. 242 i. Definitions and boundaries of experimental dance. 243 ii. Discussion of Warren Burt’s music for dance. 253 iii. Interactive music and dance Systems - the 3DIS system. 256 iv. Conclusion. 278
8. Conclusion 283 i. Analytical methods. 285 ii. Extent of the field and documentation. 292 iii. The nature and importance of the collaboration. 294 iv. Crafting compositions, consistent constructions. 295 v. Influences on music in Australia. 299 vi. Future connections to craft. 305 vii. Conclusion. 307
VOLUME II APPENDICES A. Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000. 309 BIBLIOGRAPHY i. Books, articles, journals. 413 ii. Discography: music recordings. 451 iii. Discography: oral histories. 459 iv. Scores. 463 v. Videorecordings/Films. 466 vi. Websites. 470
SPECIAL ENCLOSURE i. Poppy DVD 475 ii. Ochres DVD 475a iii. Fair Exchanges DVD 476 iv. Catalogue of original music for the dance in Australia 1960-2000 on CD using ‘Microsoft Access’ software. 476a
viii List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Representation of the interpretation of dance-music. 29 Figure 1.2 Cook’s models for analysing musical multimedia. 36 Figure 2.1 Trends of the establishment of dance companies, and composition of 57 original scores in Australia, 1960-2000. Figure 2.2 Map of Australia illustrating the location of dance companies, 1960- 58 2000. Figure 2.3 Comparison of commissioned scores with those that are original 60 electro-acoustic scores, Australia 1960-2000. Figure 4.1 The cover page of The Display. 131 Figure 4.2 Photograph of Helpmann’s diary, for the week of 14th March, 1964. 134 Figure 4.3 Analysis of The Display – influences on the composition of the 138 music. Figure 4.4 The Male and the Female, at the end of The Display. Photograph 145 from The Australian Ballet programme, 1983, front cover. Figure 5.1 Elements affecting the collaboration and creation of the work 164 Poppy. Figure 5.2 Matrix of tone row as present in Act 1 Scene 6. 188 Figure 6.1 Contextual, temporal and interpretive elements derived from 220 aesthetic concerns in the Bangarra work Ochres. Figure 6.2 Map of Australia, showing approximate areas where sources 230 originate for Bangarra’s Ochres. Figure 7.1 Sarah Hopkin’s harmonic whirlies. 248 Figure 7.2 Philippa Cullen using a theremin in her work Homage to Theremin 258 2, 1972. Figure 7.3 The basic relationship of dancer/s with the 3DIS system as 263 demonstrated in awaywithwords. Figure 7.4 An overhead view of the setup of the performance space for 264 awaywithwords. Figure 7.5 The gangs for the dance For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross. 265 Figure 7.6 An overhead view of the setup of the performance space and dance 266 direction for For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross. Figure 7.7 Interactions based on exploration of Grainger’s experimentation. 267 Figure 7.8 Relationships between subject choice and dance/music outcomes 269 found in For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross. Figure 7.9 Example of a free music machine from the Grainger Museum, 271 Melbourne. Figure 7.10 The unfolding of the performance for Inside Out (For Graham). 274 Figure 7.11 Possibilities of music and movement for the work Free Trade 277 Zones. Figure 8.1 Summary analysis of Australian dance-music, 1960-2000. 292
ix List of Musical Examples
Example 4.1 i) The ‘rainforest theme’ – bars 1 to 4, first movement. ii) The 141 ‘rainforest theme’ – bars 1 to 4, first movement, demonstrating use of the prime row. Example 4.2 The three main birdcalls used in The Display. i) Birdcall 1 – bars 3 to 142 4, first movement. ii) Birdcall 1, demonstrating the use of the prime row. iii) Birdcall 2 – bar 6, first movement. iv) Birdcall 3 – bars 11 to 12, first movement. Example 4.3 i) The ‘lyrebird dance’ – bars 38 to 40, first movement. ii) The 144 ‘lyrebird dance’ – bars 38 to 40, first movement, demonstrating the use of the prime row. Example 4.4 i) The ‘display theme’ – bars 31-35, first movement, climax with 146 theme. ii) The ‘display theme’ – bars 32-34, first movement, demonstrating the use of the prime row. iii) The ‘Female theme’ – bars 77 to 78, first movement. iv) The ‘Female theme’ – bars 77 to 78, 1st movement, demonstrating use of the prime row. Example 4.5 Some of the other Phrygian-based themes. i) The ‘men’s theme’ – bars 148 35 to 40, second movement. ii) The theme from the second movement pas de deux – bars 151 to 154. iii) The theme from the second movement pas de trios – bars 296 to 300. Example 4.6 Contrasting themes of behaviour in The Display. i) The ‘picnic 149 theme’ – bars 9 to 10, second movement. ii) The ‘football game’ – bars 330 to 331, second movement. iii) The ‘Outsider’s theme’ – bars 425 to 429, second movement. Example 5.1 i) Opening of Act 1, Scene 1, Poppy by Carl Vine, bars 1-4. ii) 170 Opening of Act 1, Scene 1, by Carl Vine. Bars 1-2 at original pitch. Example 5.2 i) Bars 126-133 from Act 1, Scene 2, ‘The Schoolroom’, from the 173 original score. ii) Bars 126-133 from Act 1, Scene 2, ‘The Schoolroom’. Example 5.3 Act 1, Scene 2, ‘Tango’, bars 1-16, Clarinet theme beginning at bar 5. 177 Example 5.4 i) Bars 57 to 72, middle section of the ‘Tango’, Scene 3. The trumpet 178 theme begins at bar 63. ii) The first three bars of the trumpet solo at bar 63. Example 5.5 i) Act 1, Scene 2, ‘The Cabaret’, bars 57-64. Barbette’s introduction 180 begins at bar 60. ii) Act 1, Scene 2, ‘The Cabaret’, bars 57-64 from the original score. Example 5.6 Bars 1 to 8, opening ostinato of Act 1, Scene 2 ‘The Schoolroom’. 182 Example 5.7 i) Bars 1-8, opening of Act 1, Scene 3 ‘The Cabaret’ from the original 183 score. ii) Bars 1-8, opening of Act 1, Scene 3 ‘The Cabaret’. Example 5.8 i) Bars 75-80, Act 1, Scene 3 ‘The Cabaret’. Barbette’s trapeze 185 theme from the original score. ii) Barbette’s trapeze theme in closer detail. Example 5.9 i) Bars 1-8, Act 1, Scene 6. Radiguet’s death. ii) Bars 1-7, Act I, 189 Scene 6. Radiguet’s death, outlining the prime row. Example 5.10 Bars 87-102, Act 1, Scene 6. After the final stages of Radiguet’s life 192 at bars 87 to 92, the ‘Funeral March’ begins at bar 93. Example 5.11 Increasing pulses in the first movement of Carl Vine’s Piano Sonata. 199 Example 5.12 Vine’s Piano Sonata, first movement, bars 1-2. 201 Example 5.13 Vine’s Piano Sonata, second movement bars 381-384. 203 Example 6.1 Tjipari Dreaming recording as performed by the Western Desert 231 Women of the Ngarti language group, featured in ‘Yellow’ of Ochres.
x List of Musical Examples continued
Example 6.2 An outline of the rhythm of the speech patterns used at the beginning of 234 ‘Black’. Example 6.3 Come, see the light, from the introduction of Ochres, with vocal line and 238 clapstick. Example 7.1 A notational representation of the opening theme, demonstrating the 268 simplicity of counterpoint that occurs early in For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross.
List of Tables
Table 1.1 Australian dance-music 1960-2000: primary and secondary sources. 12 Table 1.2 Resources used for the Catalogue of original music for the dance in 18 Australia 1960-2000. Table 3.1 Requests made to Peter Sculthorpe about the music for the Sun Music 87 ballet. Table 4.1 Snugglepot and Cuddlepie – the synopsis by Hugh Colman adapted from 124 the ballet synopsis by Petal Miller Ashmole. Table 4.2 Malcolm Williamson’s works for dance, 1960-2000. 127 Table 4.3 Entries found in the Robert Helpmann diaries showing appointments 133 relevant to and leading up to the premier of The Display. Table 4.4 Cuts noted in the orchestral score held at the National Library Australia 136 and the piano reduction held at the Australian Ballet. Table 4.5 Structure of Movement 1 of The Display. 139 Table 5.1 Carl Vine’s scores for dance, 1960-2000. 159 Table 5.2 Theatrical structure of Poppy, detailing scene titles and captions given in 166 the television production for SBS. Table 5.3 Composers and styles referenced by Vine in Poppy, Act I. 168 Table 5.4 Original words and English translation of Act I Scene 1 “In a field of 172 poppies”, cited from Cocteau’s Les enfants terrible, the work written while Cocteau was recovering from his opium addiction. Table 5.5 Occurrences of the ‘poppy’ motif. 175 Table 6.1 Dance works by the Bangarra Dance Theatre using original music 214 compositions by Australian composers, 1960-2000. Table 6.2 Program notes from the film Ochres. 222 Table 6.3 Structure of the score for Ochres, taken from the video recording of the 224 work filmed live and produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Table 7.1 Burt’s works for dance, 1960-2000. 255 Table 7.2 Works for the 3DIS system by Warren Burt et al, and their meaning 262 within the context of the 3DIS environment. Table 7.3 The synopsis from the work Free Trade Zone. 275
xi Chapter One – Introduction to the study of music for dance in Australia,
1960-2000: definitions and scope; context and methodology.
Since 1960, Australia has seen a growth in the number of composers and choreographers who have been involved with dance companies and ensembles. Boosted by arts funding and specific tertiary training, a tradition of Australian ‘dance-music’ emerged in the 1960s. Influenced by a range of people including choreographers, cultural consultants, arts administrators, inventors of new technology and other theatrical collaborators, music written to accompany dance was gradually transformed in sound. This genre has developed fluid forms, using many styles of music, limited only by the choices made by choreographers, and to some extent, composers. This thesis will examine the course Australian dance-music1 has taken, through its interactions with the dance, tracing the developments from the beginning of its boom in the 1960s through to 2000. Several works of particular significance have been chosen for detailed discussion and the thesis will address the place of dance-music in Australian music in general. Some of Australia’s most well-known and well-loved works come from this genre, Carl Vine’s Piano Sonata for example, while some of the most enterprising experimentation has been brought about through choreographer/composer interaction and collaboration. Many dance companies have been responsible for commissioning composers to write new works and their contribution to new music is acknowledged here. This research aims to generate awareness of an area of music that has previously gone unrecognised. For example, in 1977, John Cargher observed that
“composers and choreographers in this country have not had time to establish any kind
1 The term dance-music (using the hyphen) will be further explained in Chapter 1, page 7. 1 of tradition”2. This thesis proves the contrary, that many composers and choreographers have created works together, building a strong tradition of dance-music in Australia throughout the period 1960 to 2000.
To begin with, definitions of the terminology used will be outlined in order to explain and justify which music is included in this study. Secondly, the context within the world of dance and music research will be explored and important relevant resources will be considered. Methods of research used for this particular study will be detailed, acknowledging sources of information, and lastly, a plan for the thesis will be outlined.
Scope:
In this thesis, dance-music is considered as a genre within theatrical Western music.
The study of music for dance in Australia raises many interesting issues because of its collaborative nature. Collaboration refers to where different people from different disciplines attempt to work together. Because of its multi-disciplinary form, dance- music research tends to fall in the gap between the disciplines of dance and music. In music research, dance-music often is disregarded as an important genre, owing to the music's seemingly secondary role. Choreographers' and dance companies' contributions to music have not been explored to the same extent as other partnerships such as librettist and composer relationships in opera. Yet as a musicological topic, dance- music is a product of many other forces, and should be studied within its own context, incorporating all potential factors that may influence the final qualities of the music.
The influence that choreographers such as Graeme Murphy have had on Australian composers, may well be found to have been of the same order as the John Cage/Merce
2 Cargher, John. Opera and Ballet in Australia. Stanmore, New South Wales: Cassell Australia 1977, 312. 2 Cunningham nexus, which has been widely discussed in the literature3. Some well- known Australian composers have found that working with choreographers has impacted on their compositional style. However this has only been documented in newspaper reviews and interviews to date. Investigations for this thesis uncovered many more instances of professional composers and choreographers working together than those currently documented in archives such as the Australian Music Centre and
Australia Dancing in the National Library Australia. There is a very full, if not exhaustive, list to be found in Appendix A4. Similar limitations arising from the sparsity of resources are also currently found in dance-research. Analytical methods for dance-music, dance-history and dance-literature are only now being developed. Often in dance practice, the research is conducted to prepare choreographers and composers for the performance, and once this is achieved, little else is recorded. One purpose of this study is to document events that are often disregarded post-performance and in doing so, facilitate the detailed examination which this material demands and of which this thesis is only a beginning. This study aims to demonstrate the extent of the commissioning and collaboration that has taken place, particularly in post-modern times, where collaboration is a significant artistic process, and to explore how these collaborations have influenced and have been influenced by trends in Australian music.
This study considers musical works for dance movement written in the period 1960-
2000 by Australian composers. Therefore, definitions that firstly need to be explored encompass three areas: the dates ‘1960-2000’; what constitutes an ‘Australian
3 Specific references to Cage’s and Cunningham’s impact on music and dance include articles such as: Damsholt, Inger. The impact of the Cunningham concept: the function of music within contemporary dance performance in Denmark. American Dance Abroad: influence of the United States experience. Edited by Christena L. Schlundt. USA: Society of Dance History Scholars, 1992, 169-173. 4Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia, 1960-2000. Compiled by Rachel Hocking for this thesis and found in Appendix A. 3 composer’; and subsequently what styles of dance have been studied. Secondly, terms used in this study to describe dance-music will be discussed.
The period 1960-2000 represents a time of growth, experiment and development in
Australian dance works. The two factors largely responsible for this are the formation of a national ballet company and the establishment of smaller experimental companies.
Not all of the works newly choreographed during this period used newly composed
Australian music and these numerous works are out of the scope of this research.
However, most companies and individual choreographers saw value in producing entirely new works, including original music for original choreography.
The year 1960 has been chosen as a starting point for this dance-music study to facilitate the discussion of events leading up to the formation of the national ballet company known as the Australian Ballet, whose artistic policy in 1962 specifically articulated references to the national interest. The year 1964 remains an important landmark in this history as it was when the Australian Ballet first produced an all-
Australian commissioned ballet using original music5. This ballet, titled The Display with music by Malcolm Williamson and choreography by Robert Helpmann, was premiered at the Adelaide Festival in 19646. Outstanding for historical interest as well as for its intrinsic qualities, The Display is one of the ballets which this thesis examines in detail. Between its inception in 1962 and 2000 the Australian Ballet has commissioned Australian composers for dance-music only sixteen times. While the
Australian Ballet was unable to provide consistent support for new compositions, other dance groups had been addressing this challenge. Many regional ballet company
5The Australian Ballet did commission Harold Badger for music for Melbourne Cup in 1962, but this commission consisted of arrangements of colonial Australian tunes and pieces by Suppe and Offenbach. 4 founders had realised that artistic value would be found in creating new Australian works for Australian audiences and most regional ballet groups included the commission of Australians as part of their policies. Some Australian states have their own professional ballet companies that have used Australian composers for new music.
The Queensland Ballet company established in 1960 by Charles Lisner is now one of three professional ballet companies in Australia and has regularly toured its ballets to regional areas. South Australia has provided the Australian Dance Theatre, which began in 1965 as a full-time professional dance company. The Adelaide Festival of
Arts gave many opportunities for this company to premiere new works, particularly original Australian works. In Tasmania, the state dance company TasDance is the first
Australian company to specifically promote dance in education. One of the most well- known supporters of Australian compositions has been the Sydney Dance Company, with its artistic directors Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon. Established in 1971 as The
Dance Company (NSW), the Sydney Dance Company used Australian music from its very beginnings. Within each state, smaller dance companies, particularly modern ensembles, have also regularly supported local composers7.
The year 2000 was chosen as an end date for this research because the multiple international festivals held locally in association with the Sydney Olympic Games saw an efflorescence of new dance performances, in many ways a climax of the work produced over the previous forty years. Major Australian dance companies and their collaboration with Australian composers will be outlined in Chapter Two with reference to specific choreographers and their support of Australian music.
6Cargher. 1977, 266. 7Many universities have added dance to their courses offered, and these programs have provided the opportunity for much student collaboration between music and dance. However, owing to the difficulty
5 The composers discussed in this study are from varying backgrounds with interests in many different styles of music. Some are not native to Australia: many were born overseas, and some did not move here until late in their life. However, if the composer, regardless of origin, lived and worked in Australia, and contributed to Australian music or Australian dance companies, then they have been included in this study. Other composers who are Australian-born, yet had more success in writing for dance overseas, have also been included as their contributions in promoting Australian music to the international community are also worth documenting. Many of the composers listed in the appendix are represented by the Australian Music Centre in Sydney. However, others have come from different backgrounds such as pop music, not necessarily receiving tertiary or formal training, and their contributions have also been included. In total, this thesis has identified 208 Australian composers who have been commissioned by Australian and international professional dance companies and individual choreographers during the period 1960-20008.
Australian choreographic music is a wide-ranging genre that includes music written for various forms of dance. Because of the different styles of dance existing during the period 1960-2000, it is not appropriate to call all music for dance ‘ballet music’. Terms to describe music written for dance such as ‘Ballet Music’, ‘Choreographic Music’ and
‘Dance Music’ in its various forms need to be initially investigated to resolve terminologies appropriate for this field. This study will use ‘dance-music’ as the preferred terminology for the following reasons. Traditionally, music written for prepared dance movement has been known as ‘ballet music’. In the 20th century this in finding details on emerging dancers/composers and their performances, these works will not be included in this study, nor will works for related competitions.
6 label has been less appropriate to use, as the focus of Western theatre dance now has broadened from solely classical ballet. Modern dance is a form that has shifted away from classical ballet in terms of technique and style, encompassing dancing styles from cultures other than the French tradition. This type of dance has also created new genres with its own companies, choreographers, dancers, designers and composers. The term
‘choreographic music’ can be applied to both classical ballet and modern dance as dance movement is still planned prior to the dancing, regardless of its methodology.
Joel Crotty uses the term ‘choreographic music’ in his PhD titled Choreographic Music in Australia, 1912-1964: from foreign reliance to an independent Australian stance9.
The word ‘choreography’ refers to the art of arranging dance movement: the choreographer usually has a separate role to the dancer. In considering the period 1960-
2000, as this thesis does, the term ‘choreographic music’ is less satisfactory because of the increasing importance and prevalence of improvisation. Dance improvisation is interpreted by a dancer and the moment of realisation is on a stage in front of an audience. In addition, some experimental dance improvisers no longer refer to themselves as ‘choreographers’: thus the term is avoided here. A more useful term is
‘dance-music’ as it includes music written for choreographed and improvised dance genres. The term ‘choreography’ can also be problematic as it is applied to non-dance works, such as music for equestrian events, for which Australian composers such as
Eric Gross have composed during this period. The overriding factor in searching for the most appropriate terminology is to consider that this is a type of music that exists only in collaboration with dance. Stephen Leek, in his article DanceMusic - a new terminology, wrote:
8As will be later discussed in "Historical Context", it is difficult to find all details on composers and their works and some composers/works will have inevitably been missed, but I have endeavoured to make the catalogue as comprehensive as possible.
7 Works that have been conceived in collaboration must cease to be separate entities as music or dance and should be classed and viewed as part of a greater concept, a broader terminology.10
In music and dance literature, the term ‘dance-music’ is presented in different ways.
Dance Music, as two separate words both capitalised, is used by many dance and music researchers and composers. For example The Oxford Companion to Australian Music11 uses the heading Ballet and Dance Music12 in reference to Western ballet and dance.
This spelling can be confused with other genres of dance-music that exist in popular music and social dancing genres. In Grove Music Online, the heading Dance Music13 refers to 20th century nightclub social music. This is also the popular use of the term in everyday language, so it would be confusing to use it for music intended for choreographed dance with artistic purposes.
Another possibility is DanceMusic with no separation between the words. This is
Stephen Leek's proposition, showing it as a collaborative genre by omitting the space between the words. He also suggests that this form of linking words can be applied to other collaborative art forms for example MusicTheatre and MusicSculpture. However, composer Andree Greenwell, has commented that this is akin to something a graphic designer might do for a magazine title, and not necessarily a satisfying description that could be widely used14. DanceMusic is limited only to the edition of Sounds Australian
9Crotty, Joel. Choreographic Music in Australia, 1912-1964: from foreign reliance to an independent Australian stance. PhD thesis, Melbourne: Monash University, 1999. 10Leek, Stephen. DanceMusic - a new terminology. Sounds Australian. Volume 22, Winter 1989, 35. 11 Bebbington, Warren. Editor. The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 1997. 12Crotty, Joel. Ballet and dance music. The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 1997, 43. 13Peel, Ian. Dance Music. Grove Music Online. Edited by L. Macy.
Dance-music with the two words joined by a hyphen is another way of indicating a relationship between the two artforms. Used by dance writers when referring to dance and music relationships, as well as the editors of the Currency Companion to Music and
Dance in Australia16, for example in the articles Dance-Music Collaboration17 and
Music-Dance Collaboration18, the order of the artforms indicates the focus of the articles. This seems to be the most appropriate terminology, because of its wider use and pairing of both art mediums. The hyphen between the words ‘dance’ and ‘music’ distinguish this theatrical style from the more popular club style. In this thesis, the terms ‘dance-music’ and ‘choreographic music’ will be used interchangeably to some extent but ‘choreographic music’ will not apply to discussion of improvised dance, while the term ‘ballet music’ will be retained specifically for scores written for classical ballet companies.
Historical Context:
A survey of existing literature on Australian dance-music has proved to be a limited exercise - to quote Nicholas Cook:
Analysing musical multimedia?... Haven't people been analysing songs, operas, and ballets (well, songs and operas) for years?19
15Leek. 1989, 35. 16Whiteoak, John and Scott-Maxwell, Aline. Editors. Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. Currency Press: Sydney, 2003. 17Babinskas, Chris. Dance-music collaboration. Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. 2003, 225. 18Burt, Warren. Music-dance collaboration. Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. 2003, 450-451. 19 Cook, Nicholas. Analysing Musical Multimedia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, v. 9 The neglect of ballet which Cook has highlighted here extends also to dance and particularly dance-music, which tends to be missed amid the two disciplines. Even less can be found specifically on Australian dance-music, and the relevant literature consists of a mixture of theses, journal articles and reference books. Some of these have been written by musicologists and musicology students, but the majority have been studies undertaken by composers in a quest to determine the relevance of their own music for dance, or to document interesting artistic collaborations and individual dance works. It has been said by Leek and Koehne that dance-music is regarded by some musicologists as a second rate music20. Music written for its own existence and purpose may be thought to be more deserving of attention. Concert hall music does demonstrate the artistic intent of the composer and does showcase their ability, but this does not imply that music by the same composer for any other purpose is necessarily inferior or less worthy of attention. Western Classical music has always had a strong link with dance.
From the early church music that adapted triple time metres after folk dance music, to the Baroque period during which dance rhythms were widely used for instrumental suites, through to the nationalistic use of polonnaises and waltzes by Romantic composers, music has never strayed far from physical movement. The very word
‘movement’ that applies to sections of music with different characteristics is derived from physical movement. Australian composers have continued these music and dance links by regularly participating in collaborations with theatrical dance, demonstrating versatility and the ability to adapt their music to a synopsis for dance, while yet still displaying their own style and creativity.
20 Graeme Koehne and Stephen Leek have both expressed this point of view, as discussed in Chapter Three. Also see Koehne, Graeme. Art- Capital A, entertainment – small e?. Sounds Australian. Volume 22, Winter 1989, 22. 10 The history of Australian dance-music demonstrates the wider artistic relationships between Australian composers and the Australian arts community. To ignore dance- music is to miss the artistic network of choreographers and designers and to remain unaware of the impact these people have had on many Australian composers. The wider picture of music made through collaboration illustrates the vibrancy of the Australian arts community. Australian composers do not work in a world cut off from the rest of the artistic community but communicate, research and collaborate with other people.
Documenting the recent history of Australian dance-music shows another side to some well-known (and some not so well-known) composers, and clearly illustrates the influence of collaborators working in other art forms.
Dance research is a relatively new area of study. Contemporary Australian dance demonstrates considerable strength and variety in the vast number of new works choreographed, yet its weakness lies in this also: energy is invested in the production of dance works rather than into the preservation and analysis of them. As Lester notes:
… there is a rich and as yet under-explored history of theatre dance in Australia that does not reference either the vocabulary or philosophy of ballet. This neglect is changing through the investigations of a generation of researchers who understand the value of history and the necessity of contextualizing the past, evaluating its significance and even projecting its possibilities from the lessons learned…..Let me hasten to add there is still the need for much more of this work to be done by members of the local profession, ranging from independent artists, artistic directors and company members, dance researchers and educators, studio teachers, dedicated amateurs, retired dancers and the dance literate public. The processes involved in creating dances, administrating projects, performing and promoting these practices is of itself a daunting and considerable task.21
Dance is generally a transient genre, where works are created and performed for a certain time, and then never seen again. Its ephemeral nature contributes to the difficulty in finding documentation for research. Much of the historical material used in
21 Lester, Garry. Kai Tai Chan: a different path. PhD thesis, Melbourne: Deakin University, January 2000, 38. 11 this study documents particular performances. The types of resources available are listed in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1. Australian dance-music 1960-2000: primary and secondary sources.
Primary Sources Secondary Sources
Dance company documentation Newspaper/magazine reviews/articles
Programmes Music recordings made after the performance of the dance work.
Formal and informal interviews Existing databases
Letters/business documents Autobiographies
Music scores - composers autographs Dance performances recorded on video
Sound recordings made at the live dance Arts yearbooks and textbooks performance
Many of these resources require particular care. Videotapes are primary and secondary sources at the same time. The live music contained on the video is a primary source because it is a recording of the music as it accompanied the dance. Yet the dance on the video is a secondary source as differing camera shots are used, showing close-ups and distance shots, and the final edit will include a combination of these shots. Sometimes material can be left out, or images superimposed over the top of the film that were not in the original stage production. A further problem is that dance movements can appear
‘flattened’ on the screen, with the actual use of space and dynamic of movement distorted22. Musical recordings that have been made some time after the performance can be inaccurate in tempi, pauses and other musical elements that were intimately related to and dependent on the dance23. Composer autographs are primary sources for
22Layson, June. Dance history source materials. The Routledge Dance Studies Reader. Editor A. Carter. London: 1998, 144. 23Layson, 145. 12 this study but are not necessarily reliable as an indication of what happened in performance. Sometimes cuts have been made in the scores, as in the ballet The Display for example, or electronic material has been omitted from the notated score as in the dance work Poppy. For some performances, musical scores do not exist, and for some others, film documentation does not exist. Newspaper reviews contain contemporary personal responses to particular performances, rather than factual statements, so are mostly useful in demonstrating attitudes of the time. Layson has noted that sometimes programmes can be inaccurate as a dancer may have been substituted one night, without notice of this appearing in the programme24. This problem is not as crucial for this study as it is more concerned with the dance-music. Dance material has sometimes already been lost even though this study deals with very recent history. Corroboration between primary and secondary sources, circumspect or inadvertent in nature, will help establish the accuracy of information. The dance companies chosen for this study are mainly professional companies which have documented their commissions. The internet databases AusStage25 and Australia Dancing26 give the status of dance companies, and these definitions have been used for this study. The literature on music and dance relationships generally fall into two categories: historical works, commenting on and recording actual composer/choreographer dance works; and analytical works, particularly exploring how to discuss dance-music. While the latter issue is not the central aim of this thesis, the outcome and methodology which might emerge is particularly relevant and will be explored briefly in order to explain the approaches that will be used in these discussions.
24Layson, 145. 25
13 The historical writings on Australian dance and music are usefully summarised in the dissertation on Australian choreographic music, undertaken by Joel Crotty, focusing on emerging balletic collaborations up to the year 1964. In addition to this, a number of articles have appeared in journals detailing historic interactions in early Australian dance-music, particularly the Jindyworobakistic27-styled ballet works and their importance in exploring an Australian national heritage. While some of the trends noted by Crotty will continue into this thesis, this study aims to essentially continue where Crotty concluded. Appendix A is a catalogue detailing composers and works written during the period 1960-2000: it summarises the varying trends existing within dance-music. Today, the addition of widely available technology aiding the process of composition and performance diversifies contemporary music, so this study, while mirroring a similar idea to Crotty's study, will have different methodology and different results. This thesis will examine a later period which has seen developments into other areas of dance such as contemporary and experimental forms and their related music, rather than focusing only on ballet music. In reference to Australian dance styles, choreographer and dancer Russell Dumas has said:
The development of dance in Australia references its origins in the dance traditions of Europe and America, and in a broader cultural context, its founding as a colony. It has been important to date to reassert those connections. However it would now seem crucial that Australia begin to be perceived as an independent voice, and especially so with concern to its geographical neighbours. Culturally we are beginning to look beyond ourselves as some pale imitation of the motherland.28
During 1960-2000, dance styles originating from Europe, America and locally have been explored by choreographers. A number of recent large publications such as The
26
Dance in Australia30 have sought to document and summarise the contributions of individuals and groups to dance-music. Some of these articles lack discussion of the actual sound of the music (as opposed to who did what and when), but this is the nature of the publications. The documentation of individuals and companies involved in the period is important as they determine the trends and styles of music favoured, which over time influence the direction an artform takes. Some general information on composers of all backgrounds can be found in The Oxford Companion to Australian
Music, but the Australian Music Centre's individual composer entries and archived folders also prove to be valuable sources, containing up to date biographies, reviews and articles on composers represented by this centre. This thesis will explore the musical output of the composers involved in dance-music during this period, and will also demonstrate their wider influence on Australian music.
While this is the first doctoral thesis to cover the history of contemporary Australian music for dance, a number of smaller studies on specific works have been written. Elke
Hockings' thesis Music for Dance31 concerns itself with the music of Barry Conyngham and analyses two works: Vast and Water...Footsteps...Time... . Hockings discusses her method of analysing dance-music through four different approaches. Firstly, she looks at the choreographer's own ideas on the music (in 'real time' for the ballet
Water...Footsteps...Time…). Secondly, she considers the restrictions of theatre and their impact on the music. Thirdly, she examines how music and dance are discussed
29Bebbington, Warren. The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 1997. 30Whiteoak and Scott-Maxwell, 2003. 31Hockings, Elke. Music for Dance: an academic approach to dance music with special consideration of Barry Conyngham's music for dance. Honours thesis, St Lucia, Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1992. 15 similarly, and finally she refers to anthropological investigations of shared meanings in dance and music, as can be found in cross-cultural studies in Aboriginal dance-music studies32. Hockings argues that "applied music calls for an applied theory, deriving its logic from the other discipline"33. She states that dance-music is part of a co-operative project and is different from concert hall music because it represents something that is concrete: the physical presence of dancers on a stage. Her study discusses attitudes and approaches to dance-music from both a composer's and a choreographer's point of view.
However, the composers and choreographers that she quotes, in examining discussions in music and dance, are from a wide range of nationalities, periods and genres.
Contrastingly, this thesis will concern itself solely with the composers and choreographers in Australia between 1960 and 2000, so that attitudes are particularly contemporary with and relevant to the actual works and social context.
Amanda Meale's thesis Composer as Artisan: Carl Vine and the dance34 is an interesting exploration of how Vine has been able to maintain his artistic integrity while fulfilling collaborative requests. Her study, through her inclusion of many discussions with Vine, is revealing about Vine's changing attitude towards composing for dance. The works discussed in Meale's study include Vine's dance works Piano Sonata, Legend, A
Christmas Carol, The Tempest, and Daisy Bates, with conclusions on how Vine's personal style has remained intact. Other minor theses include Laura Peden's discussion of collaborative techniques in The Collaborative Process35 and Julie Montague's thesis
32Hockings, Abstract, 1992. 33Hockings, Abstract, 1992. 34Meale, Amanda. Composer as Artisan: Carl Vine and the dance. BMus thesis, Sydney: University of Sydney, 9th November 1993. 35Peden, Laura. The Collaborative Process. Graduate Diploma in Music thesis, Melbourne: Victorian College of the Arts, 23 October 1992. 16 on experimental dance collaborations found in Australia, focusing on improvisation in contemporary dance36.
Some composers and choreographers have contributed their own writings on the subject, particularly exploring their creative methods used in personal dance works. As
Warren Burt and Greg Schiemer have pointed out:
...a ... problem exists with regard to serious musicological writing about (especially non-score based) Australian music.... it is unfortunate that composers are forced to moonlight as musicologists (and, it might be added, as critics) in order for their work to be documented and discussed intelligently. (Nearly all writing done on the history of experimental music in Australia, for example, has been done by composers).37
Composer writings on dance-music include detailed discussions, such as the PhD thesis by composer Jim Franklin who documented his collaborations with the choreographer
Chin Kham Yoke for the works Middle Dance and Naratic Visions38. Other writings consist of smaller articles published in journals such as Brolga, New Music Australia and in particular Sounds Australian, which devoted an entire issue to composer discussions on dance collaboration, edited by the composer Stephen Leek, who himself has been a composer-in-residence with TasDance39.
One of the aims of this study is to comprehensively document the works and involvement of Australian composers with other artists, locally and internationally.
Provided in Appendix A, the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia
1960-2000 is an exhaustive catalogue of works, composers, choreographers and dance companies involved during this period. It runs to one hundred and fourteen pages and is
36Montague, Julie. The Role of Improvisation in Collaborative Repertoire: a study of contemporary Australian performance art and music/dance events. Master of Music thesis, Sydney: University of New South Wales. August 1993. 37Burt, Warren. Refering to Greg Schiemer's article in Sounds Update. From Burt's article Do we really need more arts coverage? Australian Music Centre archives, date unknown. 38Franklin, Jim. Between Worlds. PhD thesis, Sydney: Sydney University, 1997.
17 an extensive list of dance works and supporting information. Various sources were used in the compilation of this catalogue: many archives, many dance companies and many composers. The following table, Table 1.2, lists the sources used for the compilation of the catalogue. It is of course quite separate from the bibliography for this thesis which is found in the usual place at the end of the thesis text.
Table 1.2: Resources used for the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000.
Published - A Dictionary of Australian Music. Edited by Warren Bebbington.,Melbourne: Books Oxford University Press, 1998. - Broadstock, Brenton, Sound Ideas: Australian composers born since 1950, a guide to their music and ideas. The Rocks, New South Wales: Australian Music Centre, 1995. - Cargher, John. Opera and Ballet in Australia. Stanmore, New South Wales: Cassell Australia 1977. - Dramatic Music. Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1977. - Jenkins, John. 22 Contemporary Australian Composers. Melbourne: NMA Publications, 1988. - Potter, Michelle. A Passion for Dance. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997. Online
39Leek, Stephen. The Music, the Dance. Sounds Australian. Volume 22, Winter 1989, whole issue. 18 Table 1.2: Resources used for the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000 continued.
Dance ask Dance Theatre
Individual Andy Arthurs:
19 Table 1.2: Resources used for the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000 continued.
Individual Phillip Houghton:
Newspapers and A full listing is given in the bibliography. Reviews and details were found in articles Magazines from the following publications: 24 Hours 2MBS-FM Program Guide The Advertiser The Age Art Network Attitudes and Arabesques Australasian Accent The Australian/Weekend Australian Australian Ballet News The Australian Financial Review Bangarra Newsletter Bicentenary '88 Bicentennial Arts Newsletter Boosey & Hawkes Repertoire Guide The Boston Globe The Canberra Times Classic FM 4MBS Program Guide The Courier Mail The Daily Telegraph Dance Magazine The Herald-Sun ISCM Journal The Leader Leonardo
20 Table 1.2: Resources used for the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000 continued.
Newspapers and The Melburnian Magazines The Mercury continued Musical Times Musicworks The National Times New Directions News (WA Ballet Company) The Northern Herald Quarternotes Sounds Australian Soundscapes Stereo FM Radio The Sun-Herald The Sunday Telegraph The Sydney Morning Herald The Sydney Review Theatre Australia Times on Sunday Vogue: Bicentennial Arts Guide West Australian
During the collaboration process, the meaningful product made is the dance work itself, which stands as a combination of many individual ideas, skills, time and creativity.
Information about the work such as when the work was performed or what instrumentation was used is often forgotten when the work disappears from a repertoire, sometimes immediately after the first performance. Because of this problem, many different resources were consulted to gather reliable information for the Catalogue of
Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000. The table of resources shown in
Table 1.2 includes library archives, individual dance companies records (often held on websites, with limited information), newspaper reviews, journalistic books, reference works and individual composers’ websites. The process of finding information on dance works with original music for this study began at the Australian Music Centre and with reference dictionaries such as The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Once all the individual composer biographies and associated reviews were consulted (to find any mention of writing for dance), dance companies were contacted and asked to
21 provide information on works that used commissioned composers. Many companies commented that they had already included this information on their websites, while other companies sent lists of works that used original dance-music. Individual composers were then contacted to clarify or add to details already found. Some composers noted that they had recorded this type of information on their own personal websites, while others sent replies, providing extra information. A tabulation of this information can be seen in the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia
1960-2000, Appendix A. The gaps that still exist in the catalogue demonstrate that not all information, such as instrumentation or performance dates, can be found on all works, even after checking this with all these sources. Throughout the process, the problems of incomplete recorded information particularly about the music have not always been solved: the memories of choreographers, companies and composers themselves become hazy in a remarkably short time. Nonetheless, a comprehensive representation of works during the period 1960-2000 has been gathered, and an analysis of this list will be made in Chapter Two.
Analytical Context:
Current writings about the analysis of multimedia works include various explorations of ways to document the relationships between dance and music. The purpose of investigating this literature is to acknowledge this area of research and to find an appropriate methodology for discussion of dance-music for this thesis. The method by which music for dance should be considered is a debatable, changing topic, still actively researched, as composers and choreographers themselves continually question and alter the relationships between music and dance in performance. Widening the search to dance-specific and music-specific literature reveals that there are limited resources on
22 the interrelationships between music and dance. In sources such as The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians40, there are no articles that focus on music for ballet or dance of this tradition. Rather a history of ballet and dance is given, with limited mention of its music mainly in reference to the composers involved. In dance resources, it is common to mention the composer's name, but not the title of the piece, or what the music sounded like. For example, The Oxford Dictionary of Dance41 does not have any general articles outlining music or choreo-musical relationships. Even in reference books such as music dictionaries, different headings are given to the same music. The variety of headings reveals the range of views held on the relationship of music to dance. Naturally, these opinions differ according to which side of the collaborative coin the artist involved originates.
An obvious and major difficulty with multimedia research is that the researcher may be expert in one area, but have limited understanding of the other artform involved. The fact that dance and music share similar jargon with different meanings also can confuse the discussion. To add to the confusion dance notations, such as Labanotation and
Benesh, are less satisfactory in appearance than music notation, and one method of dance notation does not fit all. The purpose of this study is not to discuss detailed dance-music relationships, nor to add to the confusing plethora of research into how collaborative relationships should be discussed. However, in this survey of collaborative analysis and dance notation theory, some important insights have been highlighted particularly those which focus on the elements of dance that impact on the sound of the music written for dance.
40Sadie, Stanley, editor. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2000.
23 The attempt to unravel the relationship of music to the dance has bearing on how dance- music should be analysed. Here there have been two principal methods. The first and more recent one is to consider the music as part of the total context of the dance work.
The second and older approach considers the music in isolation from its context. Here a partial synthesis is attempted where the ethnomusical concern with context extends a traditional musicological approach.
In the first method it is necessary to unpack the relationship of the music to the dance.
If the music has been composed first, then the dance that goes with it might have had very little impact on the form of the music. But if the music and dance have been created together, or if the music was created after the dance, then the dance might have had a major impact on the shape and structure of the music.
Another possibility was explored in Post-Modern dance trends, when John Cage and
Merce Cunningham attempted to give all elements of a dance production equal artistic merit. Their partnership took collaboration in a new direction, where both music and dance were composed separately, sometimes in isolation and first combined only at the actual performance. The end result is unlike traditional collaboration where one combined artform is produced. Here several artforms stimulate various perceptions of the viewer. Post-Modern ideologies concerning experimentation in dance date from the
1960s in America and some of the newer works involved in this research may have been influenced by them42. A shift of focus in recent academic research analyses the unfolding performance of multimedia forms rather than the process of composition,
41Craine, Debra and Mackrell, Judith. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2000, reissued 2004. 42Cameron-Wolfe, Richard. Interviewed by Katherine Teck. Music for the Dance: reflections on a collaborative art. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989, 51. 24 giving the audience equal status with the composer and choreographer. This has resulted in a narrative form of research presentation incorporating literary analytical concepts, and making the analysis available to choreographers, composers and observers without the need to understand intricate details of each discipline. The accessibility of this method of research will assist multimedia forms to become more prominent in academic discussion. Narrative theories however are dependent on the assumptions that readers are familiar with the dance work being analysed, and that the records of the work, for example, scores, videos and recordings, will survive alongside the research for reference. Another concern with the use of narrative methods is that choreographic researchers and musicologists will no longer attempt to learn each others’ detailed languages, and these skills may be lost over time. As this is a thesis detailing an area of Australian music in which limited preservation of records is a large concern, the thesis will use existing musicological methods to describe the music. In turn, the thesis and its documentation of these works will act as a preservation source.
The second method considers that all elements of a production can be broken down and studied individually without the context needing to be known. If scores are composed in relative isolation prior to the dance being created, then surely the dance is purely a choreographer's interpretation of what they have heard. And if this is the case, then surely the music alone can be analysed without knowing what the choreography was. In many cases, particular pieces of music have attracted several choreographers at different times, and they have all presented their own interpretations in dance. This has demonstrated that different interpretations for one piece of music can exist. Besides, it is more difficult to take the dance-side of the collaborative partnership away and present it by itself without music, than to take the music away and present it without the dance.
25 In the past, when ballet music in particular has been analysed, the musicologist has mostly been concerned with the music and only its success in existing as a piece of music, rather than as an integral part in a production. In attempting to analyse
Australian dance-music, it would be beneficial to be able to take into consideration the dance formulated for the music, yet lack of expertise in the area of choreographic analysis produces difficulties. An alternative approach would be to analyse the music according to the relationship it has with motion and portrayal of imagery, which are the elements that the music has in common with dance.
Dance and music relationships have been discussed and explored by many composer/choreographer partnerships43. In the past, music has been seen as an accompaniment to dance but in the last century methods of collaboration have been explored to find a more equal ‘footing’ for dance-music. However, there is no single process used in combining artforms for dance. The balance of the dance and music relationship varies depending on who is involved in the collaboration. In Australian dance-music, many of the choreographers have worked according to collaborative relationship structures where the creative process involves one artform being influenced by the other, as discussed in Chapter Three. The ideal of creating one work combining many artforms, where composer and choreographer can exchange creative ideas, is often the aim, but not always the outcome. In Australian dance-music from 1960 to
2000, the focus has been on producing works where the various artforms relate to each other and result in a true collaboration. Australian composer Herb Jercher has stated that:
43 For example, Cage and Cunningham; Balanchine and Stravinsky. 26 A between-ness of Dance Music should be comprised of an overall view to compatibility, complementarity and convergence. Treating each other with equality is the best facilitator of different kinds of excellence.44
Knowing that dance and music are written to interact with each other gives insight as to what dance-music is. Dance-music has a different role from music written for the concert hall setting. Because it is one element in a combined artform, the extent to which music interacts with dance and the way this interaction is achieved needs to be examined to evaluate it correctly. As Kerman has said:
… by removing the bare score from its context in order to examine it as an autonomous organism, the analyst removes that organism from the ecology that sustains it.45
If the music made for dance is discussed in terms that avoid its context of origin, then often little value can be found in the music. Instead it is dismissed, a result that has been common but lacks insight. Australian dance companies from 1960 onwards consist of groups with many different influences originating from areas such as the French and
Russian classical tradition, the American contemporary dance movement and local
Aboriginal dance. Australian choreographers and composers have varying opinions about the elements that are important in dance-music. These origins give a way to discuss a type of music that often does not perform well on its own but is a vital and brilliant partner in its collaborative role. While similar characteristics found in dance- music can be found in all other music genres, their use in dance-music demonstrates their role in the combined association, and therefore captures the music's essential significance. The main purpose of dance-music is to make music that will compel, interact with, and express dance movement. For this to happen, motion must be heard in the music.
44Jercher, Herb. Four dance composers. Sounds Australian. Volume 22, Winter 1989, 16.
27 Traditionally, why does music accompany dance and not simply lighting or words? The rise and fall of phrases, the texture and timbre of instruments and the regular rhythmic pulses of music often compel people to dance, making it the natural partner of dance, the channel of communication between spectators and dancers. Some works of music are more suited to dance than others, because they contain elements that dancers can use to give shape to their own movement.
The relationship between music and dance is obviously seen at the time of performance, when the two artforms are inextricably linked but the relationship is established during the process of creation. It becomes apparent from listening to Australian dance-music, that music which is suitable for dance needs to have contrasting sections (often short), underlying rhythmic pulses or structures, simple statements, all with an inherent sense of motion through time. In this thesis, the elements which have been found to influence and determine the form of dance-music are grouped to assist the analysis and discussion as shown in Figure 1.1. The three groups identified are the temporal characteristics; the interpretive characteristics; and the context in which the piece was written. The contextual category includes the composer’s and choreographer’s ideals and methods of working, their backgrounds and their aesthetics. The overall background which has just been discussed falls into this category.
The temporal characteristics include the necessity for time to provide a backbone to the entire collaboration process. Whether or not a choreographer matches the music beat by beat to their movement, there is an overriding factor of duration that provides a structure to work by, in creating a dance work. Elements such as the length of the work, lengths
45Kerman, J. Contemplating Music: challenges to musicology. Cambridge, USA: Harvard University Press, 1985, 72. 28 Figure 1.1: Framework for the analysis of dance-music. Contextual Ź Composer’s and choreographer’s influences, background and aesthetic aims.
Ź Reason for collaboration and resources available.
Ź Method of collaboration.
COMPOSITION OF THE DANCE-MUSIC
Temporal Interpretive Ź Rhythmical features. ŹChoice of, and interpretation of, synopsis. Ź Compositional structure. ŹStructural changes to follow drama. Ź Lengths of phrases. ŹCharacters of motives. Ź Length of movements and total work. ŹHarmonic structure. Ź Number of dancers and musicians. ŹMelodic material. Ź Size of instrumental ensemble.
of phrases and rhythmic motives will give clues as to how a choreographer uses the music to enable co-ordination of dancers, lighting and sets. Most listeners recognise that rhythm is the backbone of dance because time, which dictates rhythm, accents, pulse, meter, tempo changes, and so on, also dictates when a dancer begins and ends dancing, as well as the imagery and vivacity of the type of dancing. These characteristics are those which are categorised under ‘temporal’ in Figure 1.1.
The other group is described here as interpretive. This can be analysed through examining the composer's interpretation of a synopsis. The chosen character of motives, the use of contrasting sections of music to imitate the drama, melodic motives and
29 cadence points provide lows and highs in emotion. The way these contextual, temporal and interpretive characteristics are related and displayed within a dance work and its music, can be illustrated in Figure 1.1. This figure demonstrates that the physical and practical elements of time, length and texture interact with the interpretive elements of drama and imagery. Both these temporal and interpretive ingredients react with each other and are dependent on each other as represented by the arrows in the diagram. For example, contrasting dramatic sections may be determined by differing time signatures, tempi and rhythmic motives. The context in which the work is conceived can, and often does, affect all of these elements but does not necessarily alter the type of work produced. However, the context in which the work is produced is a specific influence that filters into the temporal and interpretive influences which define and create characteristic elements of the entire dance work. This contextualisation of a dance work can include consideration of who commissioned the work, the type of relationship the choreographer and composer had, and the individual influences and backgrounds each collaborator brought to the project.
These are all elements that are historical, and unfortunately often fade into the background once the work is performed. Many people, companies and ideas can have input into a dance work, but when the dance work is finally created, it has a new life at the time of performance, existing in its own right. Through this preliminary sectionalising of the important aspects of the music that dance movement is dependent upon, the choreo-musical relationship will begin to appear.
In the following discussion, acknowledgement is made of where some of the ideas found useful for this thesis have come from. This scheme for analysis has been drawn
30 up after careful and extended consideration of similar schemes proposed by dance and music scholars. This thesis however deals with a specific repertoire in a way which does not always fit precisely into the categories used in previous analyses. At the same time, differences between this approach and earlier ones are highlighted and explained.
Paul Hodgins, in his work Relationships Between Score and Choreography in
Twentieth-Century Dance: music, movement and metaphor46, divides the shared relationships into similar sections as detailed above. The divisions, as Hodgins views it, consist of intrinsic relationships, originating from "the realms of musical and kinesthetic gesture", which are "unprejudiced by content" and the extrinsic relationships which
"admit the presence of an implied third partner to the choreo-musical marriage"47, for example a narrative event. Under these two headings, there is no acknowledgement for the context in which the work was conceived or the background and influences each collaborator brought to the relationship as the ‘extrinsic’ relationships refer to theatrical concerns. However ‘extrinsic’ concerns need to be extended outside of the theatre. For example, if a composer only had two days to write a work, which would be considered to be a contextual factor, this may affect the use of repetition more than the temporal considerations of repetition in a dance work. Also if a government body commissions a work for a national event, this may affect choice of subject matter. The context in which the work is written affects the outcome in a specific sense and therefore cannot be omitted in the analysis of dance-music. Hodgins also states that some dance passages may belong to both groups (and subgroups within these groupings) at the same time. It may also be argued that within these groups are relationships that cross both temporal and interpretive areas and rely heavily on each other, affecting each other, as seen with the example of rhythm and imagery given above. However Hodgins admits
46Hodgins, Paul. Relationships Between Score and Choreography in Twentieth-Century Dance: music, movement and metaphor. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. 31 that he is concentrated on a narrow area of choreo-musical analysis, whereas this study begins from a wider perspective that is the surrounding context in which Australian dance-music has been written48.
Another recent scholar of dance-music relationships has been Stephanie Jordan, with her two works Moving Music: dialogues with music in twentieth-century ballet49, and
Music as a Structural Basis in the Choreography of Doris Humphrey: with reference to
Humphrey's use of music visualization techniques and musical-choreographic counterpoint and to the historical context of her work50. Through her study of
Humphrey’s choreo-musical style, she has combined theories of analysis from film, literature and musicology, and applied these to well-known balletic choreographers such as Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine and Anthony Tudor. Some issues she has outlined are the importance of music to the dance and how most balletic choreographers in the past have been inspired by music or found music the source to their works51. She further discusses the questions choreographers have explored concerning the importance of music to their work, including whether dance can be composed in silence. During the 20th century, ballet has moved from being purely narrative to having more possibilities such as being without plots:
therefore, in a fundamental sense, ‘about’ its music. The one-act structure, already well-established, became the dominant framework for ballet.52
47Hodgins, 1992, 25. 48Hodgins, 1992, 30. 49Jordan, Stephanie. Moving Music: dialogues with music in twentieth-century ballet. London: Dance Books, 2000. 50Jordan, Stephanie. Music as a Structural Basis in the Choreography of Doris Humphrey: with reference to Humphrey's use of music visualization techniques and musical-choreographic counterpoint and to the historical context of her work. PhD thesis, London: University of London, 1986. 51Jordan, 2000, 3. 52Jordan, 2000, 4. 32 Consequently developments in dance have increased their reliance on musical structure, moving away from dependence on synopses. Jordan goes on to explain:
Music was also a liberating force. Its forms, such as repetition and theme/variation structures and contrapuntal textures, could play an important part in the development of new choreographic forms, particularly more expansive ‘symphonic’ forms without the restraints of plot. They could also operate as a sophisticated complement to the new symphonic dance structures…. The structural potential for dance, guided by musical principles, was interrogated much more deeply during the twentieth century…The use of strong existing scores that had not been composed for ballet provided the new dance with depth and alternatives to the cliché rhythms and short dance and mime numbers of traditional ballet music. This approach was not unknown in ballet, but, from the late nineteenth century, Duncan and other artists from outside ballet were instrumental in bringing it into new prominence…However, during the early years of the century, ballet also became an important commissioning platform for composers of the highest order. Composing for the ballet was now seen less as a job for opera house hacks than an undertaking for serious composers. One of the most important achievements of the impresario Diaghilev was the establishment of the new platform, a flurry of musical commissions, raising the status of dance by putting it alongside the most interesting and complex contemporary music and in the company of fine composers and performing musicians. 53
As Jordan has stated, during the 20th century, the qualities of music became important to dance and led to the increased commissioning of “fine” composers54. This history of the development of the importance of music commissions from ballet has not been yet realised in Australia, where since 1960 a flurry of commissions for different styles of dance (not just ballet) has provided composers with new opportunities for interactions.
Over time further research into choreographic music and other multimedia forms in
Australia will lead to more exploration of analytical theories. In Europe, researchers such as Jordan have begun outlining their methodology, as can be seen here. Jordan begins by drawing on film theory and cites choreographers such as Doris Humphreys who has suggested that the eye sees quicker than the ear hears, implying that dance is considered to be the more important in the power relationship between music and dance55. She argues that film theory in the past has privileged vision over music in the relationship also, until recently, where the “subversive potential of music” has been
53Jordan, 2000, 4-5. Emphasis added. 54Jordan uses the term ‘fine’. 2000, 4-5. 55Jordan, 2000, 64. 33 realized56. She quotes Claudia Gorbman who suggests a “mutual implication” of music and image:
working together in a ‘combinatoire of expression’... Similarly, Kathryn Kalinak uses the conceptual model of music and image sharing power in a mechanism of interdependence…music infects the dance so deeply that it looks different as a result: movement is not seen for its own independent values. This is one ‘whole’ experience, music and dance inextricably combined….These examples refer to music as a site of meaning…first in terms of music by itself, and then as its meanings are brought into combination with dance57.
The combination of music and dance, which Jordan refers to as happening during performance, also reflects the collaboration prior to performance. In addition to this,
Jordan claims that music is used by choreographers for its emotional content, not so much its structural qualities. She notes that certain structural qualities, for example key and harmony, have over time had fashions in mood and expressiveness of dance, which can also have ‘narrative implications’58. She also summarises other analytic bases:
Both McClary and Newcomb demonstrate the fact that form in music is not ‘pure’; it is not devoid of meaning. The point is supported by the fact that formal devices are seen to contain meaning in other representational arts. In novels, paintings, theatre and television, conventions and stylistic devices are seen to have narrative meaning, as much as the level of character and story.59
Of musicologist Carolyn Abbate’s research, Jordan says:
Abbate’s work encourages me to consider that there are musical and choreographic moments in ballet too that cut across the overt story and that we can interpret as flashbacks, devices of insertion, moments of mild distancing or bold dissonance, ‘fissures’…Dance and music are seen to operate dialectically, informing each other, rather than in a one-way relationship between a leading and an accompanying force. Given this, the parallelism/counterpoint model remains useful in a consideration of structural relationships between music and dance. It is used here to evoke the concept of a continuum rather than of two polarities of parallelism and counterpoint.60
In contemporary dance it is particularly difficult to discern the origins of dance-music interactions, as is implied in Jordan’s description of relationships that inform each other.
56Jordan, 2000, 64. 57Jordan, 2000, 64-65. 58Jordan, 2000, 66. 59Jordan, 2000, 67. 60Jordan, 2000, 72-73. 34 From this analytical discussion, Jordan then moves into analysing existing works from the observer’s viewpoint, works that are established in the balletic tradition. This study follows Jordan’s description of the ways that dance and music inform each other, and the extent to which each medium does this will be demonstrated through the emerging trends in choreo-musical collaborative techniques in Australia 1960-2000. The current trend of narrative discussions is seen here as a promising line of research.
Nicholas Cook, in his work Analysing Musical Multimedia61 proposes a structure for multimedia discussion, such as that of dance and music. This method, as appears below in Figure 1.2, outlines three models, that of conformance, complementation and contest.
Conformance, as Cook notes, relies on a parallel relationship between music and medium62. Complementation applies when each medium has its own separate and equal value: important to each other but not contesting each other63. The third type of multimedia relationship that can exist is that of contest, where each medium is “vying for the same terrain” and “trying to deconstruct the other and so create space for itself”64. Some difficulties arise with this model according to which part of the performance is analysed. If the performance is analysed by the audience or observer, then one type of relationship may be viewed. This may oppose the intentions of the choreographer and composer during collaboration stages. For example, the aim of collaboration may be complementation but the result may be conformance in the presentation of the work. In addition some collaborative relationships may move between the three models within the one work as leitmotif does in opera. These models
61Cook, Nicholas. Analysing Musical Multimedia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 99. 62Cook, 1998, 98. 63Cook, 1998, 104. 64Cook, 1998, 107. 35 are an appropriate starting point in attempting to define music’s role but do not point the analyst towards why the music may play different parts.
Figure 1.2. Cook’s models for analysing musical multimedia.65
Again this is a suitable style of analysis for an existing known and recorded work but not entirely suitable for a preliminary study of music and dance in Australia. In Chapter
Three it will be shown that some Australian choreographers wanted the music to direct the dance, while Australian composers sometimes felt that they should conform to choreographers’ wishes. Therefore relationships could be viewed as contradictory when
65Cook, 1998, 99. 36 applied to process rather than performance outcomes. On this basis, Cook’s models will be not be used here, because it relies on performance only and is more suited to other performance media. In this study the aims are to research the collaboration and its impact. This research demonstrates the influence choreographers have had on composers and their style, and analyses the methodologies composers have used to approach problems in writing for dance.
Plan:
The structure of this thesis will outline the impact of Australian dance on music via two routes. The first, a broad, general approach, looks at the backgrounds in which dance works have been produced including commissioning opportunities and attitudes towards collaboration. The second is a more detailed investigation looking at case studies of works, if and how writing for dance has influenced individual composers and their musical style. The case-studies will draw conclusions about how composers have altered their writing dependent on the input of others, such as choreographers. There will also be discussion about the differences in writing for different dance aesthetics.
The separations of these sections will reflect the structure of Figure 1.1 that is the contextual, temporal and interpretive aspects of dance-music.
The contexts in which dance works are conceived are the processes behind collaboration, without being the collaboration itself. This is the broad application of the argument of dance-based influences on composers. Composers face restrictions, for example of time, instrumentations, and subject matter, when writing for dance. These restrictions influence the outcome of the work, that is, the sound of the work. However, within these restrictions, composers are still able to work with originality and personal
37 style. These restrictions can be negative in a sense of limiting a composer's scope, but they can also be positive and go on to influence the rest of the composer's output, adding significance to the development of Australian music. While this argument is true for individual composers, it can also be applied to the broad output and development of Australian music. That is, that the specific requisites of dance companies, choreographers and associated groups may have influenced and impacted on the outcome and development of Australian music. The commissioning of Australian composers for dance provides an extra genre for composers to develop in. The number of commissions is indicative of the surge in Australian music and dance training, funding and general interest. It also demonstrates the history of dance companies in
Australia, and the growths experienced in the establishment and trends of dance companies and dance styles. The development of certain styles of music has been parallel to developments and trends in dance. Chapter Two will introduce this discussion, through a short history of dance companies and their commissioning of
Australian composers, a history which will demonstrate how widespread the employment of local composers has been. The Catalogue of Original Music for the
Dance in Australia 1960-2000 66 will also be explored, focusing on trends in choreographical choices and how these trends have affected the musical results. The choice of instrumentation and the total lengths of works, for example, both tabulated in the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000, will be shown to have been highly significant. This chapter will demonstrate, in general terms, how dance has impacted on and reflected trends in Australian music.
66Appendix A. 38 Chapter Three will focus on choreographers’ and composers’ ideas illustrating how they have viewed each other’s disciplines. Opinions on the role music plays in dance, as well as collaboration methodologies will be outlined. Some examples of successful and unsuccessful relationships from 1960-2000 will be detailed, with conclusions summarising the collaborative style that has been most favoured during this period.
How a composer has set about writing a score for dance will be shown to be heavily dependent on the collaborative style.
Chapters Four to Seven will examine the direct effect of collaboration on individual dance works. This will be carried out through the investigation of individual compositions, analysing contextual, temporal or interpretive elements that have impacted on the specific work directly. The relationships between music and dance, which have already been discussed, vary according to the types of dance and music styles existing at that time. When composers state that they have composed for dance, this could mean anything from improvising on a sound effects machine, to spending six months or more on creating and notating a symphonic score. There are four areas within Australian dance that will be discussed: classical ballet; modern dance; dance theatre; and experimental dance. Musical examples will be given of how the collaborative process has shaped the music, and how this has influenced the composer's style in successive works. The works studied in these chapters have been chosen according to accessibility of film, scores and recordings, and for interesting and relevant features of the works. The four areas of Australian dance listed above have indistinct edges and serve only to give a framework for the discussion. Many composers have worked with more than one type of dance. However, the type of dance can affect the style of collaboration, instrumentation, length, direction and focus of the music. There
39 really are no precise boundaries, as ballet now intersects with modern dance, theatrical elements are added such as film, and experimentation is not limited to the post- modernists. Garry Lester in his thesis regarding the Australian choreographer Kai Tai
Chan, paraphrased the dance critic John Martin:
…Modern Dance is not a system but an attitude to movement. I am using this term in preference to ‘contemporary’ which means ‘belonging to the same time, especially as oneself; equal in age’. Any form of dance existing at the same time as another may be termed contemporary; it gives no indication of what may be the distinguishing features of that particular form…many choreographers imported the techniques and philosophies of American modern dance. The techniques brought back to this country included Graham, Horton, Limon, Cunningham, and ‘post modern’ strategies as evidenced in the work of Trisha Brown, Twyla Tharp and Contact Improvisation practitioners among others.67
Lester lists some of these local choreographers as Jacqui Carroll, Ray Cook, Russell
Dumas, Paul Saliba, Cheryl Stock, Andris Toppe, Graeme Watson, Garth Welch,
Nanette Hassall and Leigh Warren. Lester says that the:
..vocabularies and syntaxes used by Australian choreographers in the 1960s and 1970s were codified and extant paradigms borrowed from overseas, particularly the USA, whilst (as we have seen ) from the late 30s until that time there was a strong European influence often imparted by Europeans who were resident in Australia. An interesting observation that can be made about this situation is that the American traditions called modern and postmodern [sic] dance became an international currency in the non ballet concert dance realm.68
While international terminologies such as ‘post-modern’ or ‘dance-theatre’ may be applied to local dance styles, the way these styles will have been incorporated locally remains individual according to a choreographer’s aesthetics. This is why there is difficulty in the application of definitions of style, and these limitations are acknowledged.
Chapter Four will examine classical ballet commissions. The number of ballet scores commissioned by professional Australian ballet companies, 1960-2000, is smaller than
67Lester. 2000, 38, 45. 68Lester, 2000, 47. 40 the number commissioned by other dance companies. Audiences have expected a mix of traditional repertoire with new works from these companies and this has in turn affected the number and style of local composers chosen to be commissioned. Often fantasy or fairytale-type scenarios have been used for new works, for example Richard
Mill's Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, and Colin Brumby's Alice in Wonderland. Larger budgets, plus access to the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra have enabled composers to write orchestral compositions. The process of commissioning has often involved using known composers, whose reputations are already established in
Australian music. These new balletic works have often experienced multiple performances during one season, and sometimes return seasons later. The work that will be discussed is Malcolm Williamson’s The Display.
Chapter Five will examine modern dance companies' commissions, with particular emphasis on the Sydney Dance Company’s director and choreographer Graeme
Murphy. Carl Vine’s works Piano Sonata and Poppy are examples of Graeme Murphy’s frequent commissioning of Australian composers. Murphy's career has shown the extent to which he has been influenced by the collaboration methods used by Nijinsky and Diaghilev. For example, Murphy has regularly commissioned emerging composers, maintained artistic relationships with these composers by inviting them back to write other works. Collaborative processes achieve a unity of purpose, and some commentators have ascribed their popularity to the unity achieved69. A cross-section of themes has been attempted, with works being both challenging and entertaining, and
Murphy has deliberately chosen particular composers for particular themes. In modern dance, there still have been references to old forms, such as classical ballet, but other
69For example, see Jones, Deborah. Ageless age of Murphy. The Australian. 12th May, 2000, 11. 41 elements such as film and puppets onstage have also been used. Some dance works have also placed the accompanying musicians onstage. The accompanying instrumentation has varied with each work, from electronic scores and improvised percussion in for example Michael Askill's Free Radicals to live accompaniment such as Carl Vine's
Piano Sonata, for which Michael Kieran Harvey performed onstage with the dancers.
Many of these works have enjoyed repeat performances which have meant that many dance audiences have heard new music compositions from local composers.
Scores composed for dance-theatre will be discussed in Chapter Six. As with contemporary dance works dance-theatre involves the use of other artforms, including film and onstage musicians. Outside influences such as popular culture have been utilized in the dance, and this has included the incorporation of electro-acoustic scores.
An example of this is found in the works by the Bangarra Dance Theatre, which has employed David Page as a resident composer. Indigenous themes have been explored in works such as Ochres and these themes have been combined with modern dance- theatre styles. This chapter will examine parallels between original music by Page for dance, with Australian music in general, discussing the development towards combining
Indigenous music with Western music.
Electro-acoustic scores have also been popular in experimental dance forms and this will be investigated in Chapter Seven. In this area of dance, collaborations have extended from a Cage/Cunningham tradition, where collaborations are perceived as a partnership with equal status of individual media. Collaborations have tended to be restricted to the involvement of the individual, that is, freelance dancers and composers/musicians, rather than ensembles or troupes. The dancer often has been the
42 choreographer, just as the composer has been the musician for performances. In some works, the composer has also become the dancer and a poet. Technology has played a very important role because of its accessibility, and therefore many works have been created in this genre. Composers and choreographers of this style have tended to perceive the artistic process towards performance as more important. Therefore experimentation has led to the construction of electronic equipment that can react to movement, so that a coherent relationship between music and movement can be attempted. An irony can be found in this, as music also became a slave to the movement, with the movement dictating the type of sound heard rather than being an equal partner. This paradox will be discussed in examining the works of Warren Burt and Eva Karczag.
The works in Chapters Four to Seven that have been chosen for case-studies are important works within their dance aesthetic. The Display (Williamson/Helpmann),
Poppy (Vine/Murphy), Ochres (Page/Page) and Fair Exchanges (Burt, Bandt/Innes), have been successful on many levels during the period 1960-2000. Together, The
Display, Poppy and Ochres have been performed hundreds of times. Contemporary reviews and academic writing in journals and theses have acknowledged the importance and significance of these works. Each is typical of the decade in which it was created.
The Display was the first Australian work produced by the Australian Ballet and representative of the type of narrative ballet that was popular during the 1960s. Poppy, from the 1970s, is an archetypal work of Graeme Murphy, demonstrating early on in his choreographic career his love for and debt to Jean Cocteau’s work. Fair Exchanges, created around the bicentenary year 1988, is a little different from the large-scale works that government funding promoted at this time, but is typical of the underground
43 experimentation that had been popular since the 1970s, and representative of the development and inclusion of technology into dance. Ochres, from the 1990s, is characteristic of the late emergence of Indigenous dance companies, as well as the genre of dance-theatre with references to pop culture and some lack of narrative in synopsis.
In each of these works, the composers remained true to the choreographers’ aesthetic intentions, and they therefore epitomise the outcomes possible in a good collaborative relationship.
Chapter Eight will draw conclusions about Chapters Four to Seven and examine developments and trends that have been altered or mirrored by dance. Trends such as the increased use of pastiche and direct referencing or derivative works are found typically in dance, but also occur in instrumental works such as Graeme Koehne's
Powerhouse and works of Matthew Hindson. The conclusions will draw together the collaborative context outlined in Chapters Two and Three and the analysed works in
Chapters Four to Seven. The findings of the analyses including the compositional devices typical of dance-music from this period will be summarised. Choreographers’ impact on Australian music will also be demonstrated. The advantages of analysing dance-music in the context of dance will be outlined and the points at which further research is obviously needed will be identified.
Conclusion:
Around two hundred composers in Australia have contributed original music for dance works, for both national and international dance companies, during the period 1960-
2000. These commissions have been diverse in character, in use of ensembles, lengths, types of commissions and style of music. Dance-music is the appropriate title to apply
44 to this corpus of music. To be properly understood this music should be investigated within the context in which it occurs. In this thesis, the historical situation of the dance companies, the available dance and music resources, the circumstances and conditions of the commission, the aesthetic context of the choreographer and composer and the particular working arrangements set up for the composition of each dance-work, have all been seen to impact on the form and structure of the dance-music produced.
Historical literature and archives, as well as interviews, have provided information on who has been involved, as well as the what, where and how of these collaborated dance works. The information from these sources has been documented in the Catalogue of
Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000 in Appendix A. The analytical literature on the relationship between music and dance and on appropriate methods to investigate that relationship has been explored.
The elements which originate from the theatrical nature of dance, the contextual elements affecting the nature of the dance-music, and the musical character of the dance-music have been modelled in this thesis into three overlapping categories, contextual, temporal and interpretive. This model expresses, in diagrammatic form, the relative position of these elements. It summarises the approach taken and illustrates the importance discovered here to belong to each of these factors.
While the historical and analytical research into choreo-musical relationships may seem distinct from each other, in fact this thesis, in its attempt to present a musicologically- based argument, relates these two areas to each other, combining historical context with collaborative outcomes. The history of the types and styles of Australian dance-music has been affected by the theories of analysis of choreo-musical relationships held by
45 individuals in collaboration. When considered from a wider perspective, this study has implications for developments in Australian music. The history of dance-music commissions in Australia needs to be discussed with reference to the information contained in the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000.
This catalogue, in Appendix A, is the first systematic account of the field of dance- music in Australia 1960-2000. It includes many more works than would be expected from a casual acquaintance with the field and demonstrates that the source materials for more complete and more definitive assessments of this field are now available. This thesis demonstrates that the contextual influences from outside the actual dance work can be seen to have impacted on the sound of the music, shows how this may be investigated and presents an extended list of the preliminary sources.
46 Chapter Two –
Collaborative opportunities for Australian composers during 1960-2000
A great many composers of various persuasions, dance groups, choreographers, designers and financial backers have collaborated together to produce works for dance in Australia during the period 1960 to 2000. In most cases, the collaboration process has been instigated by a dance company, choreographer or arts institution, with the composer following the requests of the commissioners. Commissions have not always involved composers receiving payment for their services. Because commissioning has usually been initiated by dance groups, this chapter will follow the development of dance companies involved in this period and their relationships with the composers they have commissioned to write music scores. The Australian Ballet, which developed out of the original Borovansky Ballet in the early 1960s, was one of the first to include completely original Australian works in its repertoire. Some individual states, Victoria,
New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, were home to their own professional ballet companies, and many of these groups aimed to include Australian composers in their commissioning. During the 1960s and 1970s, various splinter dance groups were founded, either by dancers leaving large ballet companies to pursue choreography themselves, or by dancers pursuing new artistic aims, as was the case with Indigenous dance companies. Most of these groups recognised the need to construct original works with original music so that their company’s continuing purpose, and the government’s funding requirements, could be fulfilled. Freelance choreographers have also collaborated with composers to produce individual new Australian works. Some major events during this period have also required original Australian works to celebrate national occasions, for example the
47 Bicentenary of Captain Phillip’s landing and the subsequent British colonisation of
Australia, and the Olympic Games held in 2000. Approximately 600 newly commissioned Australian musical works have been used by dance companies,
Australian and international, for dance productions during the period 1960 to 2000. All of these works have promoted Australian composers to an audience that may not otherwise have heard their music. Through all these various collaborations, the dance community in Australia has supported composers and made the local music and dance history richer.
Prominent national dance troupes:
The first Australian established ballet company, the Borovansky Ballet, ended its final season in February, 196170. Although only two Australian composers contributed scores for this troupe, the organisation was a forerunner to the first all-Australian national ballet company. In June 1962, Peggy van Praagh, the former Artistic Director of the Borovansky Ballet, began to audition for a new company, based in Melbourne, to be known as the Australian Ballet71. This new ballet company was to be the first dance company to receive government subsidies72. One of the Australian Ballet's artistic policies was:
(3) That a repertoire of ballets be built up, including the following: ...(c) Ballets of Australian origin - that is, to develop Australian choreographers and to encourage Australian composers and designers to collaborate in the production of new works.73
In 1990, the objectives of the Australian Ballet remained consistent with the 1962 polices, as it included the following:
70Crotty. 1999, 119. 71Pask, Edward H. Ballet in Australia - the Second Act 1940-1980. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982, 111. 72Pask, 1982, 111. 73Pask, 1982, 111. Emphasis added. 48 To stage the best classical and contemporary ballet productions for audiences in Australian capital cities. To employ the best Australian dancers and foster their development by eminent teachers and overseas experience. To encourage Australian choreographers, composers & designers. To tour internationally regularly.74
In order to achieve these aims, the Australian Ballet has employed staff specifically for music: their duties include the arrangement and organisation of orchestral scores. In
1990, for example, four music staff were employed full time as part of the 136 members of the company75.
The policies listed above were amongst other aims that included the performance of classical and contemporary 20th century ballets, as well as full-length 19th century classical ballets. Full-length ballets are those that fill an entire programme and can be anywhere between 40 minutes and 3 hours in length. The 19th-century classical ballet
Swan Lake opened their inaugural season in Sydney on the 2nd November 1962.
Throughout its history, the Australian Ballet has commissioned many Australian- choreographed works, but most were set to existing classically-based music, not newly
Australian-composed. One exception was the ballet Melbourne Cup, with traditional
Australian-European tunes arranged by Harold Badger. These pieces were combined with music by Suppé and Offenbach into a medley. Not until 1964 did the Australian
Ballet company finally produce its first original ballet, a work that was to remain in the company's repertoire for the next decade. This ballet, titled The Display, was premiered
14th March, with two other dance works, at the Adelaide Festival in 196476.
Choreographed and produced by the theatrical South Australian Robert Helpmann, with
74Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. “To be used as a resource for regional meetings concerned with all areas of dance”. Prepared by Peter Alexander and Ass. North Terrace, Hackney SA, September 1990. Initiated by the Australia Council, 60. Emphasis added. 75Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 60. 76Cargher. 1977, 266. 49 lighting by William (Bill) Akers, decor and costumes by Sidney Nolan, the ballet featured no international guest dancers or artists, signalling the strength of a company which could now rely on its own merit. The scenario, also by Helpmann, had an
Australian theme, comparing the lyrebird's mating habits with Australian social behaviour of the time. The music was written by Malcolm Williamson, and contributed to the overall accomplishment of this ballet. The Display was an immediate success, receiving twenty curtain calls at its premiere and "fifteen minutes of frenzied, prolonged ovation"77. A reviewer described the ballet, as published in the Adelaide Advertiser:
The world premiere of Robert Helpmann's eagerly-awaited ballet The Display was a theatrical triumph of Australian creativity in the field of art ... It is a significant milestone in Australian ballet and theatre generally. A forty-five minute work of world standard, it puts the Australian Ballet well on the way to fulfilling the role designed for it by its artistic director Peggy van Praagh. The curtain rises on a 'mystic morn' forest scene with the gradually increasing dawn light revealing Nolan's beautiful backcloth to the strains of descriptive music. A lyre-bird . . appears behind a gauze curtain and begins dancing while some of its famous imitation bird-calls are heard from the orchestra. As the music crescendos, the bird's tail opens to display its gorgeous brown and silver tones..78
The reviewer here commented on some of the obvious musical devices used within the score; discussion of The Display will be continued in Chapter Four. This first all-
Australian ballet achieved the aims of the Australian Ballet company to produce a successful ballet, using the talents of Australian artists and dancers. From its premier in
1964 to 1983, it has been performed 322 times79. The Display, along with another
Australian-composed ballet Jazz Spectrum toured Australia-wide as well as overseas.
In 1965, these ballets were part of the repertoire performed at: the Baalbek
International Festival in Lebanon; the Commonwealth Arts Festival in the UK, including a performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London; the
Third International Festival of Dance in Paris; and in Copenhagen, West Berlin and
77Pask, 1982, 121. 78Tidemann, Harold. Article name unknown. The Advertiser. Adelaide, 15th March, 1964. 79Crotty, Joel. The Display. The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997, 179. 50 Honolulu. The music for Jazz Spectrum was composed by Melbournian Les Patching.
John Cargher records that:
The other addition to the repertoire for the festival, Betty Pounder's Jazz Spectrum, was a most suitable curtain raiser and balanced the programme admirably, but it was hardly more than an extension of the kind of television ensemble ballet so popular at that time, an impression strengthened by the music specially written by Les Patching, a television band leader!80
Cargher wrote this in 1977, his attitude towards Jazz Spectrum reflecting a bias towards high art productions as opposed to popular productions. Regardless of an attitude that may have also been prevalent with audiences, Jazz Spectrum was toured overseas and stayed in the Australian Ballet's repertoire for the next four years. Towards 2000, the distinction between popular artists/composers and ballet/dance would be blurred as many popular composers would be commissioned for dance works.
Other ballets that the Australian Ballet had commissioned music for in the 1960s included Roundelay, and Illyria. Roundelay was composed by James Penberthy who had also been the musical director for the West Australian Ballet Company. This particular work was premiered at the season of opera and ballet in 1964, held by the
Elizabethan Trust Opera, in Sydney, and the Australian Ballet, in Brisbane.
Choreographed by Ray Powell, Roundelay was considered modern, suited for the younger generation, but was seen to appeal to all theatre patrons81.
Illyria, another Australian Ballet creation, was choreographed by Garth Welch with a score composed by Peter Tahourdin. Acknowledged as an Australian composer by ballet historians, Tahourdin was born in Hampshire, England and had written the ballet
80Cargher. 1977, 266. 81The Courier Mail. Brisbane, 24th July, 1964, page number unknown. 51 score Pierrot the Wanderer, which was televised by CBC Toronto in 195582. Illyria was first premiered at the 1966 Adelaide Arts Festival, at Her Majesty's Theatre. This ballet also later appeared on television, as was the trend during the 1960s. Televised ballets were produced as part of an arrangement between the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (the national television network, government owned, known also as the
ABC) and the Australian Ballet. This came about as in the ballet company’s early history they were without their own orchestra, a situation later addressed by the establishment of the Australian Ballet and Opera Orchestra. During the 1960s, when the ballet company toured nationally, it would use the local ABC-owned state orchestras to accompany performances. This also explains the trend towards ballet for television that emerged in the 1960s in Australia. Works such as The Display have survived on film and are held in the Australian Ballet archives83.
The next all-Australian work produced by the Australian Ballet, a landmark in the history of Australian dance music, was Sun Music, with music by Peter Sculthorpe.
This ballet premiered in 1968, with choreography by Robert Helpmann. Most of the music already existed in its own right as symphonic music and Sculthorpe wrote original music for the Fourth Movement of the dance work titled Energy. Fred Blanks, in his review for Sun Music noted that:
Sculthorpe's scientifically sonorous music, played by the orchestra at first and for the second scene amplified into the hall on tape, is perfectly in tune with the spirit. Throughout Sun Music the music suggests that it has all this time been searching for a choreographer to give it meaning, and in Helpmann has ended the search in perfection...As a showcase compendium of virtuosic teamwork between designer, composer and choreographer, Sun Music deserves a place of pride and would deserve it in any ballet company in the world84.
82a) Cargher. 1977, 137. b) Tahourdin, Peter Richard. The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997, 545. 83The ABC asked to televise each ballet in return for use of the orchestras. Therefore some of these early works survive on film, although rumours exist that the ABC reused their film, taping over previously televised programs. As noted to Rachel Hocking by Colin Peasley, 18th January, 2006. 84Blanks, Fred R. Untitled. Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, August, 1968, page number unknown. 52 Blank’s observation that the music was especially suitable for dance will be taken up by the discussion in Chapter Three. Reference to music providing visual imagery and assisting choreographers creating movement is expanded upon and Sun Music is highlighted as an example of choreographic requests and composer compliance. The ballet Sun Music was considered an important production in its time as it contained many obvious Australian associations such as the earthy colours used in the decor which reference ochre, and Aboriginal-like body painting for costumes. It was toured to the United States and England in 1970 and 1973 with success. However, it has not been revived since, even though at the time box office tickets broke previous records in sales. Sun Music consisted of five separate unrelated movements concerned with various aspects of the sun's influences: 'Soil'; 'Mirage'; 'Growth'; 'Energy' and
'Destruction'. Sun Music was to be Robert Helpmann's most successful production for the Australian Ballet as more than 25000 people Australia-wide attended this ballet during its first season85.
Since the Australian Ballet's conception in 1962, only sixteen of its ballets have involved the commissioning of Australian composers for dance music, although 90 have been original ballets using Australian choreographers and designers. The composers the Australian Ballet have commissioned for works include the previously mentioned Peter Sculthorpe, James Penberthy, Malcolm Williamson, Peter Tahourdin and Les Patching as well as Graeme Koehne, Carl Vine, Richard Mills, Geoffrey
Madge, Richard Meale, Robert Griffin Morgan, Nehama Patkin and the jazz band
Galapagos Duck. One original Australian work that was produced by the Australian
Ballet was Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, with music by Richard Mills. Based on the well-
85Pask, 1982, 145. 53 known Australian children’s novel by May Gibbs, inspiration came from its fairytale theme and gumnut costumed characters. Mills' music for Snugglepot and Cuddlepie was written for a large orchestra, the recording of which won the APRA Award for
Contemporary Classical Composition in 1991.
Graeme Koehne has been commissioned a number of times by the Australian Ballet and his works for this troupe has included 1914 and Nocturnes (known as the ballet
Gallery). The first of these, 1914, was a 110 minute ballet, based on the novel Fly
Away Peter by David Malouf; it premiered in 1998. In a succession of firsts, it was choreographer Stephen Bayne's first full length work and the first time that he had collaborated with a composer86. It was also the first time the Australian Ballet had commissioned a composer to write for a full-length ballet. This ballet was a different type of Australian work as it dealt with Australian modern history rather than Australian landscape and nature. The music of 1914 received mixed reviews in the five cities that it toured to in its first season.
In 1977, John Cargher criticised the lack of Australian commissions from the Australian
Ballet:
The company has as yet to throw its full weight behind even one young choreographer. It may well be that such a step would be a futile act of faith, but sooner or later it will have to be taken; probably more than once. And Australian choreographers will have to be backed by Australian composers.
The company is quite willing to commission elaborate designs which produce enough spectacle to justify high seat prices in the eyes of the uninitiated, but there has not been a commissioned score since 1969; ... in 1964 no less than three new ballet scores saw the light of day; The Display is musical history by now, but music was also commissioned from James Penberthy for Roundelay and from Les Patching for Jazz Spectrum. Two winners out of five is not a bad average, but there has been little attempt to follow up. Not even the creation of the Music Board of the Australia Council has produced one ballet by an Australian composer for the national company.87
86 Sykes, Jill. 1914: a date with destiny. The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, 9th April, 1998, 17. 54 Charles Lisner, founder of the Queensland Ballet, also is highly critical of the
Australian Ballet and the level of their commitment to Australian-created works. In his book The Australian Ballet: twenty-one years88, written in 1983, he questions the role of the company and attacks its reliance on standard classical repertoire for box office success. Lisner outlines the history of dance in Australia, particularly noting the influence of the Russian balletic tradition and repertoire due to Eduard Borovansky and the Borovansky Ballet ensemble. Even in the twenty-one year history that Lisner discusses, he finds that there have been no significant influences from Australian art, traditions, society or mode of dress. He notes that of all the ballets the company has commissioned, The Display stands out as a major achievement, not only as a home- grown work, but as a successful piece of theatre. Lisner criticises the lack of commissions of Australian composers, adding that the ballet Melbourne Cup, their first commissioned work in 1962, used pre-existing music by Suppe and Offenbach, a choice which "could not possibly have been less suitable to so Australian a subject"89. Lisner acknowledges the roles state companies have played in producing Australian works and commissioning Australian composers and questions the whole validity of the Australian
Ballet, because until 1983, this company presented a similar repertoire to international companies who often toured Australia. There seemed to be little that was unique about the direction the Australian Ballet was taking. Regardless of the Australian Ballet's shortcomings, Robert Helpmann's services to Australian ballet were honoured in 1968, with a knighthood, the first offered to an Australian connected with the dance90. While the Australian Ballet was unable to provide consistent support for Australian compositions, other dance groups had been commissioning Australian composers for
87 Cargher. 1977, 312. 88 Lisner, Charles. The Australian Ballet: twenty-one years. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1983. 89 Lisner, 1983, 28.
55 music. Many companies realised that providing new local works to audiences would add value to their dance repertoire and chose to do this, rather than to replicate old classics. In a television interview, Helpmann was asked whether it was worth having regional ballet companies and his answer was "Why bother?"91 Indeed, many regional ballet company founders had realised that repeating the Australian Ballet’s repertoire would not add to dance culture in Australia and so most regional ballet groups included the commission of Australians as part of their policies. One of the artistic aims of a national company like the Australian Ballet is to keep the institution of classical ballet alive so that Australian audiences and Australian dancers have access to the performance of traditional Western balletic repertoire, but even Maina Gielgud, Artistic
Director of the Australian Ballet from 1983 to 1996, questioned why only sixteen works had used Australian composers in the past forty years of the company's history:
The Australian Ballet has actually commissioned many more works than is generally realised. And 99.9 per cent of those are Australian works...Less, at this point, of Australian composers. And I'm not quite sure why this is, because I believe that there's some wonderful music out there. That's of course, a question for the choreographers because I think it is very important that they should work with music that they are comfortable with. I personally think it's dangerous to entrust a young choreographer with a work and expect him to be working with a commissioned score... And, on the other hand, with an established choreographer use an inexperienced designer and/or perhaps commission a score. I think you're more likely to come up with interesting work that way.92
As will be demonstrated in Chapter Three, many choreographers have opted either to receive commissioned music first before beginning their work, or use music that they are familiar with because they only have experience in setting dance movement to music. As Gielgud has stated, Australian choreographers have preferred working with music that they know and “feel comfortable with”. Figure 2.1 however demonstrates
90Pask. 1982, 142. 91Lisner, Charles. My Journey Through Dance. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1979, 101.
56 the apparent relationship between the establishment of dance companies in Australia, with their support through commissioning of new music. The table represents a comparison of the number of companies (represented under ‘amount’) existing in each year and the number of scores commissioned in that year.
Figure 2.1: Trends of the establishment of dance companies, and composition of original scores in Australia, 1960-200093.
40
35
30
25
20 Amount
15
10
5
0
99 1960 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 19 > Year
No of dance companies established No of commissioned compositions
In 1988, for example, the year of the Bicentenary, there were 22 companies, and 34 scores commissioned. This is a high point, and it was no doubt because of the celebrations surrounding the Bicentenary. The low point was in 1960 when only two
92 Gielgud, Maina. Interview with Maina Gielgud. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 1994-1995. ORAL TRC 3165, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. Published in A Passion for Dance. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997, 30. 93 This graph was compiled by Rachel Hocking, with information taken from Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia, 1960-2000 (Appendix A) and dance companies’ histories (from
57 scores by Penberthy were commissioned. The location of some of the major companies is shown in Figure 2.2, demonstrating that many companies, like the Australian population, are resident to the eastern and southern parts of Australia.
Figure 2.2: Map of Australia illustrating the location of dance companies, 1960-2000.94
In the past, choreographers have not always had the opportunity or training to work with composers, so many have found choosing existing music an easier task than relying on unknown music, not heard until after the choreography had been composed.
Expenses are another factor behind using existing recorded music, as finding and funding a composer who is sympathetic to a company's artistic values as well as websites, and the Australia Dancing Collection at the National Library of Australia). Some danceworks’ dates are unknown, so have not been included in the graph.
58 recording the music can be costly. When using existing music, the choreographer often has only to teach dance steps in rehearsals as everything else has been prepared earlier and this saves time. In addition to this, tempi do not fluctuate with recordings unlike live music accompaniment. On the other hand, working with a composer can be more exciting, as both choreographer and composer are creating an unknown work together.
This ideal is credited to Diaghilev, who thought that eminent artists should work together and make the most of their combined efforts and individual talents rather than submit to the straight jacket of a pre-existing work. Merce Cunningham, the American choreographer who worked with John Cage for many years, took this a further step by suggesting that the music, choreography and decor could exist in a dance work autonomously. However, the method of collaboration taken has depended on how the individual choreographer chooses to work and how effective the partnership has been between choreographer and composer.
Other dance companies:
The instrumentation used in dance music is also partly determined by the amount of money available for the event and whether live musicians can be used. Often smaller dance companies have favoured electronic music over orchestral and ensemble music, because the budget will not extend to live musicians, especially where tours are concerned. More often than not, recordings are used to accompany dance. Many composers have begun experimenting with electro-acoustic music because of this, as they can personally play many of the instruments in the recording studio and manipulate the sound using electronic devices. Figure 2.3 illustrates the increase in the use of electro-acoustic music for dance during the period 1960-2000. Carl Vine's first dance
94 Map (c) copyright Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2005. Accessed 18th December, 2005
There are many state ballet companies as well as smaller dance companies that have commissioned Australian composers such as Carl Vine for music of varying styles.
These companies and the various composers they have commissioned will now be discussed.
Figure 2.3: Comparison of commissioned scores with those that are original electro-acoustic scores, Australia 1960-200095.
45
40
35
30
25
20 Amount
15
10
5
0
0 61 67 69 75 77 79 83 85 87 91 93 95 196 19 1963 1965 19 19 1971 1973 19 19 19 1981 19 19 19 1989 19 19 19 1997 1999 > Year
No of commissioned compositions No of electroacoustic works
One group that had a history of using Australian music, since their formation in 1946 until their collapse in 1976, was Ballet Victoria, formerly known as the Victorian Ballet
Guild. Like the Australian Ballet, Ballet Victoria had embraced a policy to produce complete Australian works, using Australian choreographers, designers and composers
60 and they were seen to be the most successful company doing this up until 197596. Their employment of two Russian-Jewish ballet dancers Galina and Valery Panov for a season of Petrouchka led to their financial collapse and, according to John Cargher97, it was this that caused the company to lose its government subsidies, not the use of
Australian works.
During its 30 years, Ballet Victoria produced over 94 ballets and was able to sustain itself as a company that favoured original Australian productions98. Some of the ballets produced by this company used existing Australian music, for example Premises 7 to music by Sculthorpe and Cloth of Gold to a string quartet by Harold Badger, both toured in 1972. Other composers whose music was used by Ballet Victoria, whether commissioned or not, included John Antill, Verdon Williams, and Clive Douglas.
There are major ballet companies in most states of Australia, like the previously mentioned Ballet Victoria, and most of these companies have used some commissioned
Australian music, not only for full length ballets but also for smaller works. The
Queensland Ballet company established in 1960 by Charles Lisner has regularly commissioned Australian composers. In its first season it presented an Australian work aptly titled The Gift, with music and choreography by its founder, Lisner. At the time, the company was modestly known as the Lisner Ballet. In regards to its artistic policies, Charles Lisner says:
The major thrust of my artistic policy ...was the commissioning of new works by Australian choreographers, composers, and designers... I saw the creation of new works as the company's sole raison d'͏tre because that would lead to the evolution of an indigenous style and character, bearing its individual stamp. Looking into the future, I
95This graph was compiled by Rachel Hocking, based on information from Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia, 1960-2000 as found in Appendix A. 96Cargher. 1977, 297. 97Cargher. 1977, 297, 299. 98Cargher. 1977, 294. 61 reasoned that in order to justify any expenditure of public funds, the company would have to contribute something of greater value than mere duplication, though I realized that we would have to make the occasional inclusion of a one-act classic or of some divertissements. The pursuit of that artistic policy gave my own creativity a hefty nudge, leading me in time to choreograph some thirty-three ballets for the company, seven of which were created during the first year of its life.99
The Queensland Ballet now is one of three professional ballet companies in Australia and regularly tours its ballets to regional areas. In its lifetime, this company has commissioned Australian composers such as Colin Brumby, Graeme Koehne, Stephen
Lalor, Wilfred Lehmann, David Pyle, and Carl Vine. Their objectives, in 1990, were described as follows:
The Queensland ballet is a professional Dance Company that utilises its classical ballet foundation to present classical, neo-classical and works of a contemporary nature that are theatrically challenging and entertaining. The Queensland Ballet is committed to: Train, nurture and further the work of Australian creative artists and those closely associated with the dance industry. Performing works of a high technical and professional standard both in Queensland and on tour.100
The West Australian Ballet, co-founded by the composer James Penberthy in 1952, began commissioning Australian composers from 1958. Some of these include Verdon
Williams, James Penberthy and more recently Stephen Benfall, Brian Howard, Robert
Griffin Morgan and Cathie Travers. Verdon Williams was responsible for the score of
KAL, a ballet choreographed by Garth Welch on an Australian gold rush theme.
Specially commissioned for the Western Australia's sesquicentenary celebrations, KAL was premiered on 29 June, 1979. One reviewer stated that:
Choreographer and producer Garth Welch has skilfully brought this story to theatrical life by matching the varying skills of his dancers to the demands of the scenario. He was helped enormously by the lively and attractive music composed by Verdon Williams whose score for KAL is ample evidence of his craftsmanship and musical energies.101
99Lisner. 1979, 101. 100Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 59-60. Emphasis added. 101Owen, Terry. Theatre Australia. 1979. As quoted by Pask. 1982,258. 62 In 1998 Stephen Benfall, a composer who had received a fellowship to attend the
Australia/New Zealand Dance Course in Christchurch, New Zealand, provided electronic music for the West Australian Ballet for Malice Through the Looking Glass.
The West Australian ballet’s artistic statement was described in 1990 as follows:
The West Australian Ballet aims to contribute to Australian culture through the cross- fertilization with other art forms such as theatre, music and design. The company has a creditable history in the promotion and commissioning of Western Australian and Australian artists.102
Their objectives included the following statement:
To encourage and provide opportunities for Australian talent in the attendant art forms of music and design.103
South Australia has provided the Australian Dance Theatre, which began in 1965 as a full-time professional dance company. The Adelaide Festival of Arts gave many opportunities for this company to premier new works, particularly original Australian works. Collaborations with other groups for example with the Australian Opera in 1974 for Sculthorpe's opera Rites of Passage have made this group versatile. Their artistic statement included the following:
Objectives
Of twenty three stated objectives in their Memorandum and Articles of Association, the most relevant for this paper are: - to promote, produce and perform and join in promoting, producing and performing presentations of dance, ballet, mime, opera, musical theatre drama repertory state plays and any other form of entertainment. - to foster and encourage the study and presentation of dance, ballet, mime, opera, musical theatre, drama, repertory stage plays and any other form of entertainment.
The present rationale for the Company is: [among others] to provide a vehicle for the development of the talent and creativity of Australian dance artists and, in doing so, to utilise the best and most promising Australian composers and designers to work collaboratively with dance artists in tandem with the above, to develop a repertoire of works of the highest possible artistic calibre.104
Jonathan Taylor, in 1979, said of their policy:
102Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 63. 103Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 64. 104Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 65. Emphasis added. 63 Our future plans are to add to our current repertoire of ballets, offering opportunities to aspiring and established choreographers, designers and composers to fulfil their creative ambitions. We are prepared to take risks, indeed, if we weren’t , we would be failing in our obligations to both the artists, to the public, to present adventurous, progressive, sometimes provocative, but we trust, always enjoyable and uplifting dance theatre.105
The Australian Dance Theatre has used composers such as Sarah De Jong, Ray Cook,
Malcolm Fox, Andree Greenwell, David Joseph, Robert Lloyd, Peter Sculthorpe and
Carl Vine. Robert Lloyd's Bold New Buildings was performed in Adelaide both in the
1986 season and 1994 season. In 1992, Meryl Tankard became the Artistic Director of the company and the company was renamed the Meryl Tankard Australian Dance
Theatre.
In Tasmania, the Tasmanian Dance Company is the first Australian company that has promoted dance in education. Known as TasDance, this group has employed Herb
Jercher, Mark Sladek and Stephen Leek as resident composers, with over 45 originally composed works. Other composers that have written for this ensemble include Sarah
Hopkins, Les Gilbert, Ros Bandt and young Tasmanian composer Myles Mumford.
Perhaps one of the largest supporters of Australian compositions has been the Sydney
Dance Company, with its artistic directors Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon.
Established in 1971 as The Dance Company (NSW), the company used Australian music from its very beginnings. Choreographers such as Graeme Murphy have regularly commissioned Australian composers and this has exposed concert hall composers to a different type of audience. In 1990, the company’s description included the following relevant information:
Objectives
The Sydney dance Company seeks to: - combine innovative artistic achievements with lean responsible management;
105Australian Dance Theatre: the modern dance company of Australia. Australian Dance Theatre, 1979, 33. 64 - set new standards for the development of artistic excellence in Australia; and to - provide the opportunity for the community to learn about and experience dance-based theatre. In doing so, the Sydney Dance Company acts as a catalyst for Australian lighting, set and costume designers, composers, musicians, choreographers and film-makers to develop their art in association with dance.106
In the Sydney Dance Company's first season, the ballet Love 201 used music by
Sculthorpe, with choreography by its co-director Keith Little. Other composers whose music has been used for choreography by the Sydney Dance Company are Barry
Conyngham, Carl Vine, Richard Meale, David Adams, Martin Armiger, Michael
Carlos, Iva Davies, Ross Edwards, Graham Jesse, and Graeme Koehne. In 1979, The
Dance Company (NSW) changed its name to the Sydney Dance Company, with
Graeme Murphy as the Artistic Director. Since 1979, many works have featured newly written music, some notable works including Cafe, Beauty and the Beast, The Selfish
Giant, and Nearly Beloved.
It’s the old thing of what is an Australian making dances as opposed to an Australian dance. I’ve been through various stages of concerning myself with finding an essence and then not even worrying about it and often when you’re not worrying you actually get closer to it. It was a weapon in the early days for our survival. We held it up like a banner. Commissioned Australian scores. Commissioned young Australian designers, young Australian dancers. We fed on it and I’m glad we did because you get it out of your system. You suddenly realize you don’t have to actually wave the flag to actually create something under it that is yours.107
One dance work that was important in the history of Australian dance-music was that of
Graeme Murphy's Poppy. In 1978, Poppy, a two act work, was the first full-length
Australian modern dance work, being 90 minutes in length. This was written 20 years before the Australian Ballet would commission its first composer for a full length ballet.
Based on the life of Jean Cocteau, Poppy helped secure Carl Vine's early reputation as a composer for dance. At the time, Vine was the resident composer for the Sydney Dance
106Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 64. Emphasis added. 107Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 16th to 17th May, 1990. ORAL TRC 2680, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
65 Company and both Murphy and Vine worked on the scenario together. Vine even wrote the draft scenario for Act 2. The process involved was not only a partnership: some music was written for existing choreography, and sometimes the choreography was created according to the music. This successful ballet was important in the history of Australian dance as it established Graeme Murphy's reputation as a choreographer and leader for modern dance. Murphy danced the title role of Jean Cocteau, not only in the ballet's first season, but 13 years later, in 1991 at the age of 41. Poppy was also toured overseas, helping Vine's reputation internationally.
Vine has been commissioned by the Sydney Dance Company eight times, and has written music for ballets such as Beauty and the Beast, Mythologia, and Daisy Bates.
He received the 1983 Adams Award for outstanding contribution to music for
Australian dance. However, there have been some unfortunate experiences with the
Sydney Dance Company also. When Vine composed Everyman's Troth in 1978 for
Don Asker, he wrote during the dancers' rehearsals, so that he was writing a "note for every step"108. He felt very supported by Asker, the choreographer and was surprised when after opening night, he was asked to write a new score as Graeme Murphy and
Don Asker felt the original score did not work. Carl Vine's reputation as a dance composer is one that is well justified given his experience from a young age, but it is not a reputation that Vine would always choose to stick with. Originally studying physics at university, Vine changed to music and was already composing and performing with ensembles such as the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. When he moved to Sydney, he first worked as a pianist with the Sydney Dance Company, at the age of 20 and he started composing for dance. In 1976 Vine, along with Graeme
66 Murphy, received a grant from the Australia Council to attend the Gulbenkian
International Choreographic Summer School in London for composers and choreographers. Vine says of the experience:
It was like a full slap in the face. Every day for two weeks I had to write five minutes of music. Before that I would spend six months thinking about a piece of music, and then squeeze it out like the last bit of toothpaste. All of a sudden I had to throw away this rather precious attitude and simply produce the goods. I discovered that I had reserves that had never been tapped. It was also my introduction to the collaborative process of working with a choreographer: coming up with a concept together and then realising it together. Graeme Murphy was at the same summer school. The following year he was appointed Director of the Sydney Dance Company.109
His collaborations with the Sydney Dance Company have led him to work with artists from other fields such as the painter Charles Blackman, in Daisy Bates.
Smaller dance companies have played a major role in commissioning Australian composers, as they can tailor productions to their budgets and capabilities. Rather than trying to attract audiences to major classical ballet works, that involve large casts, tours and orchestras, smaller choreographic groups can specify for a composer certain ensemble restraints, or time periods. Many of these groups have been successful because audiences can look forward to seeing new works, rather than reproductions of the classics. Some of these groups are involved in contemporary dance and often collaborate with artists from different cultures and different art forms. Several groups have toured overseas for cultural festivals. These companies have contributed many works to the Australian balletic music repertoire.
108 Meale, Amanda. Composer as Artisan: Carl Vine and the dance. BMus thesis, Sydney: University of Sydney, 9th November 1993, 9. 109Vine, Carl. As interviewed by Belinda Webster. Towards a New Romanticism. APRA. October 1989, 13. 67 In Sydney, one of the first companies was the Ballet Australia troupe, which offered choreographic competitions and workshops to encourage original works. The Artistic
Director of this group, Valrene Tweed, stated in one of their programmes:
We are not only appearing in a large professional theatre, but we have fulfilled one of our ambitions in having music specially composed for some of the ballets. This collaboration of choreographer and composer is one of Ballet Australia’s greatest ideals. For practical purposes, by this I mean financial, and the time involved, it is much more complicated than using already existing music. We feel it is worth the effort – as only in this way can truly Australian ballets be created, with the spirit, thought and approach of Australian artists truly expressed.110
Ballet Australia folded in 1976 but Sydney went on to produce other dance companies including The One Extra Company which has commissioned local composers, including
Tony Lewis, Themos Mexis, as well as Romano Crivici who in 1978 and 1979 wrote music for the works Running Gang and Hospital Piece. Founded in 1976, this international touring company has collaborated with other ensembles such as the Flying
Fruit Fly Circus, and created dance specifically for film. The Australian Chamber
Ballet employed Lee Bracegirdle as their composer-in-residence in 1996. Bracegirdle was born in the USA, but became an Australian citizen in 1993. He also co-founded the
Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1999, where he is now the musical director. There are numerous Christian-oriented dance colleges and companies in Australia, one being the ask [sic] dance theatre, in Sydney, which has commissioned Australian composers such as Steve Cooper.
Victoria is an important contributor to dance in Australia, as two large institutions, the
Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian Ballet School, provide dance education to many who are ultimately employed by professional ballet companies. Many small
110Tweedie, Valrene. Programme: 1961 season. Sydney: Ballet Australia, 1961, introduction. Records of Ballet Australia. National Library of Australia, MS 9171.
68 companies also reside in Victoria such as the Melbourne State Dance Theatre, which commissioned Romano Crivici in 1976 for the score to Players. Shirley McKechnie's
Australian Contemporary Dance Theatre, 1963-1972 in Melbourne, produced The
Finding of the Moon, based on Judith Wright's poem of the same name, with music by
Ian Cugley. Danceworks, a Melbourne company promoting post-modern dance was founded in 1983 by Nanette Hassell. Their ‘statement of purposes’ included the following:
The fundamental purpose of Danceworks is to extend the boundaries of new dance practice and performance – valuing communications, innovation, risk-taking and depth in all work.
Aims – to foster the ongoing development of Australian choreography and choreographers; to present challenging and engaging dance performance in a wide variety of contexts; to broaden the function of dance by extending movement, dancemaking and performance options to other groups of people; to provide a context for ongoing development and dialogue between contemporary Australian art forms through exchanges with visual designers, composers, writers and other artists.111
In following this policy, Danceworks has commissioned composers such as Andree
Greenwell, Warren Burt and Darrin Verhagen. Another Melbourne company, Chunky
Move Dance has collaborated with James Gordon-Anderson, including a new arrangement of his album Concord for their production Hydra in 2000. They have also used soundtracks by Darrin Verhagen. Many dance schools across the country, such as the Victorian College of the Arts, have provided regular interactions between undergraduate students in the fields of music and dance and commissioned composers for their graduating productions. For example in 2000, the University of Ballarat through the Ballarat Academy of Performing Arts presented Summer Rain, with music by Terence Clarke112.
111Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 50. Emphasis added.
69 In Tasmania, a group called Stompin' Youth have provided opportunities for 18- to 25- year-olds to experience membership in a contemporary dance company. Established in
Launceston in 1992, it has commissioned the composer Peter Westbrook for soundtracks to partner with their productions.
The Restless Dance Company, a South Australian company founded in 1991, has used dancers with and without disabilities. This group has commissioned Colin Offord,
Stuart Day and Jason Sweeney for soundtracks and compositions.
Canberra also has produced many dance companies. One such troupe founded in 1979 by choreographer Don Asker, The Human Veins Dance Theatre, has commissioned composers such as James Franklin for works. In 1989, the choreographer Meryl
Tankard was given the directorship of this company and she renamed it the Meryl
Tankard Company; it existed until 1992.
The distances between large regional cities in Queensland have given rise to many dance groups that are based in or tour to regional areas. In Townsville, Dance North is a company that was established in 1969 originating from the North Queensland Ballet and Dance Society. From 1985 to 1995, Dance North developed a focus on creating a cultural exchange program with South East Asia and it has also toured overseas. Its objectives as listed in 1990 were:
To provide the North of Australia with professional programs and experiences of contemporary dance which are relevant and accessible…
112As previously mentioned, the appendix listings do not include works by tertiary institutions or dance training centres. 70 * To provide commissions for Australian artists from other disciplines to collaborate with the company. Where possible to expand these artist’s visits to residencies so that as well, they can work on community projects.113
Dance North reused an existing dance work, with original music by Sarah De Jong in
1997, titled Drowning in a Sea of Dreams. It has also commissioned Peter Rankine and the ensemble Gondwanaland. Another Queensland troupe, the Expressions Dance
Company, was established in 1984 by Maggi Sietsma, a choreographer, and Abel Valls, the General Director as well as composer for the group. As well as Valls’ music contributions, Peter Rankine provided the score Evening Dialogues in 1987 for this company.
In Western Australia, The Chrissie Parrott Dance Collective has commissioned four scores from David Pye, one each from Cathie Travers, and Tony Lewis and used existing music by composers such as Ross Edwards. The company 2 Dance Plus has also used music by David Pye, a composer who favours percussion blended with music technology and traditional instruments and who founded the Nova Ensemble. This company has also commissioned Stephen Benfall, Cathie Travers and used existing music by Carl Vine for some of their productions. Specifically aimed at young people,
Buzz Dance Theatre has provided opportunities for dancers and has commissioned
David Pye for two works, Face First in 1998 and Rumpelstiltskin in 1999. Jonathan
Nix has also provided a commissioned score.
Many Indigenous dance groups also have commissioned scores from Australian composers. The Bangarra Dance Theatre is a well-known Indigenous dance company based in Sydney. Established in 1989, this group has commissioned most of its scores
113Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 61-62. Emphasis added. 71 from David Page, the brother of Bangarra's Artistic Director Stephen Page. The
Bangarra Dance Theatre has a close association with NAISDA - National Aboriginal
Islander Skills Development Association. The director of NAISDA also founded the
Bangarra Dance Theatre and many of Bangarra's dancers have been trained at this college. Part of the group's artistic policy involves enhancing communication and knowledge between Indigenous people and the mainstream Australian population114.
Their style of choreography has blended traditional Aboriginal ideas and stories with contemporary dance, and David Page's music reflects this meld.
Another Indigenous dance group which has its own resident composer is the Aboriginal
Islander Dance Theatre, based in Queensland. Tony Lewis has worked for this group as a composer, accompanist and teacher since 1986. Formed in 1975 and administered by
NAISDA, the company has provided a forum for dance education for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people. Some of the works that Lewis has written dance-music for includes the music for Passage from 1988. Lewis' music is electronically-based and blended with instruments such as the didjeridu and shakuhachi.
Freelance Choreographers:
Composers have also written works for solo dancers and freelance choreographers during the period 1960-2000. Often these works have been experimental in nature, with dances based on improvisation, and theatrical, using combinations of electronic music, tapes, live musicians, original instruments and vocals. Sometimes these works were presented in collaboration with artists such as installation artists, computer graphic designers and actors. Ros Bandt composed a work in this style titled Let's go fishen',
114Bangarra Dance Theatre website.
72 written in 1984. This work featured three original instruments made from lengths of sewer pipe, with prepared tape, amplification, mixer, two live musicians and three voices as well as the solo dancer. The young composer Kirsty Beilharz wrote in 1999
The Ecstatic Dance of Shiva for a classical chamber ensemble with a dancer. One of
Neil Clifton's last works before he died in 1986 was an abstract meditation named
Sonnets to Orpheus, which used a chamber ensemble with a soprano, and male and female dancers. Richard David Hames, a composer who studied with Messiaen and
Boulanger, has composed Ku for solo recorder, dancer and multiple tape-delay system as well as Raison d'etre: hommage a Jean Tinguely for amplified and prepared piano, electronic tape and dancer. Frank Millward regularly collaborated with theatrical artists to produce experimental dance-theatre works and one of these collaborations titled
Brightside won a Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1986. Greg Schiemer, whose compositions are electronic and computer-based, has designed an Electronic
Movement-to-Sound Interface to be used for dance. These all are examples of the extent to which composers have collaborated with dancers, in the process of multimedia experimentation. Here, composers have often created the opportunity for the collaboration themselves, in a quest to explore other functions of music.
The experimental area of dance has gone hand-in-hand with developments in new music in Australia, particularly during the 1970s. From this time on inter-disciplinary projects were established by interested artists, including those working in dance, music, art, poetry, video and other mediums. Often these works emerged from universities, with festivals providing the occasions for performance. In Libby Dempster's article The
'70's in the '90's115, an interview with composer Warren Burt, she details some of the
115Dempster, Libby. The '70's in the '90's: Warren Burt. Writings on Dance. Volume 18/19 Autumn 1999, 51-81. 73 developments in experimentation in this period of Australian music. Burt, an American who migrated to Australia in 1975, encouraged student composers to experiment with different artforms and set up the New Music Newspaper to document new artistic activities in Melbourne. Collaborators involved during this period often gave themselves non-traditional titles in an effort to describe the experimental approach they were taking, to distance themselves from previous periods, and to demonstrate the different style of their music. For example, composers called their music 'sound art' and choreographers labelled themselves as 'artists' to, as Dempster described, demonstrate their commitment to the artistic process involved in collaboration116. Composers have also contributed in collaborative projects in other areas besides writing music, for example offering poetry or film instead. Many of these projects have used electro- acoustic music, involving live and musique-concrete techniques. Other composers have invented new instruments that contribute to the experimental nature of these scores, for example Sarah Hopkins’ "harmonic whirlies"™ instruments used in projects such as
Wind Music for Earth and Sky, with choreographer Beth Shelton of Danceworks. It seems that electro-acoustic music was able to find a listening audience through the medium of dance. For music concert-attendees, electro-acoustic music played through loudspeakers has lacked visual interest except when combined with a live musician and this has often taken the form of the composer/performer sitting behind a laptop.
However, electro-acoustic music integrated with dance satisfies both the aural and visual aspects of a concert, and this may be one reason for its prominence and success in post-modern dance. In this style of work, neither choreographic artist nor sound art composer has been limited to the boundaries of classical forms and instrumentation, but both have incorporated sound and movement from all aspects of life and environments
116Dempster. 1999, 75. 74 as well as the classical forms. Often in these projects, artists have worked for mutual obligation rather than any financial reimbursement.
One theatrical project that involved collaboration with many people from different arts was that of Meryl Tankard's Banshee. This work was produced as an accompaniment to an exhibition showing at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, featuring Irish jewellery and artefacts. The inspiration came from Irish folklore about the banshee, and the decor reflected the Celtic symbols found in the jewellery. The dance work involved choreography of photographic slides, provided by Régis Lansac, a photographer. Dorothy Herel made abstract paper costumes for the dancers and the dancers were also covered in clay. Colin Offord wrote the music, of which Tankard said:
He created some amazing sounds with these instruments that he makes, like conch shells, that really sounded like the banshee screaming. And I thought, 'They're going to hate this.' Do you know they loved it? I just could not believe it. We had such a response. It was packed, the Gallery was packed for those three days. I was thinking it was quite abstract, quite spooky, esoteric and there they were - young, old, punks - sitting there. Four punks waiting for the show to start half an hour before.117
Another new experimental group that was established in 1999 in Melbourne is Bird on a
Wire, consisting of five dancers, three of whom are musicians, and one of these, David
Corbet, is the composer. Their choreography has a blend of planned and improvised actions and this company has also collaborated with circus, acrobalance and visual arts.
Also based in Melbourne is the Company in Space, founded in 1992, which included composers Garth Paine and Michael Havir as well as dancers, visual and computer graphic artists, technical artists, computer programmers and performance artists. Often these contemporary groups widened their collaboration resources so that dance
117Interview with Meryl Tankard, choreographer, artistic director. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 9th to 10th July, 1990. ORAL TRC 3477, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.1990. Quoted in Michelle Potter’s A Passion for Dance. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997,115. 75 productions could be presented in different ways, such as in outdoor venues, videos, installations, and often used new technology like interactive virtual spaces such as the web, in improvisatory and choreographed performances.
Other areas of dance including events for commissioning:
Television, film, video and occasional events have provided many opportunities for commissions for dance. These mediums exposed Australian compositions to both national and international audiences that sometimes numbered, in the case of the
Olympics opening ceremony, millions. John Antill was the first Australian composer to write a work for a television ballet (titled Snowy), and in the period 1960-2000, many other composers have received this sort of exposure. Antill’s ballet work Corroboree from 1946 was seen as a watershed in the search for an Australian identity in composition. His commissioned ballets from the 1960s include Burragarong
Dreamtime (1959/1964118) choreographed by Beth Dean for ABC TV, and The Song of
Hagar (1970), choreographed by Ronnie Arnold. Antill wrote 13 works specifically for ballet during his lifetime (many prior to 1960), and his symphonic music was several times chosen for choreography. The massive production Music for a Royal Pageant of
Nationhood (1963) using a work by Antill had a cast of 6000 and was televised across
Australia on the ABC. Post 1960, Peggy Glanville-Hicks was commissioned to write two ballets for the choreographer John Butler. One being Tragic Celebration (Jeptha's
Daughter) written in 1964, was premiered in 1966 on CBS TV in the USA. In 1997
Sarah De Jong wrote a score for the ballet Through the Eyes of the Phoenix, choreographed by Cheryl Stock, Tina Young and Sun Ping for the Vietnam Opera
Ballet Company. This work used an orchestra that combined Western and traditional
118Burragarong Dreamtime is listed in The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, under Antill, John, as being composed in 1964, but the National Library of Australia lists this work as being created in 1959. 76 Vietnamese instruments and was performed in Hanoi and broadcast twice on television in Vietnam. In 1992-1993, Ross Edwards provided orchestral music for the dance video
Sensing, with the Sydney Dance Company. Damian Barbeler, a young composer from
Brisbane, was commissioned in 2000 to write a score for a dance film titled Mourning
Hours. There are many other dance videos that exist as a permanent record of a production and Australian composers, including, but not limited to those already mentioned, have contributed to this medium. Dance film is a new medium in its own right and local composers have written original music for this also.
Landmarks in Australian historic events have provided many occasions for the commissioning of new works and many of these have also been televised. The
Bicentennial celebrations of British colonisation in Australia, held in 1988, produced the ballet Vast which was choreographed by Graeme Murphy and composed by Barry
Conyngham. The premier was in Adelaide and featured dancers from the Australian
Dance Theatre, the Queensland Ballet, the West Australian Ballet and The Sydney
Dance Company. Scandalously, this momentous ballet was not filmed and no recording of the dance production exists.
The Olympic Games, held in Sydney in 2000, gave composers many opportunities to display their works to a worldwide audience, especially in conjunction with the choreography for the opening and closing ceremonies. Many composers who were commissioned for these ceremonies had already been involved with dance before and had already experienced the collaboration process. Elena Kats-Chernin wrote for the
Deep Sea Dreaming segment of the opening ceremony while David Page provided music for the Indigenous section of the opening ceremony. Composers such as Carl
77 Vine were also commissioned for music for choreography during the lead up to the
Olympics, including the bid in Monaco and the Olympics Arts Festival that took place in Sydney while the Olympic Games were on.
Many Australian compositions have been used for choreography by overseas dance groups during 1960-2000, although the composers may not have been commissioned.
One example of the use of an uncommissioned, existing work is Graeme Koehne's
'trilogy' works Unchained Melody, Elevator Music, and Powerhouse. Powerhouse was used by choreographer Jan Linkens in the ballet TAKT for the Komischer opera, Berlin.
It opened in Berlin on 13 April, 1997. Unchained Melody and Elevator Music have recently been used by Stanton Welch for the Houston Ballet. In 1997 the West
Australian Ballet used the music Unchained Melody for a work choreographed by
James Taylor. Ross Edward's Maninyas has been used for choreography many times which is appropriate, considering that Edwards is often inspired by dance rhythms and the title Maninyas refers to a dance-chant. Amongst the choreographers who have used this work is Stanton Welch at the San Francisco Ballet and the Singapore Dance
Company.
There have also been commissions of Australian music by overseas dance companies during 1960-2000, with some composers undertaking residencies with some of the troupes. These international commissions indicate that choreographers are already aware of some of the composers' existing works and have hired them because of the quality of their music. Other companies have provided learning experiences for
Australian composers who were in the early stages of their careers. A Season in Hell, written in 1965 by Peggy Glanville-Hicks for John Butler, was premiered in New York
78 in 1967 by the Harkness Company. Carl Vine was resident composer for the London
Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1979, where he wrote two works Scene Shift and
Kisses Remembered. For one of these collaborations, he was asked by Micha Bergese the choreographer to write something ‘not jazzy’, as the company had been working with a lot of jazz music. However, the choreographer rejected all of Vine's compositions until he had written a jazz-like piece, which proved to be acceptable119.
This incident, related by Vine, demonstrates the closeness of the interaction between choreographer and composer which these residencies fostered.
Richard Austin, an Australian-born composer residing in England, has been commissioned twice by the Arts Council of Great Britain to write pieces for dance for
William Louther; he has also administered several dance groups throughout his career.
Laurie Scott Baker was commissioned in 1972 by Studio Oscar, a modern Norwegian ballet company, to write music for a work choreographed by Clive Stuart. Alison
Bauld, who was trained as an actress at NIDA, and completed a music degree at university, composed the ballet Inana in 1974 for the contemporary branch of the
Scottish Ballet, as well as receiving the Gulbenkian Dance Award for her dance-music work. Elena Kats-Chernin, while studying in Europe in the 1970s, wrote several ballets for state theatres in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Bochum120. Robert Lloyd wrote a dance work for the Ohio Ballet, titled Feral which toured to Cleveland, New York and
South America between 1986 and 1987. Paul Turner was commissioned in 1993 to write a 50 minute piece titled the singing bus queue by the New Zealand School of
Dance in Wellington. Tony Lewis has been commissioned by the Urdang Academy of
119Meale. 1993, 9. 120These details are given in Elena Kats-Chernin’s biographical notes at the Australian Music Centre, dating from 2002. However, no more details are known. 79 Ballet and Performing Arts in London. These examples of commissioning demonstrate how dance has been a form that has delivered Australian music to international places.
Of the various dance companies and performances listed, many have relied on government grants to fund their projects. The original ad hoc system of grants from federal and state governments was formalised and enhanced by the establishment of the
Australia Council for the Arts and then the Australia Council. This system is explained by David Throsby in his essay Does Australia Need a Cultural Policy? as follows:
…it’s possible to discern certain enduring features in the matter of Commonwealth arts funding that had emerged by this time [1990] and that persist even unto the present day: - the acceptance of a legitimate role for the Federal Government in providing assistance to the arts… - the acceptance of what can be called the ‘Australian model’ for arts funding, a hybrid system that includes an independent statutory arts council founded on arm’s length and peer assessment principles (derived from the British model), some financial provision flowing directly from central government (as in many European countries), and some indirect support through the tax system (in emulation of the American model); - the acceptance of a Commonwealth responsibility for major cultural institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library, the National Museum of Australia, etc. and the public broadcasting system [the Australian Broadcasting Corporation known as the ABC]; - the acceptance of a secular decline in the Commonwealth’s share of total arts funding as increasing levels of support are provided by State and Territory and local governments.121
These bodies have also funded studies such as surveys and research into the arts. In order that more Australian collaborations may take place, the Australia Council financed a survey of Australian composers in 1993 to promote their work to Australian choreographers and dance companies. The document produced was titled Dance Music
Australia - a guide to selected Australian composers for dance companies and choreographers122. It consisted of a folder of information on composers, including their biographical details, listing of dance experience, and artistic values. Cassette tapes
121Throsby, David. Platform papers: does Australia need a cultural policy? No 7, January 06, Sydney: Currency House, 2006, 9.
80 were also included to give examples of each composer's style of work. The folder was compiled by Stephen Leek, with a revision made by Devon Mills, and provided information on twenty-five composers. Some were well-known for their dance experience such as Carl Vine, Sarah Hopkins and Michael Havir, while some had limited dance experience, such as Brenton Broadstock, Neil Currie (who had not written any music for dance at this time) and Ross Edwards. This volume is held in libraries such as the Australian Music Centre.
Conclusion:
The rapid establishment of Australian dance companies has seen an additional context emerge for the creation of original scores by local composers. Spurred on by new government funding bodies such as the Australian Council for the Arts (1967) and the
Australia Council (1974), dance companies have sought to include composers in their collaborations. The policies that have been cited give clear examples of this ideal being held at a corporate level. The Catalogue of Music for the Dance in Australia, 1960-
2000 in Appendix A has identified several trend areas, including increased number of commissions, which are dependent on events such as the Bicentenary of British
Colonisation and increased use of electro-acoustic scores. Many dance companies have been founded during 1960-2000, from large balletic troupes who have had access to orchestral accompaniment, to smaller dance companies exploring multimedia relationships. The composers who have been preferred by choreographers have consequently produced varied scores, from instrumental to electro-acoustic works.
Freelance choreographers and dancers have established collaborative relationships with composers, experimenting with the dance-music partnership through the inventions of
122Leek, Stephen. Dance Music Australia - a guide to selected Australian composers for dance companies and choreographers. Revised by Devon Mills. Cassette Recordings organised by Greg Andresen. 81 new instruments and software. Composers have also been employed by overseas troupes and thus enlarged their audiences, and enhanced their international reputations.
In this chapter institutional support for composers has been explored through a discussion of company policy and artistic outcome statements, and in the next chapter, individual attitudes of composers and choreographers, and examples of collaborative relationships during 1960-2000 will demonstrate how these policies have been to some degree implemented or guided. Although commissioning Australian composers for choreographic music may still need some strengthening in the number of works commissioned, especially by the larger national companies, the period 1960-2000 has seen an explosion in Australian dance-music. During this period, more than 550 works123 have been commissioned to accompany dance and ballet works, with the result that many choreographic works are truly original and Australian-designed.
This chapter gives a broad brush account of the context of Australian music for dance during the years 1960 to 2000. The breadth of this activity is demonstrated by the number of companies and their distribution over all the Australian states. Its depth is indicated by the substantial numbers of works presented and the variety of approaches to dance and its music and the relationship between them. The social context is suggested by the observable connections between dance works and events of importance in the Australian calendar. The artistic context is hinted at in the relations that choreographers and composers have with each other, with other Australian writers and artists, and with influential international practitioners. The crucial philosophical orientations have been shown by examination of the policy documents of the dance
Published by Australia Council with assistance from Sounds Australian. March 1993. 123The listing of works in the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia, 1960-2000 numbers over 600, but many of these works are listed twice. This is owing to the collaborative
82 companies and the funding bodies. This is not an exhaustive examination of these issues: more remains to be done. The purpose here is to indicate the extent of the field, and the nature of its contents, and to provide a context for the more detailed examination of particular works which come in the following chapters.
compositions made by individual composers. These works are listed according to composers’ names, not work titles. 83 Chapter Three – Collaborative relationships 1960-2000:
conflict and compromise in creativity
During the period 1960-2000, around 200 Australian composers were commissioned to write original music for dance works. This has involved many challenges on both sides of collaborative relationships, with some works being successful, while others not. This chapter highlights the relationship styles that have occurred during this period between choreographers and composers, as well as their individual attitudes towards each others’ discipline, and how they have incorporated the other discipline into their own.
Collaboration has been an important aim in Australian dance. As Valrene Tweedie stated in 1960:
Although the balletic styles of England, America, Russia and France are vastly different from each other, and are all clearly individual, they are all based on the pure, classical tradition. A style is not made – it must develop from the natural instincts of the artist and from his reaction to the society in which he lives. The choreographer must collaborate closely with the designer and the composer to be able to create ballets which will permit an individual style to emerge. He must also have the time and the dancers with which to experiment. The dancers in turn must have ballets created for them, ballets which are suited to their temperament and physical abilities.124
According to Tweedie, the composer has a place in the process of developing an individual Australian style of dance; she emphasises the importance of the choreographer/composer relationship. In this chapter, Australian opinions will be referred to so that the comments reflect the choreographer’s “reaction to the society” in which they live as well as the more immediate society in which they create their work and Tweedie’s assertion tested. Katherine Teck125, Edwin Denby126, Stephanie Jordan127,
124Tweedie, Valrene. Programme: 1960 season. Sydney: Ballet Australia, 17 December, 1960, introduction. Records of Ballet Australia. National Library of Australia, MS 9171. 125Teck, Katherine. Ear Training for the Body: a dancer's guide to music. Pennington, NJ: Princeton Book Company, c1994. - Movement to Music: musicians in the dance studio. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. - Music for the Dance: reflections on a collaborative art. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. 126Denby, Edwin. Looking at the Dance. New York: Full Court Press, 1968. 127Jordan. 1986 and 2000. 84 Richard Austin128, and composers such as Steve Reich129 have published writings on choreography and music interactions which focus on American or English works.
Many other studies have analysed the relationship and experiments of composer/choreographer pairs such as John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and while these international studies are interesting and relevant, they do not always represent the relationship styles that have been practised in Australia.
In Crotty’s thesis130, elements peculiar to Australian politics and social history have been discussed in terms of how dance has come to be. These unique points and
Australia’s remoteness, particularly in the 1960s, have influenced to some extent the aesthetic directions dance companies have taken. Relationship styles can change according to the music and dance trends of the time so this chapter will detail Australian choreographers’ recorded opinions from the period being researched. These opinions reflect the choreographers’ ideas on the role music plays in dance works. Australian composers’ attitudes will also be presented, with an emphasis on how they have approached writing for dance. Some examples of relationships will be given, including the successful and not so successful outcomes of collaboration. Conclusions will then be made on the collaborative processes commonly used in Australia in the period 1960-
2000, and the way these have affected music written for the dance in this time.
128Austin, Richard. Images of the Dance. Plymouth: Vision Press, 1975. 129Reich, Steve. Notes on music and dance. What is Dance? readings in theory and criticism. Edited by Roger Copeland and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. 130Crotty. 1999, 211 (the reference given here is an example – the entire thrust of the thesis concerns the interaction between Australian social/cultural/political life and Australian themes in dance works). 85 Choreographers’ attitudes towards music:
Choreographers in Australia from the 1960s have generally had a traditional view of music and how to use it. Most have waited for music scores to be written before creating the dance. This perhaps reflects the type of training that has been common during this time, that choreographers have been interpreting the imagery of music into visual movement. The more traditional of ballet companies, especially the Australian
Ballet, definitely have used this method in the past, with composers writing in isolation, presenting the score prior to rehearsals, then choreographers designing movement according to the music. The choreographer (and music departments of some companies, for example the Australian Ballet) has on occasions slightly adjusted the score, as Colin
Peasley noted to the author, particularly during the mime sections if a mime section has seemed too long131. One example of choreographic requests can be found in the letters of Robert Helpmann to Peter Sculthorpe for the ballet Sun Music of 1968. These requests are detailed in Table 3.1, extracted from Helpmann’s letters of 1965 to 1969.
Some specific musical requests are made here, which Sculthorpe agreed to, such as the playing of the recorded music around the theatre from various speakers (see request 15th
April, 1968), and the new composition for the fourth movement of the work (see request
10th April, 1968), known as ‘Energy’. It is worth noting that on 8th September 1967,
Helpmann said he would need the score as soon before rehearsals as possible, as he needed to know the music in depth before choreographing movement to it.
131Peasley, Colin. In discussion with Rachel Hocking, Australian Ballet Centre, Melbourne. 16th January, 2006. 86 Table 3.1. Requests made to Peter Sculthorpe about the music for the Sun Music Ballet132.
Date of Letter Specific information re Sun Music Ballet 29th September 1965 “I long to know all about Mrs. Fraser and I have lots of ideas about the Ballet now…” 13th April 1966 “I have thought a good deal about “Mrs. Fraser” and it is clear to me that the whole Ballet could only be loosely based on this story and that we must just create a Ballet with this as a basis whether the facts were true or not. It is a dreadful thing to say that I am much more interested in a way by your news of having a fabulous new idea (lush, lavish and ‘way-out’) because I think this is exactly what is needed.” (Sculthorpe in USA) 4th May 1966 Request to meet with Sculthorpe on the 24th May 1966. (Sculthorpe in USA at Connecticut, Yale) 8th September 1967 “I was delighted to get your letter which I am sending back to you for the reasons you will see so you can discuss with Akers. What you describe is exactly what I want to do. As you know, at our original discussions, I was very anxious to keep the Ballet abstract and to let the music speak for itself. That is the reason I wanted you to compose the music without too much overall direction from me…. I think it would be very advantageous if, before the Ballet Season starts, you had a session with Bill Akers and told him what you have in mind and, of course, if possible it would be ideal if you could get Qantas to fly you to London. However, talk to Akers and believe me I am in complete agreement with how you visualize and see the Ballet.
The only thing upon which I cannot quite agree with you is the length. I feel that half-an-hour is the ideal length and that anything shorter makes programming extremely difficult and such an idea as you have and I visualize should certainly hold an audience for half-an-hour and shorter makes it less important…
It will be very necessary for me to have the music well ahead of time as I am sure it will be one of the most difficult Ballets I have undertaken…
I still feel that the music should have a great deal of variation, to justify as many changes of movement and effect as possible. Oh dear I wish I was there so we could discuss as much as possible.” 23 October 1967? “Do let me know any thoughts ect [sic] you have about the Ballet.” Asks to meet in Adelaide to discuss this. 4th December 1967 “I have had estatic [sic] letters from Bill Akers full of ideas. He is madly enthusiastic which is wonderful. I think all your ideas re percussion, pre- recorded tapes, voices etc., sound thrilling. The only thing we must be careful of is not to run into any Musicians Union trouble about recordings being used with Orchestra but that you must know more about than me.” 13th March 1968 …”I have not had time to listen to the tape as much as I would have liked, with all the social obligations we have had. However I have thought a great deal about it and I now am sure that I will have to change the casting of the romantic movement as I feel the two principals should be like primitive children that slowly develop… I have had a letter from Mickey Powell, who tells me he told you that I had said you were the laziest composer in the world. He really is a monster. What I actually said was that I would shoot him if he diverted your interests from the ballet until you had finished, and I still will.”
132Helpmann, Robert. Correspondence to Peter Sculthorpe. From the Papers of Peter Sculthorpe, National Library of Australia, Box 54, MS 9676. The correspondence out in reply to Helpmann was not contained within the 96 boxes of Sculthorpe’s manuscript collection. Emphasis added. 87 Table 3.1 continued.
Date of Letter Specific information re Sun Music Ballet 10 April 1968 “I know this is a very late date to come up with anything in the way of suggestions but nevertheless I must and I want you to give as much thought to it as you can and have time to, it was useless for me to do so before, untill [sic] I knew the whole music backwards which I now do (I think). Also you had the Adelaide Festival ect [sic] and I know it would be useless to write before, But it is this, putting all these pieces together, and played as one long piece the most serious thing will be, from an audience point of view is the lack of variation of pace and rhythm in each movement. I know and fully understand they were never meant to be played together, but I am certain for the theatre if it were possible somewhere, somehow, to get even for a few moments some more variation it would be valuable. I know the new movement for the men is perhaps a change but even so, I want you to listen to it as a whole and put yourself in an audience position, the fact that the music is so very way out will test an audiences listening power and we dont [sic] want them subconsiously [sic] to refuse to take anymore if you understand what I mean. I will be back on Friday day 3rd and am coming straight to Sydney. I want you to keep as much time as you can I will be at the “Chevron” the Trust will let you know exact time I arrive. We dont [sic] start rehersals [sic] till June 17 and the Ballet now opens in Sydney August 2. Give as much thought as you can to all this, as I am sure you can from your own point of view as well as mine, heighten to theatre effect of the whole thing here and there. Hope all is well am dying [indistinguishable] to start on the Ballet.” 15th April, 1968 “Two very important things I did not do in my last letter to you. I was enclosing this letter to Judith Wright for you to forward to her, if you can find out her address. Will you please do this, it is just suggesting to her that she should write a short poem which will cover the programme notes for Sun Music.
The second thing is that thinking about the ballet, I am sure that the whole of the second movement – the one with voices – should be recorded and played on tape – amplified all round the theatre, which I think would give a strange and very weird effect. I also think it should go right up to the moment where the voices reach a crescendo, and then the pit orchestra should pick up and play the last four odd chords, which follow the final shouts of the voices.
I think this could be tremendously effective in creating an atmosphere that would involve the audience. Will you think about it and we can discuss it on my return.” 30th May 1969 Surprised to hear from Alcorso that there are problems with the production of Sun Music. “I can assure you, my dear Peter, that I was blissfully unaware of any difficulty during the production of SUN MUSIC except getting the extra music owing to your commitments with Michael Powell.”
John Butler, another choreographer with the Australian Ballet, has said similarly:
The music is my springboard. I am very influenced by the music… I guess my system is rather strange. I find that frequently I work in foreign languages. It is easier if I demonstrate everything; it overcomes the language barrier; they can see it. I usually spend the whole first week simply on vocabulary, my way of moving. There are no classical terms for it. We do miles of movement. The dancers think I’ve gone crazy. Then I start seeing what looks well on their bodies, what dramatic things I can get out of them. I start the second week putting things to music. Before that I have spent weeks memorizing the score. I think of the music – the quality of the music – without having the dancers think of music and movement at the same time. It is the vocabulary
88 that you put in first, then sentences and then paragraphs, and so the shape of the ballet develops.133
Here, it can be seen that firstly, the music qualities have been the inspiration for the movement, and secondly for Butler, the music is known and even memorised before creating movement. Many choreographers in the 1960s found music the first step in choreographing a new dance work. Comments to this effect are found in articles and interviews of Australian choreographers such as the following examples:
I listen to the music and write the movements down, note by note and bar by bar134.
She gets her inspiration mainly from music but she has also been inspired by a character in a play.135
Normally I get my ideas from music, and tend very much to the lyrical and romantic type of thing.136
Lucette Aldous, a former dancer with the Australian Ballet, articulated this way of working even more forcefully:
Enjoying ballet, from a dancer’s point of view, is enjoying movement. All of us have movement and when we put it to music we have dance.137
According to Aldous, dance is not necessarily dance without the inclusion of music.
Making the movement fit with the music is in Aldous’ opinion the process that creates dance. The qualities of the music have been of over-riding importance as the music actually has determined the movement outcome. Aldous does not regard music as merely an accompaniment to the movement but an integral part of a dance work, relied heavily upon for the choreography. Peggy van Praagh, Artistic Director of the
133Butler, John. Australian Ballet and Modern Dance. Quoted by David Formby, 1st edition 1976. Revised edition 1981. Lansdowne Press: Dee Why NSW, 19. 134Burgess, Judith. Special music by Antill for new ballet. Author unknown. The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 July 1961, 4. MS 9171 National Library, Australia. 135Galene, Ruth. Special music by Antill for new ballet. 1961, 4. 136Halliday, Joan. Special music by Antill for new ballet. 1961, 4. 137Aldous, Lucette. Australian Ballet and Modern Dance. Quoted by David Formby 1st edition 1976. Revised edition 1981, 74. 89 Australian Ballet during the 1960s and 1970s outlined the importance of the other media incorporated in dance works:
Of course, dancing is only one part of ballet. Ballet consists of so many arts brought together in one, you have music, you have design, décor, you have literature, stories, you have the dance itself as well, but combining all of these is what ballet is all about, it’s not just one art, it’s the perfect fusion of many arts, that is probably why I think it is so absorbing and why not only to so many people who practice ballet, to whom it is their profession, but so many of the public, it means so much, because they go perhaps for different things, and so many people can find so many things in ballet.138
Here, van Praagh asserts that audiences may not necessarily attend performances to see dance only, but rather, audiences enjoy the combination of the artforms, a work that is a spectacle. The interactions of dance with music (and other media) are what, in van
Praagh’s opinion, has kept audiences interested in ballet. She also acknowledged the role music and composers have played in ballet over the years when in 1963 she stated:
Scenarios by musicians often emphasise the musical element of a ballet at the expense of the other collaborating arts so that the impact of design and dancing suffers. Nevertheless, composers from Lully till today have made important contributions to balletic authorship. Stravinsky played a major role in this department during the first decade of the Diaghilev ballet. British ballet, especially the early work of Frederick Ashton, owes an incalculable debt to the authorship of Constant Lambert, composer, writer and first musical director of the Sadler's Wells Ballet.139
The “important contributions” that composers have made to ballet and dance works have often been acknowledged not only internationally, but locally also and these contributions have generally been respected by choreographers. For instance, composer Graeme Koehne said of his collaboration with choreographer Stephen
Baynes for the work 1914:
I have been sending Stephen the music in instalments. He gives it to a pianist who makes a tape, which Stephen works with. He has rung me, requesting a bit more here or there. But he always realises the importance of the composer’s final say. Because of his musicality he recognises the narrative has to take second place to the musical structure. It’s a nice aspect of working.140
138Van Praagh, Peggy. Conversation with Dame Peggy Van Praagh. Interviewed by Hazel De Berg, 12th July, 1973. ORAL DeB 681, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 139Van Praagh, Peggy and Brinson, Peter. The Choreographic Art: an outline of its principles and craft. Foreword by Cyril Beaumont. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1963, 123. 140Koehne, Graeme. Interviewed by Michael Shmith for the programme notes 1914. Australian Ballet, 1998. 90 According to Koehne’s experience with Bayne, the composer was able to make the final musical decision, after considering the choreographer’s requests.
Other choreographers such as Graeme Murphy have regularly commissioned Australian composers and this has exposed concert hall composers to a different creative methodology, that of building an artistic community for the exchanging of ideas.
Murphy said:
I think it’s sharing the responsibility, sharing the load. I think after 20 years you want someone who you can actually bounce off and who you can steal ideas off too. I think it’s more a survival tactic. I love not working in any sort of isolation. I feel like I involve the dancers in a collaboration. I feel like I involve the composers … That’s all a part of it for me and I think people need that involvement. Just the value of asking their opinion or listening to what they have to say means that it becomes a sort of communal exchange, a communication, a communion really, and that’s what I like. But it lessens my burden. You feel lonely as a choreographer. I often hate that, particularly the loneliness that you feel if you are doing a work among strangers, people that you don’t know, that you’re not familiar with, companies that you’ve never worked with before. Not that I’ve done a huge amount outside the Sydney Dance Company but when I have, I haven’t been particularly happy about it unless there’s a little gang that you can giggle with at night or talk about the dramas of the day.141
Murphy has enjoyed collaborating with many Australian composers and this reflects his love of music. In high school, he was involved with music (playing recorder and singing in the choir) and his mother was a competent pianist. In his experiences with many dance companies, two had outstanding influences on him, including the Joffrey
Ballet in North America142 and Les Ballets de Félix Blaska, in France143. Murphy watched Blaska work with well-known contemporary composers and this process he has
141Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 13th August, 1996. ORAL TRC 3478, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 142The Joffrey Ballet was founded by the American choreographer Robert Joffrey. “As a company director he promoted the development of young American dancers and encouraged the creation of experimental American choreography, commissioning Ailey, Teltley, Tharp, Morris, Dean, and Forsythe.” The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Edited by Craine and Mackrell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, 260. 143Félix Blaska was a French choreographer, whose company was based in Grenoble, established in 1969. He regularly commissioned composers for his works, including Berio. 91 carried into his own choreographic practices. When he went overseas and worked in
Blaska’s troupe, he felt Blaska had access to:
..fabulous musicians and live music. They were very blessed. We worked with the Labeque sisters constantly, the two pianists played the Bartok for us to dance to [Sonate pour deux pianos et percussion choreographed by Blaska in 1971]. Berio, I met Berio during that period [for works such as Contre] because he created works for Blaska, Jean-Paul Drouet, great percussionists [Drouet contributed music for the works Ya Sin and Ballet pour tamtam et percussion in 1970]….it also just reminds me how far we’ve got to go in this country in terms of getting live music for dance.144
From Blaska, Murphy learnt to seek out local composers to enrich his works. He was assisted in this endeavour by the Australian Music Centre (established in 1974), a government publisher that supported, and still supports, new music:
Initially in the early days, someone like Jamie Murdoch was really fabulously… he was the director of the Australian Music [Centre]…In those early days when you couldn’t actually access young composers because there weren’t records around and there were just rare performances that they’d done and a few manuscripts which were no use to me, just music notations that were dead, I can’t listen to it. I can’t look at a score and sort of get the feeling I want. So he was very useful in those early days, pointing me at Carl Vine and Graeme Koehne and some of those people. I’m very grateful for that. Then after a while, composers start coming to you, sometimes to your own disadvantage where masses of tapes come over your desk and you have to listen to a lot of pop nonsense. Then occasionally people come into your life that are really interesting and you store them, you squirrel them away, because you never have an opportunity immediately. Life’s got tougher in that area too because three-year funding with its advantages means you actually have to know what you’re doing three years ahead and you can’t be opportunistic and suddenly go ‘Hey, that’s fabulous. I’ll do that next year’. That sort of planning has become part of our life and part of our brief. Before, you had to plan it but you could put something on the backburner and the backburner wasn’t very far away. It was the next work after the one you finished.145
Although he has been Artistic Director of the Sydney Dance Company, a more modern dance company than the Australian Ballet, Murphy’s choreographic methodology is still reminiscent of the traditional choreographic processes. Like the earlier choreographers listed, Murphy found music to be the fundamental base on which to build choreography:
…I’m very visual, I always see music. I never just hear it, I always see it, which is exhausting sometimes. I can listen to a piece of music, in my bedroom I play a piece of
144Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 16th to 17th May, 1990. ORAL TRC 2680, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 145Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 13th August, 1996. ORAL TRC 3478, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 92 music, and I’m drained by the end of 15 minutes because I’ve seen it, I just haven’t heard it. I love music, I just devour it.146
He has stated that Australian composers have "influenced my choreographic style" and
"challenged my musical concepts.."147.
commissioning is a risky business, in fact not dissimilar to childbirth even when one knows both parents, the offspring can be astonishingly individual. That, for me, is where the joy lies. And my gratitude goes to all the artists who from my esoteric wafflings have created music that is both beautiful and lasting. These scores have travelled broadly, been played by diverse groups of musicians, introduced new artists to audiences around the globe and in turn inspired other choreographers. Thus the cycle of commissioning has continued and the rich tradition of dance as a springboard for new music lives on148.
Commissioning is definitely a “risky business” not only for choreographers but for composers who participate, not knowing whether their scores will be accepted as appropriate for the movement, and whether these scores will be presented as they would wish. However, this risk has existed because choreographers have been so reliant on the music.
Other Australian choreographers work in a similar way. For example, Paul Mercurio described where his choreographic ideas originated:
Well, it depends because I’ve done it a couple of different ways. In the early days, I used to do story board. Like when I first started doing things for the dance company, like the risks workshop which were very formal. I’d had a few pieces of music I loved – Baccelli and what not – and I forever was thinking, I love this music, what can I do to it? Eventually I cam up with an idea and then I’d draw little pictures and draw the whole ballet out and if it’s a five minute piece it’s all right but when it’s a long piece you’re in trouble. So, you know, I’d come prepared into a studio and go, “Right, this is what I’ve seen. There’s this lift that goes into that” and it’s kind of already drawn on paper and in my head and it’s pretty much once I’ve got the bodies to see if that works.
I’ve always kind of prepared anyway. I mean, you listen to the music and you hear the beat and the rhythms and you know what you want to say and so you go in saying, “Right, today’s about two guys having an argument here and here and I want to bring this kind of sensitivity and journey so let’s try moving like this”, you know and you kind of put it together. I’ve also choreographed without music and then put music to it later and that’s hard. I think choreography’s supposed to go with music, unless of course the music is silence and then that’s a very different thing. I mean, I’ve done
146 Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 13th August, 1996. ORAL TRC 3478, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 147Murphy, Graeme. From the CD cover of Graeme Murphy's Body of Work: a retrospective. Sydney Dance Company. Tall Poppies TP146. 148Murphy. TP146. 93 pieces that are completely silent and the silence is music in itself and you use that as an accent.
So, you know, you can do it anyway you want and that’s very much circumstance and how you want to work. Sometimes the music, if you’re getting it composed, it’s not ready when you want to choreograph so you choreograph and you say to the composer, “ Well, 21 bars in, counting sixes, on the sixth six and the twelfth six and the thirteen, fourteenth and twentieth sixth I need these beats” and then the composer comes back a week later with all the beats on the fifth, night and twelfth, which is completely not what you choreographed and you’ve got to make the best of it. You know, there’s all those kinds of situations that go on. Then again I prefer to work with hearing music that moves me, putting an idea to it and creating a ballet, or having an idea that moves me and finding the music that supports it and then create a ballet; they’re the two ways that I prefer to work.149
Both methodologies of choreography mentioned here by Mercurio rely on music first.
Another choreographer, Natalie Weir has said:
The music plays a huge part. For me, I listen to the music for hours and hours and it takes me months to collect the music. The music certainly has a lot to do with the inspiration and the dynamic of the movement and the way the movement is headed.150
Although Weir is not necessarily speaking of commissioned scores here, her reliance on musical qualities in her choreographic methodology is representative of many choreographers’ methods in Australia. Sometimes original music is not written at all, choreographers preferring to use music they already know rather than unheard new works. There are many reasons that may explain why Australian composers are often not commissioned by large professional ballet. Sometimes choreographers like to hear music or be inspired by existing music for their choreography, rather than collaborating step by step with a composer. Often the music has been the first step in the preliminary preparation prior to rehearsal. Stanton Welch, a choreographer who has worked with the Australian Ballet admits that
as soon as I find a piece of music, I pretty much cast the ballet straight away.151
149Interview with Paul Mercurio, actor, dancer, choreographer, manager of Australian Choreographic Ensemble. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 30th January, 1996. ORAL TRC 3395, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 150Natalie Weir, as quoted by Michelle Potter. 1997,128.
94 Because choreographers preferred to work from the music, they therefore either required that commissioned music be submitted prior to rehearsals, or they opted to use existing music that they were familiar with.
However, some choreographers have attempted to work differently with music. For example, freelance choreographer Ros Warby has changed the way she has worked with composers:
Earlier in my work I collaborated with musicians and composers, Helen Mountford in particular. I worked with the choreography between movement and sound, letting that lead the development of the score. I still work with sound but trust the song of the dance more these days, for instance, letting Helen see the dance before she begins the sound score.152
This method has required composers to work a different way to other types of commissions such as opera or symphonic music, as it asks the composer to find musical elements from observing the dance movement, a skill that not many composers would have developed. As the year 2000 approached, Australian choreographers began to make dance movement first without depending on music to propel movement creation.
The composer in this situation sometimes entered during the early rehearsal stage to view movement and compose (occasionally on an accompanying piano) in an improvising manner, and sometimes composed in isolation after viewing the dance.
Shona Innes, a choreographer whose work with composers Warren Burt and Ros Bandt is discussed in Chapter Seven, gave a description of the difficulties she faced when altering her compositional style from the more traditional style to one that no longer relied on music alone:
151Welch, Stanton. Interview with Stanton Welch, dancer, choreographer. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 28th August 1995. ORAL TRC 3321, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. Recorded in A Passion for Dance. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997, 138. 152Warby, Ros. Reframing the dance body. Interviewed by Erin Brannigan. 2002.
This in-depth, extended outline of how a choreographer considered the relationships between music and dance, and more importantly, where the inspiration came from for their movement, is revealing and significant. Innes aimed to sever the control music had over the creation of her choreography and had to do this through working in silence.
Now the role music plays for her choreography is to emphasise dance movement rather than to be the origin of movement.
A third method of creating both music and dance may have been used in 1960 to 2000.
Sandra Nash, another Australian choreographer, reinforces the practice found in late
20th century Australian choreography, perhaps resulting from the work by Americans
Cage and Cunningham who experimented with writing in isolation:
Many twentieth century choreographers are exploring new relationships between time and space and also between music and movement. Movement may reflect the music in a direct way or each may evolve separately, but using set material or motifs. A counterpoint arises between the two and at a given moment the viewer creates the link between sound and movement. The ability to operate in this way would require a dancer to have not only a good sense of rhythm, but also the ability to move independently of the music and still be aware of it.154
153Innes, Shona. Fair Exchanges: 3DIS Computer/Dance/Music Project. Interviewed by Anne Thompson. Writings on Dance. Volume 5. Melbourne, 1990, 45. 154Nash, Sandra. Review: project new music new dance. Sounds Australian. No 22 Winter 1989, 36. 96 Here, like Cage and Cunningham, choreographer and composer created in isolation, and only united the artforms at performance so that the conversation between the two parts is not seen and heard until then. However this practice is not common in the works seen up to 2000 in ballet, modern and contemporary dance. Sylvia Staehli, another choreographer, has detailed how she used this method along with other methods through experimentation:
Like many other contemporary dancers and choreographers the exploration of the relationship of sound to movement has been an ongoing focus for me. Each new dance piece that I’ve made has explored a different relationship between sound and movement. I’ve used taped sound collages created independently from the same idea which generated the movement to create juxtaposition of rhythmically disconnected and sometimes contrasting elements. Other pieces have been made and performed in silence, using image-based, visual, functional, and emotional motivations for the movement. In one section of a dance I used the rhythmic and tonal qualities of spoken language (only audible to me as played through head-phones) to move to. I have also enjoyed performing with live musicians where the interaction was conversational and responsive – where an idea, motif or quality might be initiated by either dance or musician, and developed within certain structural limitations. Generally, I’ve established flexible structures to allow the sound and the movement the liberty of separate logics of progression.155
For a choreographer to work this way, a reliance on equally diverse and flexible musicians or composers is vital. There are only a limited number of reports of these types of interactions which can be taken as evidence that only a limited number of choreographers and composers used this collaborative methodology in Australia 1960-
2000.
When the dance is created after the music, a hierarchy of dance and music has often been perceived, weighted either towards music or dance, depending on the origin of the opinion. The hierarchy within the dance-music relationship has not always explained how choreographers have intended music and dance to interact. In fact, it is sometimes difficult to define how music and dance have interacted as choreographers and composers have used similar language to describe their own artforms, but with different
97 intentions. For example, time is necessary to both choreography and music, and the manipulation of existing time is often referred to as rhythm. In the following statement,
Australian choreographer Helen Herbertson explained her idea of what rhythm is:
Rhythm in choreography is how the vocabulary of each dancer sort of interacts before your eyes as a physical sort of rhythm. It's like physical interaction...156
Rhythm was seen by Herbertson to be a visual, not an aural, component of dance movement, dependant on sight for its understanding. Often choreographers, like composers, have not had extensive training in the other artform, but the fact that similar language, and similar elements, are at play within each artform aids attitudes towards each medium. For example, Wendy Morrow has said:
For me, I need a strong sense of phrasing .....With more contemporary work, it is not so important that the bars be regular because the dance can go through the music. .. From what I understand about music composition, I think there are incredible parallels with the sort of composition elements that I teach. We are talking about the same elements… The elements of time and energy, play and improvisation are basically the same. Within all those elements you then start looking at details like the dynamics, the flow, the phrases, the personal space… Music may be used as an assistant to enrich a sensation, provide a buffer to work against, or may provide a structure. 157
The idea of using music as a structure can sometimes be problematic when dance and commissioned scores do not meet at important points. For example, the placement of emotional climaxes, as well as motives within the music and within the dance, are important in maintaining an audience’s interest in the work, and choreographers have often been more aware of this than composers. Of this, van Praagh has noted:
Musical themes,... are usually capable of longer development than choreographic themes. The composer must be aware of this difference. But there are times when a musical phrase must develop along its own lines. The choreographer must match his ideas to it rather than dismember the music158.
155Staehli, Sylvia. Fair Exchanges: 3DIS Computer/Dance/Music Project. 1990, 45. 156Herbertson, Helen. As interviewed by Laura Peden. 1992, 32. 157Morrow, Wendy. Four and a half ounces. Sounds Australian. No 22, Winter 1989, 16. 158Van Praagh, Peggy and Brinson, Peter. 1963, 153. 98 This may explain why choreographers have wanted to change the musical structure of a work.
From the comments presented, it can be seen that Australian choreographers in the past have heavily relied on music to give inspiration to their choreography. This may have been an unrealised responsibility for Australian composers, as many dissatisfied composers’ comments can be seen in the next part of this chapter. Composers in general have not understood that choreographers are usually keen to work with other artists. In a paper (1990) funded by the Australia Council, prepared by an outside company, the dance community was consulted about the future of dance in Australia.
As part of this consultation, which involved 300 people, written submissions and consultations with organizations, out of the 14 issues raised included:
- the issue of support for independent artists; Cross art form issues; (i.e. dance activity which links and draws on other defined art forms such as music, theatre, and design);…. A lack of the history and documentation of dance;159
This was expanded upon further in the report:
5. Concerns and issues for the Dance Profession 5.1 Dance in the community
There is a clear need for the regional meetings and the National Dance Summit to address the question of relationships between dance and the Australian community, a task which will be difficult to achieve without some resolution of divisions which exist in many quarters between classical, modern/contemporary areas and individual artists. In addition, it has been suggested by many that there is little reason to doubt the view that dance in Australia tends to be seen as an activity which can only be perceived and which you can only participate in if you have very particular skills and image. Whereas it can be argued that dance is the ultimate in cross art form art, there are many who would disagree with this and who fail to see the links, for example, between dance and music and drama. This too is an inhibiting factor and tends to demonstrate the generally limited prevailing view of dance….
…Against these comments the following particular issues were raised during consultation. * Greater cross art form collaboration
As mentioned previously, dance is often seen to be elitist and divided and as not portraying links with other art form areas. Whereas there is clearly an alternative point
159Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 4-5. 99 of view which can be strongly argued, it must be recognized that a substantial number of people in the dance community see difficulties in this area.
Many said that dance relationships, particularly with music and drama, warrant fuller support, and it was suggested that some cross art form projects involving dance are rejected because they don’t fit totally within either drama, dance or other art form funding area.
A major spinoff of improved cross art form encouragement and support was seen to be the potential for much wider experience for dancers and for the arts overall – enhancing the development and possible future areas of career development for dancers through multi-skilling.160
Not only have choreographers wanted to collaborate with composers from the 1960s, but they have also lobbied in support of this ideal to government organisations such as the Australia Council, for collaboration has needed practical, financial support.
Composers’ attitudes towards dance:
Composers’ attitudes towards writing for dance have been recorded within music circles and journals, as well as newspaper or publicity articles. Sometimes these are negative views, where composers seek to expand possibilities within their artform but feel limited by choreographers’ attitudes. Composers’ dissatisfaction has been concerning music and the concert hall context of this genre. Composers sometimes feel that there is a view that concert hall music is intrinsically superior to music written for dance. They experience a pressure to allow their compositions written specifically for dance to be played in music concerts. This theoretically gives the music more performances, but exposes the compositions to evaluative criteria which they were not intended to face.
Composers would prefer that the compositions intended to accompany dance were evaluated in that context rather than in a context where dance is absent. In their defence composers note that dance-music can have many more performances than concert-hall
160Directions for the Future of Dance in Australia: a discussion paper. 1990, 14.
100 music and that these expose their compositions to a different audience. Graeme Koehne has said:
The relegation of status [of Dance Music] ... is displayed in the critical and academic prejudice against dance music which sees it as necessarily inferior to concert music.161
Stephen Leek has also stated:
There has long been some confusion defining music produced in collaboration with another artform. True, music must have its own integrity and strength; true, the music must possess qualities and values from its original sources; but I would strongly dispute and refute the suggestion that this music must then be able to stand on its own in a concert hall performance setting to be considered of any musical worth. This, of course, is an added bonus ... We need to find a new way of describing works that have been created in collaboration and can only display their full realisation in that context162.
Here, Koehne and Leek, both of whom have written for dance, have expressed their frustration about their colleagues’ attitudes towards dance-music. Often their fellow composers and musicians have not realised the difficulties that dance-music collaborations entail, and therefore have not judged these works according to their own particular genre. Leek and Koehne have both obviously felt bias in judgment directed at music not able to survive in the concert hall.
Nevertheless it is regarded as a disadvantage that, to quote Vine, "often the music dies when the dance dies"163. Composers have tried to find solutions to the problem of dance-music's reputation and its short lifespan. An example of this can be seen in the production of the ballet Vast, in which Barry Conyngham structured the score in such a way that it could also be performed in the concert hall, existing in its own right. Vast was composed for the Sydney Dance Company by Conyngham in 1988. The complete final version of the score was sent to Graeme Murphy as well as a recording of the
161Koehne, Graeme. Art - Capital A, entertainment - Small e? Sounds Australian. Volume 22, Winter 1989, 22. 162Leek, Stephen. Dance music - a new terminology. Sounds Australian. Volume 22, Winter 1989, 35.
101 West Australian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Hopkins, all before the choreography existed. Conyngham was given bare outlines as to what was required, as the aim was to have the music existing in its own right, so that it could be played for shorter dances or in the concert hall. The directions that Murphy gave Conyngham for
Vast included the request for music that would fill an entire program of about 90-100 minutes in length. Many choreographers were involved in this project and to accommodate this, the ballet, divided into three separate movements, also had to contain further subdivisions which each collaborator would interpret. Conyngham visualised these subdivisions as movements within each symphonic-like act, while
Murphy interpreted them as scenes in the dance drama. Conyngham said of Murphy that "the better the score he gets the better he seems to choreograph. I just hope I can live up to that"164. Conyngham enjoyed the experience, particularly the collaborative aspects of it, stating that:
…writing music is such a lonely activity. I love rehearsals, I love working with actors and singers and choreographers. I envy Graeme (Murphy) in a way; the fact that he literally works with the body of his dancers. My work is so different.165
Conyngham conceptualised each movement as a symphony in itself, yet all movements contain common thematic material acting as a link for the entire works. He wanted to write a "proper piece of music"166 rather than ballet music. Conyngham commented that:
ballet music is often awful. This [Vast] is rich texturally, though there are plenty of moments when people will hardly hear the music because they are so fascinated by the design and choreography.167
163Vine, Carl. Interview by Roger Covell. A Composer for the computer age. Sydney Morning Herald 16th August 1986. 164Conyngham, Barry. In interview by Litson, Jo. Music and the making of an Australian Accent. Weekend Australian. 6th December, 1988, M9. 165Conyngham, Barry. In interview by Litson, Jo. Danger on the shore. The Weekend Australian. Saturday, 6th July, 1991, page number unknown. 166Conyngham, Barry. In interview by Litson, Jo. Music and the making of an Australian Accent. Weekend Australian. 6th December, 1998, M9. 102 This last quote from Conyngham emphasises his recognition that music in a dance production is one of many elements that contributes to an entire work, involving various artforms. His concern that dance-music should be able to stand without the visual aid of dance, is one that is a little perplexing given that this music commission had been so heavily influenced by the concerns of the artistic context that Vast was created in. This opinion perhaps reflects Conyngham’s personal hierarchy of music, where music for dance is not as influential or creative as music for music’s sake. However, the transition of Vast from dance work to concert hall did not seem to be as successful as planned. In one review of the concert performance of Vast, the reviewer commented that:
The Centre, the central part of Conyngham’s score for the bicentennial ballet Vast, is music of a distinctive evocative impulse and strong orchestral colours. But its pictorial images constantly demand the visual element of the dance, and it loses something of its effect in a purely concert performance.168
Another reviewer of the same work, again of a concert hall performance, but more vicious in their attack, stated:
Vast IV: The Cities – from Barry Conyngham, was an unfortunate reminder of this music’s previous existence as part of one of those bicentennial excesses – Graham Murphy’s massive balletic essay on the National Bottom. If this was a musical image of Australian cities then Mr Conyngham has spent too much time in the western suburbs or down South Rd. Suburban Minimalism with Stobie Pole orchestration is hard to get excited about for listeners or performers. Vast makes it plain that not all ballet scores can cross the border into concert music.169
Criticism like this demonstrates the conundrum that some composers have faced in accepting dance commissions, and further explains why some composers have not welcomed publicity defining them as dance composers. This also demonstrates that even music designed for a particular dance context but intended nevertheless to stand on its own cannot always be transposed into other forums. Although Vast was not accepted as
167Conyngham, Barry. As interviewed by Litson, Jo. 1988, M9. 168Better exposure for Australian composers in general programming. The Canberra Times. Saturday, 28th September, 1991. 169Smith, Raymond Chapman. Flair of soloist the only gem. The Advertiser. Adelaide, Friday 14th August, 1992, 20. 103 a success in the concert hall, Murphy considered the music successful for the ballet. He stated:
Yes [we had discussed the theme before he wrote the music]. It was a real collaboration in the sense of what are we going to do? This is a monster, what are we going to do? What are we going to avoid? Burke and Wills, Ned Kelly, anything that had that kind of reference… I thought the most inspired thing about it was with Australia, picking the geography, flora, fauna, everything physical about it. And then finally, the humanity within it, in the big cities. You had such a wonderful vehicle, such good scope for dance that didn’t have to be literal. But If we handled it right, musically and choreographically I felt we could actually make a very relevant comment about the smells the textures the uniqueness of this continent….It was a big jigsaw puzzle really. I had to know musically…the music was very specific..He captured so graphically the feeling that then it was only a matter of me trying to match that grandeur or the aridness, or the whatever of that section.170 [emphasis added]
The context that dance-music has been written in has provided interesting challenges to composers. Richard Mills, when writing for the ballet Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, admitted that:
Writing the music for this ballet involved finding creative solutions to two major problems: firstly, to achieve an effective music resonance of the May Gibbs material, and secondly, to create a truly functional score for dance theatre in the classic tradition... The challenge for the composer .. has been to reconcile imaginative 'flights of fancy' with the real practical needs of the balletic stage171
The “practical needs” of the ballet have included theatrical considerations such as scene times, where dancers are positioned, number of dancers, emotional climaxes and so on.
Instrumentation is one consideration that often is not communicated enough during rehearsals and can change the textural parallelism between music and dance dramatically. For instance, the composer Robert Griffin Morgan in 2000 was interviewed about creating the 86 minute score for the Australian Ballet Mirror, Mirror, his longest work at the time. It was recorded that:
…Mirror, Mirror has been… tougher.. in that he had to write a piano reduction for the dancers’ rehearsal alongside the orchestral score, sending off the two versions of each section as he completed them… he is anxious about the impact that the real score will
170Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 16th to 17th May, 1990. ORAL TRC 2680, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 171Mills, Richard. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. CD notes, as recorded by Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Werner Andreas Albert. ABC Classics, 422 933-2, 1988. 104 make on the Australian Ballet dancers when they finally get to hear it because there are so many more thematic strands than 10 fingers on a piano can convey.172
The method of composing for such a genre involves what some composers like
Malcolm Williamson have described as writing with clarification:
This was a terrific challenge, to write a three-act ballet, where the expressive values of music have not the assistance of words and where the detailed story and the things which underlie the story, the spiritual conflicts as well as the more earthy conflicts, have all to be expressed in music, on this huge canvas of three acts. It brought into use all the exercise I’d ever had in symphonic writing over a large canvas, and all the characterization of opera. Composition for the ballet is quite a problem in itself, and I thought how salutary it was that I had earlier in my life, when I was, I believe, 19 or 20, had to work with dancers and I did on one occasion tour Tasmania for a month as pianist with a group of dancers, and I had to learn something about ballet and the musical types which would suit the dance, and how they could be used by choreographers, and one had to write always clear and articulate and varied rhythms, and this experience of having to clarify, clarify all the time is very good, of course, in any musical writing.173
Similarly, Stephen Leek has described the formation of dance and music composition to writing:
in finely chiselled short sections. This process is very much akin to that of choreography where small sections of material are juggled and jigsawed together to create a larger form....Each composer has undergone extensive paring away procedures, pruned away all excess, leaving only that which is essential to the work. It is a process of saying or suggesting as much as possible in the simplest, most direct manner. The music presented often takes on skeletal forms and textures of quite finite proportions. Extensive use is made of simplistic devices such as repetition, thematic minimalism, crystal-like use of popular timbres and textures and exciting Afro (popular-based) rhythms.174
This is Leek’s argument as to why choreographers prefer some composers over others.
If their music is simply written, other elements such as the dance can fit in, and not be overwhelmed by the music. However, it seems ironic to talk about ‘jigsawing’ a piece of music together for the dance, when many choreographers have used exactly this practice to assemble music. This is where choreographers have selected the parts from various pieces (not necessarily the entire piece) to make a collage of music. In such a
172Sykes, Jill. - Mirror, mirror on the wall, it’s a composer’s toughest call. The Sydney Morning Herald. 12th June, 2000, 13. 173Williamson, Malcolm. Conversation with Hazel de Berg. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 8th October, 1967. ORAL DeB 290, 291, 292, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
105 case, the music may not flow well from section to section. Meryl Tankard, a choreographer, has said of this:
I suppose working with Pina, [choreographer] she did use many, many different music [sic] all the time, so that’s just what I’ve grown up with, that seems quite a normal way to go for me. If you’re doing a piece about, you know, if there are peasants in the work and there are royalty, aristocracy, whatever, I had to find some peasant music, and it certainly isn’t Tchaikovsky for me, that has nothing to do with those peasants pulling the weeds out, or whatever, so those Tuva singers seemed to be much more appropriate for gardening or something.175
Perhaps, because certain choreographers are used to the sectional structures underscoring the drama, they have preferred the composers to write in this way.
Composers’ willingness to write for particular styles of companies and audiences is another reason why some composers are preferred. For example, Graeme Koehne said of his score for the Australian Ballet’s 1914:
The [collaborative] relationship felt good from the start. After initial discussions with Stephen [Baynes] and Andrew Carter in Adelaide early last year, and from Stephen’s treatment, I began to furnish an appropriate music language for 1914. I always respect different types of audiences and I realised I needed to make it lyrical and accessible. The work has a dark quality by nature of its story, but still has to speak to the audiences who go to The Australian Ballet ... That’s the challenge: tell the story, reflect the psychology and create musical structures that make sense in themselves and are also appealing and accessible to the audience.176
Koehne has recognised not only the different theatrical (temporal and interpretive) issues of writing to a dance commission but also that the context of the commission is different, with audiences attending dance not only to hear but also to watch.
The time given to complete and submit a score has also been problematic for composers. Sometimes this difficulty has been solved by using existing music as well
174Leek, Stephen. The music, the dance. Sounds Australian. No 22, Winter 1989, 9. 175Tankard, Meryl. Interview with Meryl Tankard, choreographer, artistic director. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 9th to 10th July, 1990. ORAL TRC 3477, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 176Koehne, Graeme. Interviewed by Michael Shmith for the programme notes 1914. Australian Ballet, 1998. 106 as writing new music. One example is the work Café, choreographed by Paul Mercurio and Kim Walker, with the score provided by Brett Cabot and Colin Newham (of the
Private Orchestra) consisting of arrangements of existing music and additional newly- composed music. The synopsis is about characters, based on real people that Walker and Mercurio knew from the Darlinghurst cafe Reggio's. The scenes are based on characters' emotions and the characters included such people as a drug addict, a prostitute, a yuppie, an intellectual, and a bikie. Thirteen different scenes were choreographed, using combinations of twenty-one dancers for example solos and pairs, giving a total duration of seventy minutes. The work was constructed in twenty-one days, initially with the composers providing several possibilities for the choreographers to choose from. Of the lack of time to construct the work, Cabot has said it worked well because:
There wasn't time to be precious about it. We only had 21 days and we worked really hard and enjoyed it. There was barely time to assess it ourselves177.
The music was performed live, and included diegetic music that seemed to come from a jukebox. The instrumentation included live acoustic guitar, saxophone, trumpet, with pre-recorded keyboards, computer and a drum machine. Elements of the cafe scene including a pinball machine were worked into the score. The existing music chosen was
In the Rain by Tony Hester and Sorry by William Bell and Booker T Jones. Cafe was received well by reviewers when it opened 28 July, 1989 at the Wharf Studio Theatre, including some of the following comments:
We are even content with the loud, '80's-style, largely electronic music supplied "live" by Brett Cabot and Colin Newham, highly coloured and throbbing with rhythm - ideal for Mercurio's and Walker's purpose178.
As a choreographic collaboration, Cafe works with dynamic fluency, powered by the energising beat and engaging melodies supplied in person by its composing duo..179
177Cabot, Brett, as interviewed by Valda Craig, 18 February 1993. Published in Dance: "Cafe" and "Boxes". Board of Studies: North Sydney, 1993. 178Morrison, Peter. Delicious stimulus, deep satisfaction. Newspaper article, details unknown, 1989. 107 .. the score.. is the added dimension to the work that holds it all together180.
The last comment referring to music holding all components of a dance work together acknowledges a special role for the music.
Composers have found that creating music for dance requires a different methodology than that used when writing for other music genres. While questioning and contending with dance-music’s lower status, Australian composers have gained experiences which they have regarded as valuable, learning that writing with clarity will ensure future commissions and success of scores.
Examples of collaborative relationships:
There are many successful examples of collaborative relationships in dance and music, and a few examples of relationships judged by the participants to be unsuccessful. The perceived failure can be attributed to the quality of the production and collaborators involved, and whether the work has been performed at all. From the earliest Australian
Ballet production using local artists, The Display, local audiences have enjoyed seeing
Australians successfully produce works of international quality. In spite of the 600 or more works assembled in the Catalogue attached to this thesis, there are still problems to be faced in attempting collaboration between choreographers and composers. Budget constraints are ever-present, and the lack of appropriate training, institutional or through experience, for choreographers wishing to work with composers is also a stumbling block.
179Sykes, Jill. Frothy brew a winner. The Sydney Morning Herald. Monday 31st July, 1989, 17.
108 Often, the collaboration is a long process that involves months, and sometimes years, of preparation on both sides of the relationship. In a first step, choreographers and ensembles have made themselves familiar with existing works of composers and sometimes used some of them to produce new dance works. If these productions were successful and the composer's style seemed suitable, the choreographer has then approached the composer to write a new work for a new dance piece. An example of this can be seen in Colin Brumby's relationship with the Queensland Ballet, a relationship that took 16 years to finally develop to the point where an original score was written for a dance work performance. Brumby had been commissioned in 1968 to write a score for the ABC television ballet Bunyip, for the Meryl Hughes Company, with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. In 1971, Charles Lisner compiled some of
Brumby's music together in a tape montage for his ballet Cataclysm.
Cataclysm is a brave attempt to interpret the evil effects of drug-taking on the young. Colin Brumby's music is strikingly original and explicit in making one aware of the horror and confusion that follow a drug party in a hippy 'pad'.181
Following this, Brumby was actually commissioned by the Queensland Ballet, for the ballet Cinderella, but this was to arrange Rossini excerpts. Brumby had a small amount of freedom in this commission, in that he was able to extend the original request:
In 1975, the then-Artistic Director of the Queensland Ballet, Harry Haythorne, asked visiting conductor, John Lanchbery, if he would adapt Rossini’s opera, “Cenerentola” as a ballet score. Because Lanchbery’s commitments prevented this, he suggested that they should commission a “local” composer instead.
Thus it was that I was approached, but my feeling was that there was a [sic] insufficient music in “Cenerentola” that could be danced; certainly not enough, in my opinion, to support a full-length ballet. I agreed to the commission, therefore, on the understanding that I could draw material from any Rossini score that seemed appropriate.182
180Shoubridge, William. A rich aroma filters through Cafe life. Newspaper article, details unknown, 1989. 181Pask. 1982, 231. 182Brumby, Colin. In an email to Rachel Hocking, 28th February, 2005. 109 These scores that Brumby used included The Thieving Magpie, The Silken Ladder, and
The Siege of Corinth183. It was not until 1977 that he was commissioned to write music for an original ballet, yet to be choreographed by Lisner.
Following the success of my first commission for the Queensland Ballet Company with Cinderella in 1975, it was suggested by the then Artistic Director, Harry Haythorn, that I might like to work on a completely original ballet with the founder of the company, Charles Lisner. A meeting took place, and Charles, after outlining an idea in very general terms, indicated that he would prefer to choreograph my musical score than have me write a score to a specific scenario. His basic idea was that for most of the time people present masks of themselves to each other in order to hide their true feelings, thus rendering themselves less vulnerable. The score was completed on this basis, but in the meantime a change in the artistic directorship left the project in limbo. The score was recorded however by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under my direction for the ABC in 1980, and to this day remains unperformed as a ballet.184
Finally in 1987, Brumby was commissioned by the company to write a full-length ballet, titled Alice, after Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The ballet was premiered on 30 June 1989 in Brisbane, with choreography by Harold Collins and accompanied by the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra. In an interview in 1989, Brumby said:
Alice in Wonderland was one of my favourite stories.. The music came very easily because I knew exactly what I wanted. I visualised what it would be like on stage. But the 600-page score took a long time to do, especially the orchestration....The number of full-length ballets composed by Australians can be counted on one hand... Top marks to the Queensland Ballet.185
Brumby recognised that ballet companies had not commissioned full-length works very often and even though it took 16 years to get to this point, he was appreciative of
Queensland Ballet’s initiative. More commissions of Australian composers have occurred outside of the traditionally-styled ballet works, as discussed in Chapter Two.
Some composers have judged certain collaborative relationships as unsuccessful.
Composers such as Stephen Leek, Graeme Koehne and Carl Vine have expressed
183Brumby’s touch gives polish to Cinderella ballet. The Leader. 5th December, 1982. 184Brumby, Colin. Annotations Made by Colin Brumby. Australian Music Centre, 1990, 7. 185Brumby, Colin as interviewed by Danielle Koopman. Taking note of the classics. The Courier Mail. June 16, 1989, 16. 110 dissatisfaction in how their music is perceived, not only by the choreographers involved in the collaboration, but also by audiences and academics. Choreographer Helen
Herbertson has admitted that in collaboration:
the hardest thing about it....is being ... honest, is being able to say I hate that bit of music, it's terrible, or for them [the composers] to be able to say, look, I don't think that piece of choreography works at all, it's too long. Because they're often a matter of compromise on both sides, particularly, probably, on the musical side186.
An example of this can be seen in Don Asker's production of Everyman's Troth in
1978, with music by Carl Vine. Vine wrote the score during the dancers' rehearsals, so that he was writing a "note for every step"187. He felt very supported by Asker, the choreographer and was surprised when after opening night, he was asked to write a new score as Graeme Murphy and Don Asker felt the original score did not work even often hearing it on piano during rehearsals. While Vine wrote the new score, he attended the dance’s performances, improvising on percussion each night. Even after this experience, Vine was quoted in 1980 as saying:
I love writing for dance because it means you are being paid to write, and you have your music heard immediately188
Vine’s love of dance composition altered over the next five years to the point where he stated:
I prefer not to be considered a dance composer… I am no longer a dance composer. 189
His altered attitude may have come about owing to the increasing number of successful dance productions that had involved Vine's music. John Antill was placed in a similar compositional box because of the success of Corroborree. Antill wrote 13 works specifically for ballet, and provided symphonic music that was used for choreography.
186Herbertson, Helen. Interviewed by Laura Peden, 1992, 24 187Meale, 1993, 9. 188Vine, Carl. As interviewed by Jill Sykes. Tuning up for Spike. Sydney Morning Herald. 2nd February, 1980.
111 This included the massive production Music for a Royal Pageant of Nationhood (1963) that had a cast of 6000 and was televised across Australia on the ABC. On being commissioned so much for ballet, he once said:
After Corroboree, everybody thought of me as a ballet writer. Many stories and commissions came my way. Ballet seemed to be the thing expected of me, and it kept pushing the symphonic works into the background. I had been a symphonic man all my life through playing in several orchestras, including the Sydney Symphony190.
For Antill, as for many other composers, writing for dance has been a direction they have wandered into after successful collaborations, rather than a planned career choice.
Other collaborative relationships have not had instant success and the absence of a sympathetic relationship between the various personalities involved is sometimes a reason. For instance, Malcolm Williamson had this to say of one of his ballets:
..I was commissioned by the Western Theatre Ballet in Great Britain to write a full length ballet, a ballet in three acts, on a story by David Rudkin, a very obsessed tortured English playwright, with a very talented and original choreographer called Peter Darrell. The ballet is concerned with ritual murder in Cornwall. I disliked the story intensely and I disliked David Rudkin almost as intensely, but I’m devoted to Peter Darrell and devoted to Peter Darrell’s impressive gifts, much more original, much more deeply balletically expressive, than those of Helpmann. The ballet was premiered at Sadlers Wells in 1966, and was an artistic failure, certainly as far as the critics were concerned. It had a certain shock value and its balletic value, of course, was enormous. It has lived and is being revived, and from the indications of the box office and the relenting critics, it appears to be having a better career now than would have been thought for it when it first appeared. 191
Williamson fulfilled his role of writing for Darrell as he believed in Darrell’s abilities, even though he also intensely disliked working with the author Rudkin. The collaboration, like Williamson’s and Darrell’s, often comes from and is motivated by the choreographer, who presents a set of requests to the composer. Another example of this is with Koehne and Baynes. For 1914, presented by the Australian Ballet company,
189Vine, Carl. As interviewed by John Colwill. Carl Vine: fresh laurels. 24 Hours. November 1985, 13- 14. 190Antill, John. As quoted in Gentle Genius: A life of John Antill. By Beth Dean and Victor Garell, Sydney, Australia: Akron Press, 1987,163.
112 Jo Litson interviewed both Baynes and Koehne in the lead up to the premier of the ballet. Baynes, the choreographer, had previously been inspired and motivated by music, but in this case he had not received Koehne’s score until after beginning work on the choreography. Koehne had asked for a detailed scenario and commented that:
Its no good being told that they want 10 hours of orchestral music. I like to be given a very specific outline. People often say to me 'isn't that restrictive creatively?' but it's not for me. I find it inspiring. The challenge then is to integrate narrative, psychological and visual elements and still create a unified musical structure with an integrity of its own so that it doesn't sound like a film score192.
For this ballet, Koehne used musical devices such as leitmotif to suggest the different themes that are also featured in the novel.
Cheryl Stock observed another collaboration that may have seemed unsuccessful in one way and successful in another way. Jaap Flier (choreographer) and Peter Sculthorpe
(composer) worked together on Rites of Passage which used both the Australian Dance
Theatre and Australian Opera. Stock described the problem as follows:
I’d like to talk about something that I think was a very significant arts event in Australia, and that was Peter Sculthorpe’s opera, Rites of Passage. Because it was a collaboration with the Australian Opera and Australian Dance Theatre, in fact it makes me rather depressed to think that the Australian Opera would never contemplate anything like that now. And this was the opera that Peter Sculthorpe had been commissioned to write for the opening of the Opera House, and hadn’t finished it. I thought it was a fabulous piece of music. It was a full-length work… it was a 90 minute work, and Jaap had been commissioned to choreograph it. And the company was augmented by.. to 14.. seven men and seven women, for this period of Rites of Passage. And we had our main rehearsal period in Adelaide, and Peter would come and talk with Jaap. What happened was, that it seemed… that … Jaap did not like the music. Either he didn’t like the music, or he thought it was too dominant an influence in his choreography. So after a few times of using a tape-recorded version … of… Peter Sculthorpe’s Rites of Passage, the thing was choreographed in silence. And… until we got with the orchestra, we really hadn’t heard the music very much. So that was a very interesting process for me, to see that you didn’t choreograph to music necessarily, that you could work independently from the music, and it could still blend and meld in to a … work in such a way that you could still.. quite honestly call it a collaboration. Because I know that Peter and Jaap had many, many discussions, at many different stages, of the work’s development. I think…I’m sure Jaap had a lot of respect for Peter, but as I say, I don’t know whether it was he didn’t like the music, or
191Williamson, Malcolm. Conversation with Hazel de Berg. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 8th October, 1967. ORAL DeB 290, 291, 292, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 192Koehne, Graeme, interviewed by Jo Litson. Stephen and David's pas de deux. The Weekend Australian. 14th March, 1998, 18. 113 whether he felt it was too dominant in influencing his work. Maybe Russell or someone knows more about that than me, but I know that’s how we worked, and it was a very interesting process. It was a very kinetic way to work, and it was the first time I had… but to actually do a piece with such extraordinarily powerful music, but not rehearse to that music, was very strange, and.. exciting, actually.193
Although Flier may have had difficulties with Sculthorpe’s score, he found a solution rather than cancelling the work. As Stock noted, the music and dance blended regardless of the method of choreography as the communication between choreographer and composer had been so close. As John Cargher said in 1977, in regards to the lack of Australian commissions from the Australian Ballet:
Helpmann's unfortunate experiences in 1973-74 were admittedly discouraging; first Richard Meale and then Malcolm Williamson failed to meet agreed deadlines to provide music for the same ballet, Perisynthion, while elsewhere Peter Sculthorpe was letting down the Australian Opera in a similar manner194. Frustrating as this may have been for Helpmann it does not in the least affect the fact that music specially written for ballet is part and parcel of the creative process and one failure is no reason to abandon the principle. Composers and choreographers in this country have not had time to establish any kind of tradition and it is not to the credit of the Australian Ballet that they have received so little encouragement.195
Practical problems sometimes interfered with the production of dance works. Murphy had particular issues with gaining copyright from an overseas living composer for one work, and he stated the following general comments in reference to this:
Of course, now composers are demanding so much more for the rights for a performance, which is crippling for dance companies and a disadvantage for them because okay, composers will get a single concert performance of a piece, whereas a dance company will give hundreds, sometimes thousands , of performances and the exposure is so much greater. But if they charge the same fee as for a one-off concert, they charge a concert fee which is quite exorbitant, if they charge that for a dance performance, it really means we think very carefully about who we use and we could be forced into using the dead composer syndrome, you know, 50 years out of copyright nonsense, and we all want to use living composers, preferably ones that have written stuff for us.196
193Stock, Cheryl. Interview with Cheryl Stock, dancer and performing artist. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 6th and 7th May, 1990. ORAL TRC 2578, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 194Edward Pask has recorded that neither score was accepted by the Australian Ballet, not that they came late. 195Cargher. 1977, 312. 196Murphy, Graeme. Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 13th August, 1996. ORAL TRC 3478, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.This was in reference to obtaining copyright permission from Olivier Messiaen. 114 Other problems have occurred during rehearsal stages, with the use of live musicians.
Employing live musicians costs more than using recorded music, and a cassette tape can sometime be more reliable than musicians, which is why many companies have opted for recordings/soundtracks. An example was given by Cheryl Stock, with the rehearsals for Rites of Passage:
But I also became aware of the bad effect of unions, in the sense that we were doing one run-through of Rites of Passage, we didn’t have that many run-throughs with the orchestra, though in today’s terms it was luxury beyond belief, because I think we did five or six… but we didn’t think it was many, seeing we hadn’t heard the music too many times! And what happened was.. we were right in the middle of one Rite, I mean right in the middle of a bar, and the musicians stopped and walked out, and we just kept going til we finished the.. the Rite. I mean, we would never stop in the middle of a sequence of movement. They didn’t even finish the bar, it was their break, and they went out to go to the canteen. And I kept thinking, “how can an art form maintain its passion, if you’re going to be codified to the extent where you can’t even finish a movement of music, and just have your break five minutes later?” But that’s another issue that may come up later. McKechnie: Yes, it’s a common practice, and it’s repeated many times, and I’ve heard similar stories many times before.197
Composers in collaborative relationships have often been asked to become involved with projects in additional ways besides providing music. This is apparent in
Experimental Dance and its associated music discussed in Chapter Seven, but this practice has also been used in other types of creations. One example is that of Michael
Askill’s works for Graeme Murphy. As one reviewer stated:
The continuing collaboration between Graeme Murphy as choreographer and the composer percussionist Michael Askill is one of the most interesting co-operative ventures in performing arts here, producing works of major duration and scope...Such a thoroughgoing partnership is remarkable and deserves international celebrity.198
Askill, a percussionist from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, along with other percussionists, established the performance group Synergy. In Askill’s biography notes, a history is given of how Murphy heard Synergy’s work Matsuri of 1991, and then
197Stock, Cheryl. Interview with Cheryl Stock, dancer and performing artist. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 6th and 7th May, 1990. ORAL TRC 2578, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
115 invited Askill to work with him199. From this relationship, the dance works Free
Radicals and Salome were created. As with other of Murphy’s works such as Piano
Sonata, the instrumentalists were visible on stage, and also participated in movement along with the dancers. The dancers also became musicians by incorporating Askill’s rhythmic patterns as body percussion in their movement.
While the process of collaboration, the inclusion of composers and the reliance of dance on music are notable points for discussion, the actual performance outcomes may differ from the intents and energies expended by choreographers and composers in the lead up to performances. The projected relationships between the music and dance in process may not succeed in performance. For example, Graeme Koehne’s score for Once around the sun, for the Queensland Ballet and choreographed by Harold Collins and
Pamela Buckman, seemed to dominate in the collaboration for this production:
When what was happening on stage was less than riveting, the music claimed the attention it consistently deserved. Contemporary Australian music may have won over a few more listeners as a result of Once Around the Sun.200
Therefore even though the production and collaboration between choreographers and composers has been successful, a successful performance is not guaranteed.
Australian composers have gained more than they have lost in writing for dance. Many have found the immediacy of the performance a positive aspect, while others have appreciated new working relationships formed with collaborators, in what can be a
198Covell, Roger. Sydney Morning Herald, 10th May, 1999. As stated in the programme for Air and Invisible Forces. 199Askill, Michael. Biography.
I really feel that I myself have learned to do things musically by associating with choreographers and designers, so, at the simplistic level, the aim (of the interdisciplinary approach) is the broadening of horizons and the increasing of possibilities. Art today is about a wonderful process of connecting an individual vision with the universal. You have your genetic imprint, but you are also part of a species. Human beings need art because in art nothing is forbidden. The imagination is without boundaries. By pushing back the boundaries and increasing an artist’s disciplinary base, you can only create better artists, reasons Conyngham201.
On composing dance-music, Koehne stated:
There are so many things I need to work on. To me, writing music is really a way of solving all these problems of learning more about music. For me, a commission is a learning thing: someone sets you a problem – “write us a…ballet” – and then I have to solve that. I have got to use the techniques at my disposal to solve that problem and learn something in the process. I like that challenge.202
Conclusion:
Many direct quotes from composers, choreographers and reviewers have been presented in this chapter, to demonstrate attitudes of local artists towards collaboration, both positive and negative, during the period 1960-2000. These comments show that collaborators on both sides in the creative process of producing a dance work have needed to compromise or resolve artistic problems as they arise.
For choreographers, there are many risks involved in commissioning composers.
Firstly, the choreographer must trust that an appropriate score meeting budget and time constraints. Secondly, as many choreographers during 1960 to 2000 have actually depended on the musical elements to create their choreography, so the impetus of the score has been vital to the success of the dance movement.
201Conyngham, Barry and Litson, Jo. Danger on the shore. The Weekend Australian. 6th July, 1991, page unknown.
117 For composers, the prejudice that has been directed towards music for dance has been a concern, for their dance-music has often been judged on musical qualities alone, rather than collaborative qualities. On the other hand, some composers such as Conyngham have prepared their dance-music for a second life as a concert hall work, even though this has removed the music from its original context. Others have written scores that have not been accepted or used for dance performances, and sometimes a lot of time has been invested in the writing of these rejected scores.
From the collaborative relationships examined, four different methods of production have been observed. The first is where the composer has written a score in isolation, based on synopsis and discussion with the choreographer and then submitted it prior to the rehearsal. The choreographer then bases the dance movement on the music and this is the more traditional balletic way of working. The second method is where the composer has written in isolation and the choreographer has created the dance movement in isolation, both working from a previous discussion. The dance and music have then come together at the performance, so that relationships converging towards and departing from each other can be observed. This has been rare in Australian practices. The third method is where the choreographer has created the movement and asked the composer to view the dance in order to compose the music from the movement. This method has required extra skills from the composer and became a noticeable trend only towards the end of the period. The last method is one that has been used frequently, where choreographer and composer have worked together, creating or adapting music and movement during the rehearsal period. Each has
202Koehne, Graeme. Interviewed by James Mullighan. Beyond the pale. Soundscapes. No 12, April 1995, 21. 118 affected the synopsis, music, movement and their joint aesthetic aims have been preoccupied with creating closer relationships between music and dance.
In the following chapters, case studies of dance-music scores will be examined in light of the artistic conditions and attitudes in Australia. Analysis is directed towards showing how specific composers set about writing scores that ultimately provided coherent, complementary relationships to the dance.
119 Chapter Four – Music for Ballet
In Australia, the decade 1960 to 1970 saw the establishment of ballet companies, concerned with the traditional narrative French-influenced type of dance. The establishment of these companies coincided with a new national social consciousness and an interest in Australian identity. To help this search for identity, many ballet companies included the production of Australian-commissioned works in addition to the traditional balletic repertoire that audiences wished to see. For important national events following 1970, such as the Bicentenary of European settlement in Australia, funding was offered for nationalistic-flavoured works. Festivals have also proven to be important arenas for original all-Australian works, an example of which is the Adelaide
Arts Festival, where the ballet The Display was premiered. Existing Australian stories and themes based on Australian society provided the inspiration for these works. In these cases, the synopsis and Australian imagery were given to the composers prior to the choreography, so that the composer could write a score that reflected the same interpretive characteristics that the choreographer intended to display in the dance.
During the period 1960 to 2000, early works still followed the narrative-styled synopsis structure, whereas later dance works did not necessarily depend on a synopsis. The choreography was often a literal interpretation, visually translating the music, with phrase structures closely linked. The structure of the dance work, and hence the music, was divided up into acts, scenes and related to physical limitations of the theatre.
Texture in dance and music united, and the classical tradition of an orchestral ensemble accompanied the classical ballet ensembles. The incorporation of Australian themes in ballet music will be examined through three works: Snugglepot and Cuddlepie; Vast;
120 and lastly The Display. These will demonstrate how the theatrical consideration impacted on the music.
Ballet themes in Australia:
Dependent on the use of narrative-styled structures, ballet in Australia has been concerned with presenting Australian themes and stories. Synopses have included
Aboriginal legends such as Black Opal (1961), local fairytales like Snugglepot and
Cuddlepie (1988), and historical stories such as 1914, about World War I (1998).
Narratives with Australian themes have continued right through the period from the
1960s to the late 1990s. Two such works, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, and Vast, which were written during the Bicentennial year, both referred to traditional balletic styles, although Vast included other styles also.
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, written for the Australian Ballet, is a light-hearted ballet in its synopsis, dance style and score. Based on the Australian classic tale by May Gibbs of gumnut babies and bad Banksia men, this work is in the style of classical ballet, with a classically constructed score. The piece, which used 46 dancers, was choreographed by Petal Miller-Ashmole, after discovering that May Gibbs had had ideas for a ballet.
The designs and costumes by Hugh Colman were based on May Gibbs’ illustrations. Of the collaboration, Miller-Ashmole stated that:
The choreography is based on the classical ballet technique which I feel is befitting to the delicate Gibbs' heritage...Working on the ballet was a totally collaborative and creative period between Richard Mills, Hugh Colman and myself. It was never my intention to create a ballet specifically for children... but for the child in every one of us203.
203Miller-Ashmole, Petal. Programme notes. The Australian Ballet: Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Playbill Publication: Pymble, 1988. 121 The composer Richard Mills was commissioned by the Australian Ballet, with assistance given by a grant from the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council.
This grant helped the company to employ Mills as a Composer-in-Residence for the
1987/88 season. In his CD notes for the recording of this work Mills stated that:
Writing the music for this ballet involved finding creative solutions to two major problems: firstly, to achieve an effective music resonance of the May Gibbs material, and secondly, to create a truly functional score for dance theatre in the classic tradition. The magic of May Gibbs' world of the imagination has been the guiding force behind the composition of this music... in essence, the lively spirit of Gibbs the artist provided constant inspiration and direction during the process of composition. The challenge for the composer in all this has been to reconcile imaginative 'flights of fancy' with the real practical needs of the balletic stage. In this difficult process, I was assisted and directed, and scolded and praised, loved and hated (finally, loved, I hope) by choreographer and dear colleague, Petal Miller-Ashmole, whose tremendous grasp of realities and the complex craft of theatre enabled me to produce music which can be danced to - which, after all, is what ballet music is for.204
His approach reflects the considerations that this thesis explores in its analysis of works for dance. "An effective music resonance of the May Gibbs material" can be demonstrated through the composer's attempts at metaphor within this composition.
The physical elements needed for collaboration, especially that of time, have also been considered by the composer as can be seen from his aims to create a "functional score".
Aspects of this composition can now be broken up into temporal and interpretive sections for discussion.
The ballet is in one act. The total score time is forty minutes and three seconds, making this work a full-length ballet. Within this the score has been broken up into sixteen sections. Most of the sections join with an attacca but there are two large breaks for applause written into the score after movements six and nine. Fermatas at the end of each movement can be varied according to the action on the stage at the time. The total work is economical in its thematic material, but each section has its own characteristics
122 which affect the time signature and rhythmic motives used. Most of the main themes for the Gumnuts and Ragged Blossom dances are used in the opening movement.
Orchestral textures vary from one section to the next, and affect the choice of number of dancers used. Introductions and segues contain most of the free material, with alternating time signatures, and variations in tempo. There are definite sections that consist of folk dances such as a waltz and a march, and these have strict forms. For example the march is in ternary form. Most of the drama and story line on stage occurs during the opening and close of movements, with the main sections of the movements featuring classical choreography. Trilling, tremolos and small melodic ostinatos are often used at the beginnings and ends of movements as these can also be extended according to the onstage action. Repetition of the opening section is apparent, occurs after every second or third movement and is often used for solo dances.
The resonances in imagery between the dance and the music come into play through the structure. The sixteen sections each have their own characteristics, determined by time signatures, rhythmic and melodic motives, texture, phrasing and instruments used. The reliance on imagery is apparent through the titles given to each section as seen below.
There are many obvious references to characters from the novel, for example, the diegetic kookaburra calls in movement eight that are interspersed with trilling and the tuba melody in movement nine for Mr Lizard that is slow and in a lower range.
For this ballet, Mills was able to use a large orchestra, which had a bearing on the types of effects that could be used, the large variety in texture and the co-ordination of the music with the forty-six dancers in the ensemble.
204Mills, Richard. CD Notes. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. As recorded by Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Werner Andreas Albert. ABC Eloquence 423 933-2. 1988. 123 Table 4.1. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie - the synopsis by Hugh Colman adapted from the ballet synopsis by Petal Miller Ashmole205.
The bush day begins with Gumnut Blossoms preparing themselves in the morning dew. Amongst them is the little orphan Ragged Blossom, and her friends, the foster brothers Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Left alone in the bush, she is surprised by three wicked Banksia Men, who kidnap her. The brothers are frantic, and spread the terrible news with Mrs Kookaburra's help. To their aid comes wise old Mr Lizard and a band of Gumnut warriors. Together they set off on the rescue mission. In Mrs Snake's sinister dungeon lies Ragged Blossom, bound. The Banksia Men's dance of victory is abruptly interrupted by the intrepid Nuts and Mr Lizard - a battle follows, in which wicked Mrs Snake is finally destroyed. But one Banksia Man has escaped and stolen Ragged Blossom away in their boat "The Snag". After seeing her borne out to sea, Snugglepot bravely determines to follow. Deep beneath the green waves lies the dreamy, glimmering world of the Fish Folk, ruled by Little Obelia. Chief among them are powerful John Dory and the beautiful Anne Chovy, whom he seeks in vain to wed. The Banksia Man descends with his prisoner and offers her to John Dory. Close behind comes Snugglepot quickly befriended by Anne Chovy, who promises to marry John Dory if he will spare the Gumnuts' lives. Suddenly Little Obelia is revealed on her throne, counting her pearls of wisdom. She consigns the Banksia Man to her cave, and amidst general rejoicing and the Wedding Dance of Anne Chovy and John Dory, the Nuts return to the world above the sea. News spreads fast on the bush telegraph, especially when Mrs Kookaburra is about! She spreads the glad tidings as night begins to fall. Beneath a huge moon and shimmering stars, all the bush creatures, Nuts and Blossoms join together in a colourful dance to celebrate the safe return of their friends, Snugglepot, Cuddlepie and Ragged Blossom. And remember, Humans: "be kind to all creatures and don't pull flowers by their roots". (May Gibbs)
Orchestration included the use of a piano, celeste, harp and numerous percussion
instruments. Like the texture of the orchestration, the number of dancers on the stage
varied from a solo (with dancers watching in the background) to a full ensemble in the
finale.
205Colman, Hugh. Synopsis. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Program - The Australian Ballet, 1988. 124 Mills interpreted the imagery of this Australian fairytale by writing a score that is classical in structure. Most movements have a free introduction that allows for free choreography on stage. The free sections are like recitatives: that is, these are the moments that explain the plot, mimic the drama and allow for a certain amount of miming choreography on stage. His use of short slurred and staccato phrases, orchestrated for winds, with rippling tremolos and trills, gives the imagery of the outdoors, of bird calls and light breezes. Although there is an element of danger within this synopsis, the overall character is never too serious. It contains charming and comical themes that are similar in intervallic and rhythmic content, as well as direction, phrase lengths and articulation.
The commissioned balletic work Vast also uses Australian themes, but is completely different in character. It was appropriately titled not only because it used many dancers and a large orchestra, but because of what it represented for this period. In 1964 there were only a small number of full-time professional companies regularly performing and irregularly commissioning composers. In 1988, Vast demonstrated how far Australia had come in supporting the arts industry. This ballet was commissioned by the
Australian Bicentennial Authority for the major professional dance companies, including the Australian Dance Theatre, Sydney Dance Company, Queensland Ballet, and West Australian Ballet, working together. The commission specified that the work had to reflect Australian themes and identify as Australian. It was choreographed by
Graeme Murphy and toured nationally to commemorate the Bicentenary. The complete final version of the score for Vast was sent to Graeme Murphy with a recording of the
West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Hopkins, all before the choreography existed. An orchestral recording available before work on the
125 choreography commences provides the choreographer with a truer sound than a piano reduction so this recording aided Murphy particularly with regard to textural variations.
The composer Barry Conyngham was given bare outlines as to what was required, as the aim was to have the music existing in its own right, so that it could be played for shorter dances or in the concert hall. The directions that Murphy gave Conyngham for
Vast included the request for music that would fill an entire program (full length ballet) of about 90-100 minutes in length. The ballet, divided into three separate movements, also had to contain further subdivisions that would be interpreted separately.
Conyngham visualised these subdivisions as movements within each symphonic-like act, while Murphy interpreted them as scenes in the dance drama. This ballet was written for a full orchestra as it was a Bicentennial commission and expected to be momentous, suitable to the occasion. This affected Conyngham's composition in that he says:
Vast is much more expensive and written for a full orchestra so I've been able to make it bigger, more voluptuous and in a way grander. Vast was like being given the universe, being let loose in the candy store. It is a huge melding of things I've always wanted to do. Any idea could have a place, the problem is finding the right place.206
It is shown in these two preliminary examples of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, and Vast, how the choreographer’s intentions, access to musical resources (such as orchestras) and collaborative logistics influence the type of composition produced. This has been the case in many ballet works. One composer who wrote a successful ballet work early in the period was Malcolm Williamson. A list of his works for dance during 1960-2000 can be seen in Table 4.2. Unlike Australian composers who followed him, Williamson asserted that he wrote in an Australian way merely because he was Australian. He did
206Conyngham, Barry. In interview by Jo Litson. Music and the making of an Australian Accent. Weekend Australian. 6th December, 1988, M9. 126 not make a decision to write ‘Australian’ music: he assumed that whatever he wrote would be ‘Australian’. This can be seen in the work The Display.
Table 4.2. Malcolm Williamson’s works for dance, 1960-2000.
Work Year Dance Company Choreographer Instrumentation The Display 1964 Australian Ballet Robert Helpmann Orchestra – Woodwinds, Brass, Pianoforte, Harp, Timpani, Percussion, Strings Sinfonietta 1965 Frederick Ashton Orchestra – Woodwinds, Brass, Harp, Timpani, Percussion, Strings Sun into 1966 Western Theatre Peter Darrell Orchestra – Woodwinds, Darkness Ballet, UK Brass, Pianoforte, Harp, Timpani, Percussion, Strings Pas de Quatre 1967 New York Woodwinds and pianoforte. Metropolitan Opera Company Bigfella Toots 1967 Northern Dance Jonathan Thorpe Squoodge and Theatre UK Nora Spectrum 1967 Western Theatre Cello, pianoforte Ballet UK Perisynthyon 1974 Australian Ballet Robert Helpmann Orchestra – Woodwinds, Brass, Harp, Percussion, Strings Heritage 1985 Have steps will 1989 travel
Collaborative context of ‘The Display’:
This work, a classical-styled 47 minute ballet, is a landmark amongst Australian dance works. This collaboration between choreographer, composer and designer, as Colin
Peasley noted, was one of the most distinguished collaborations of all time, as all three participants had been knighted by the Queen207. Helpmann himself promoted the work as the first all-Australian produced and created work, and this was certainly true for the
Australian Ballet company. However, Borovansky had created Australian works with
Australians prior to 1960208. The Display has been performed 322 times, including
207Peasley, Colin. In interview with Rachel Hocking, 16th December, 2005. Peasley was one of the ensemble dancers in the original casting of The Display. 208Potter, Michelle. Terra Australis. NLA News. Volume XIII, No 14, October 2003, page number unknown. 127 overseas tours, between 1964 and 1983, when it was part of the Australian Ballet's 21st anniversary season. Of the ballet's success, Helpmann has said:
The Australians seemed more at home to me with The Display, not because it is my own ballet, but simply because it is within their mental grasp. When they are faced with something like Swan Lake or Raymonda, although they do it extremely well, it is not within their understanding. It comes from a different world, a different culture, and to me they always seem slightly awkward209.
Of The Display, a critical Charles Lisner has said:
It is interesting to note that despite some of its early difficulties the Australian Ballet had achieved its most significant artistic success by 1964. The Display... was not only totally Australian in the best sense but it also worked as an excellent piece of theatre. This meant that the work having great intrinsic merit could stand up to being viewed again and again. In less than two years the Company had acquired a ballet which had the merit of having a valid national identity together with that only too rare phenomenon, the combination of artistic and financial success... One cannot generate national character merely by introducing a few typical superficialities peculiar to Australia. Helpmann did a great deal more than that and.. managed to paint one of the most unforgettable pieces of theatre magic the Company has every produced....The Display remains a landmark in the life of the Australian Ballet and is still by far the best Australian ballet ever devised - the result largely of a perfectly fused collaboration between choreographer, composer and designer210.
On 14 March, 1964, this “first all-Australian ballet” with the music commissioned by the Australian Ballet company was premiered at the Adelaide Arts Festival. The synopsis given to the composer of this work, Malcolm Williamson, came from an idea developed by Robert Helpmann when he was on tour with fellow actor Katharine
Hepburn in 1954, for the Old Vic Theatre Company. Hepburn had heard the lyrebirds in the Dandenongs and related their unique dance and sound to Helpmann, suggesting that this would be a better type of bird to dance as opposed to swans (which other ballets were concerned with)211. Helpmann eventually took this idea on, and dedicated the work to Katharine Hepburn. The main characters in The Display, as listed in the work’s programme, were The Male (a lyrebird), The Female (a human girl), The
Outsider (an immigrant to Australia) and The Leader (an Australian male, leader of the
209Helpmann, Robert. Dance. Entertainment Arts in Australia. Dee Why, Sydney: Paul Hamlyn, 1968, 113. 210Lisner. 1983, 50-54.
128 male gang). This synopsis featured many Australian ideas, which are included in the description given by Barry Kitcher, the original dancer of the lead role of The Male
(lyrebird):
The curtain goes up on a scene in Sherbrooke Forest [a forest in the Dandenong Ranges, just outside of Melbourne where Hepburn went looking for lyrebirds]. A Lyrebird appears, showing off its tail feathers. A Girl, who is the fiancée of the gang leader, appears and is enchanted by the bird's display. The Lyrebird is frightened off by a gang of young people who have come to enjoy a picnic in the forest. They drink beer and play football and some drift away with their girls. Throughout the ballet, the Lyre Bird makes brief symbolic appearances which attract the Girl's interest.
An Outsider intrudes onto the scene, paying much more attention than he should to the Girl, who is the fiancée of the gangleader. When they are discovered, a fight breaks out and they beat him up. When he wakes up, he sees the Girl's scarf has been left behind and he returns with the idea of raping her in revenge for the beating. In the finale, the Outsider and the Girl perform a graphically realistic pas de deux, in which he strips off her dress. In revulsion and disgust with himself, he leaves her, sobbing, on the ground. In the final dance to a shrill musical crescendo, the Lyrebird re-appears and she gives herself totally to him, her hands caressing the feathers of his tail in ecstatic submission and engulfment. As this happens, the lighting on the beautiful Sidney Nolan back-cloth turns a vivid red and a mist pours out of smoke machines to envelop the stage before a final dramatic blackout212.
This synopsis included Australian activities such as a football match, beer drinking and
Australian flora and fauna such as the lyrebird. The ensemble, as in Australian social events of the time, was divided into male and female groups during the picnic scene.
The Outsider was representative of the new immigrant, who did not understand the male and female divisions, and so tried to approach the women to talk to them. This was misinterpreted by the males to be an advance towards the women for which the Outsider is beaten up. Hence, this short one-act dance work was a comment on Australian society and became notorious for its rape scene, sparking newspaper headlines in 1964, which only added more publicity to the production.
The character of the Outsider was particularly relevant to Helpmann, Williamson and
Nolan. As migrants themselves in England, searching for career opportunities, they had
211Peasley, Colin. In discussion with Rachel Hocking 16th December, 2005.
129 all experienced being outsiders to the societies that they had moved to. Although composer Williamson had moved to England in 1950, he still considered his music in the style of Australian composers such as Margaret Sutherland and Roy Agnew. He has said
most of my music is Australian. Not the bush or the deserts, but the brashness of the cities. The sort of brashness that makes Australians go through life pushing doors marked pull213.
For this work, Williamson had to provide a score that would be appropriate to accompany seemingly vastly different scenes. The ballet draws an analogy between aspects of Australian social mores and the lyrebird’s mating habits. The aggression which can be heard in the music suggests a particular aspect of the Australian temperament as might be displayed in an Australian Rules match, an attempted rape and a curious lyrebird. Having Stravinsky and Messiaen as his influences, Williamson used birdcalls to imitate the lyrebird character in The Display. Thus the combination of birds and ballet was a relevant combination for Williamson’s own interests. Of Williamson's score, Roger Covell has stated that:
His music... has characteristic qualities of technical resource combined with theatrical fluency and sense of gesture. The opening and closing sections contain its most impressive music: slow-moving, hypnotic writing for strings punctuated by the shrill bird chatter and hollow undergrowth scuffles of rain-forest country. The more animated and lyrical sections of the score pay an occasional undisguised tribute to the Stravinsky of The Fairy's Kiss and, most of all, to the Britten of The Prince of the Pagodas. But to point out these allegiances is not to depreciate the quality of the music, merely to indicate its approximate area of texture and style. All of these models are obviously well worth consideration by a composer still at the beginning of what promises to be a highly successful career of writing for the theatre.214
212Kitcher, Barry. From Gaolbird to Lyrebird: a life in Australian ballet. Sydney: Triple F Productions, 2001, 248. 213Williamson, Malcolm. Biographical Archives. Australian Music Centre: Sydney, 2002. 214Covell, Roger. Australia's Music: themes of a new society. Melbourne: Sun Books, 178. 130 Figure 4.1. The cover page of The Display.
The entire orchestral score of The Display was written before the choreography and rehearsals. This work was the first through which Helpmann was introduced to the
Australian Ballet, having never choreographed for the troupe before. Prior to rehearsals, Helpmann met with Williamson and Nolan in London, discussing the synopsis, music and décor. According to Helpmann’s appointment diaries, as held in
National Library Australia, the first time he met with Williamson was the 30th August,
1963, and the score was completed at the end of January or the beginning of February.
There is some discrepancy with the completion date, as Williamson has marked in the orchestral score 2nd February 1964, yet Helpmann left for Sydney on the 28th January,
1964, presumably taking the score with him to Sydney for rehearsals, which began 3rd
February 1964. According to Kitcher, the pianist had a copy of the piano reduction of
The Display at the first rehearsal:
131 [Helpmann] told us the story and gave the piano score to our pianist Jessie Clarke. The music was by Malcolm Williamson, an Australian composer with a growing reputation who lived in London… “Take it home and study it,” he told Jessie. “It is a most difficult score. The pianist in London struggled with its strange, irregular rhythms and countings.” Jessie took the score, opened the page, put it on the lectern and played it perfectly [according to Kitchner] from the first note. “It goes like this,” she said as she worked through the complex rhythms, “And this is how you count it.” When Jessie had finished, there was a long silence as Helpmann stood before the piano. We could see he was flabbergasted. “Er…right,” he said. “Well… we might as well start today.” Then he exclaimed, “Jessie, you are fantastic!”215
One of the most interesting discoveries with the orchestral score held at the National
Library is that many pages are clumped together by rusty paperclips. This implies that cuts were made to the orchestral score. The piano reduction that Jessie Clarke probably used (held at the Australian Ballet in Melbourne) has the cuts noted in the score, suggesting that the cuts were made prior to the collaboration of the music with the choreography at rehearsals which occurred from the 3rd February to 14th March, 1964 in
Australia. The cuts remain in the film and the Benesh notation of The Display, from
1964, held by the Australian Ballet. In fact, Williamson did not hear the music on opening night nor for another two years after he had composed for this ballet, when he appeared as a guest conductor on the Australian Ballet’s tour of England, at Liverpool:
Williamson has stoutly asserted the value of his early training at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music. He said in 1973 that it had provided a background of knowledge not bettered by any institution of the kind, including the Juilliard School of Music in New York. By way of illustration, Williamson credited that training with allowing him to send to Australia his score for Helpmann’s ballet The Display without ever having heard it. Two years later, when he did, he changed not a note!216
It is interesting that Williamson would not have changed a note, as Helpmann had probably already altered enough of the score to fit the ballet. This process of collaboration still occurs in current ballet practices, where a composer will write a score in isolation from the dance company, submit it, and then the company’s music
215Kitcher. 2001, 243.
132 department will alter the score to suit emotional climaxes as well as time, structural and other important theatrical elements217.
Table 4.3. Entries found in the Robert Helpmann diaries showing appointments relevant to and leading up to the premier of “The Display” – small red appointment books about 15cm x 7 cm in size. Blue pages, black font and gold edging. Capital letters and spellings in quotation marks are as appears in the diaries.
Friday 30 August 1963 10.30 Frankie Lunch 12.45 Flat 3.30 FF Norman Williamson Saturday 12 October 1963 lunch Sydney Nolan Tuesday 29 October 1963 Williamson Flat 5.30 Wednesday 1 January 1964 Malcome Clave 6 Friday 10 January 1964 Williamson Tuesday 28 January 1964 ARRIVE SYDNEY 7AM FLY MELBOURNE 10 AM Monday 3 February 1964 REHERSE “THE DISPLAY Thursday 13 February, 1964 Reherse Will Wednesday 19 February 1964 reherse ABC Friday 21 February 1964 reherse A.B.C Sunday 23 February 1964 A.B.C. Broadcast Wednesday 26 February 1964 T.V. Channel 7 Saturday 29 February 1964 Fly Adelaide Monday 9 March 1964 Lighting Saturday 14 March 1964 1ST PERF “THE DISPLAY”
Williamson in oral interviews held at the National Library archives described in 1967 the process behind writing The Display:
After I’d written ‘Our Man in Havana’ and my obsession with opera had come, I believe, to stay, I was approached by Robert Helpmann and by Peggy van Praagh to write a ballet for the national Australian Ballet. I’d always been fascinated by ballet and I’d longed to have the opportunity to do it. It’s a very exciting form for the composer and it’s a very different discipline. Now, if you’re a librettist writing for a composer for an opera, you have to take second place, you have to be prepared to do your best work and have it mutilated and then you have to build it up again and you have to write your best words and go through a great chastening of the ego at the same time, to please the composer. When I have a libretto I change it an enormous amount from first to last and I oblige the librettist to go through innumerable drafts, make innumerable cuts and rewrites, to get the libretto as I want it. This is one reason why librettists are very hard to find, because it requires a sanctity of character almost and a tolerance, as well as very many different abilities.
216Solomon, Robert. Malcolm Williamson. The Australian. 21st-22nd March, 1992, Review 10. 133 Figure 4.2. Photograph of Helpmann’s diary, for the week of 14th March, 1964, when The Display was premiered218.
When the composer comes to write ballet, he is somewhat in the same position as the librettist in opera. He has to do precisely what the choreographer would like, and I consider that I was lucky to begin my career as a ballet composer with Robert Helpmann, perhaps the most eminent Australian dance choreographer and very much a man of the theatre, who created a ballet on “Hamlet”, who played Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” on the stage, who had created some half dozen ballets which were in the international repertoire. I found this little man extraordinary and fascinating and wonderful to work with. He has never in his personal life, I believe, heard of the word “loyalty” and I’ve suffered from this since. However, he is a very gifted man and he is a very brilliant and methodical worker, and to work with him in London on this ballet called “the Display” was a wonderful experience. We don’t know until we’ve really worked quite a lot how we have to canalize our energies, and working with Bobby Helpmann I’d notice after a while he could work for some five or six hours at a stretch, without a stop, on music, but after 28 minutes or half an hour he would stop for two minutes and laugh and be generally foolish, and those two minutes would refresh for the next half hour. This sort of technique is something that only comes with maturity. When we’re very young, we go at work like a bull at a gate, and work too hard and burn
217As discussed with Colin Peasley of the Australian Ballet, 16th January, 2006. 218Diary of Robert Helpmann from 1964. Photographed for Rachel Hocking by the National Library of Australia. Papers of Robert Helpmann. National Library of Australia, MS7161.
134 ourselves out after perhaps two hours, and are stale and can’t go on. It’s so important to learn how to do this.
The ballet with Helpmann with designs by Sidney Nolan was called “the Display”. It is extraordinary, and of course historically unfortunate, that the first really ambitious Australian ballet to be written entirely by Australians for Australians to dance should have been written in Great Britain, that all three Australians concerned with it were living abroad in order to survive.
The ballet was first performed at the Adelaide Festival in 1964. I can remember very well the day – I was not there, I was in London – and I sat at my piano at the identical moment it was being premiered and amused myself by playing the score in London, and felt very nostalgic indeed towards Australia…
“The Display”, the ballet by Helpmann in which I wrote the music, has been performed in many parts of the world since and had a triumphant premiere at Covent Garden... Composition for the ballet is quite a problem in itself, and I thought how salutary it was that I had earlier in my life, when I was, I believe, 19 or 20, had to work with dancers and I did on one occasion tour Tasmania for a month as pianist with a group of dancers, and I had to learn something about ballet and the musical types which would suit the dance, and how they could be used by choreographers, and one had to write always clear and articulate and varied rhythms, and this experience of having to clarify, clarify all the time is very good, of course, in any musical writing.219
There are some points in Williamson’s words that are especially relevant when considering his score for The Display. Firstly, his acceptance that his scores for ballet would be altered by others to suit the dance demonstrates a characteristic that may be necessary in composers who wish to collaborate. The Display has been considerably altered both for the dance and for orchestral performance as can be seen in Table 4.5. In fact one of the alterations in the orchestral music occurs because two pages are bound out of order, but the orchestral music probably was altered for a concert performance.
Another of the alterations contained in the piano reduction, for the Lyrebird’s dance, could have been changed because of costuming, in particular the large tail of the lyrebird. As Kitcher, the original ‘lyrebird’ notes:
…there was a tail which was a massive sixteen feet long. It had been designed and built by Hugh Skillen, who, at the time, made most of the props and costumes at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden… the whole tail was built on to a hinge, so it could be moved into an open position. It was manipulated by pulling two small handles at the back, which opened out and expanded into a huge fan with a spectacular effect,
219Williamson, Malcolm. Conversation with Hazel de Berg. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 8th October, 1967. ORAL DeB 290, 291, 292, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
135 extending right over my head and onto the floor in front of me… Helpmann quickly realised the limits imposed by the size, shape and weight. He was talking about the need to re-choreograph much of my opening sequence. Not only in spite of, but also because of these limitations, I think we were able to create a much more realistic interpretation of the bird’s movements. Instead of the choreographic steps he had created, we reverted to copying the basic steps which the bird actually uses. In his writing about the final result, Helpmann was happy that we had achieved a realistic outcome. “The choreography used,” he stated, “is the actual dance learned after many hours of watching this beautiful creature.”220
Table 4.4. Cuts noted in the orchestral score held at the National Library Australia and the piano reduction held at the Australian Ballet. The piano reduction is representative of the score used for the dance.
Section Orchestral Score Total bars Piano Reduction Total Bars Movement 1 Bar 67 to bar 77. 10 bars, 4 which Bar 68 to bar 73. 6 bars, 3 which The Lyrebird’s are senza misura. are senza dance misura. Movement 1 Bar 109 to 111. 2 bars (pages 40 and 41 are out of order). Movement 1 Bar 116 to 120. 4 bars (pages 40 and 41 are out of order). Movement 1 Bar 141 to 142. 2 bars both which are senza misura. Movement 1 Bar 163 to 166. 3 bars. Movement 2 Bar 150 to bar 182 32 bars. Bar 150 to bar 182 32 bars. Entry of The not repeated, not repeated. Leader although a conductor at some time has added the repeat marks. Movement 2 Bar 374 to 410. 36 bars. The Football Game Movement 3 Bar 92 to 110. 8 bars. The Fight Movement 3 to Bar 214 to Bar 10 36 bars, including Movement 4. Movement 4. the end of Movt 3, The Outsider an interlude and post-fight. the beginning of Movt 4.
As Williamson observed, the dance composer has to be willing to let others make
adjustments to the score, and the reasons for the adjustments, as shown through these
cuts are numerous and varied, not based on musical aesthetics solely but also theatrical
reasons. Secondly the importance of writing “clear.. articulate.. varied rhythms” with
220Kitcher, 2001, 245 to 247. 136 clarity for dancers to use is apparent in his score for this particular work, even though it was early in his career that this was composed. This clear and somewhat literal translation of the synopsis into music will be discussed in the following analysis of The
Display.
Analysis of ‘The Display’:
The Australian themes contained in the synopsis were included in the score for this work also. In the synopsis and the score, there is much interplay between the contrasts of the male and female, both having their own distinguishable themes. As this is a one- act score, much of the material in the contrasting themes is related, even though
Williamson has labelled this as an orchestral score and divided it up into movements.
The Male’s theme tantalises, attracts and questions. In contrast, the Female has a romantic treble ‘sweeping strings’ theme, and the Outsider (and other males) have a playful bass theme. The Male’s lyrebird calls are augmented and dispersed within other themes according to the drama on stage: that is, when the character appears on stage, so does their accompanying theme. Much of the music is literal and expectedly dramatic in portraying a pastoral picnic, a game of football, a fight and rape.
Other music serves to accompany scene changes, and there are obvious structural boundaries such as prologue or introduction-styled music. Some twentieth century techniques are employed such as an overblown/non-Western tuned oboe, plucking strings, inclusion of piano, harp and percussion in the score. The dotted movement contained in both the male theme and the picnic theme, originate from the accompaniment to the lyrebird dance, taken from nature.
137 Figure 4.3. Analysis of The Display: influences on the composition of the music. Contextual
Ź Both composer and choreographer are Australians who have lived overseas.
Ź Australian Ballet’s resources included a company of professional dancers and access to state orchestras. The Australian Ballet used a classical ballet style of dance.
Ź This was the first attempt by the Australian Ballet to produce an all-Australian work, so experience with collaboration was limited.
COMPOSITION OF THE DISPLAY
Temporal Interpretive ŹDifferent styled rhythms are Ź Synopsis theme of Australian cultural used, representative of the nature of issues including male/female relationships, each character. and immigration issues. Ź The dance is a literal interpretation of Ź The quality of the themes are the music. Each section is matching in contrasting, according to the nature of each energy and action, with matching phrasing onstage character. in dance movement and music. Ź Different types of harmony are used for Ź The number of dancers onstage match characters and dramatic action. the music texturally. ŹDifferent instrumentation used for each ŹThis score is for a 20th century orchestra. character. Birdcalls are appropriately used for the lyrebird’s character.
The interpretation of the temporal aspects of the drama is quite obvious when
examining the structure of this work. Williamson titled this work a “dance symphony”,
and although he has divided the work into four movements with an interlude between
movements three and four, the classical symphonic form is not followed. Titling The
Display a ‘dance’ symphony gives hints for the interpretation of the structure, as the
musical form of this work is more reliant on the dance drama, than it is on a symphonic
form. The structure, although being divided into four movements, is really a ballet
suite, as the dance work was presented as a one act work.
138 Table 4.5. Structure of Movement 1 of The Display.
Movement/bar Theme Dramatic Action Instrumentation number Movement 1, Bar 1 to A The Male (lyrebird) Violin II and Viola – 30 Rainforest setting appears on stage and rainforest setting; theme, with statements prepares the ground for Flute I and Piccolo of birdcalls 1, 2, and 3. his dance, by scratching (Flute II) – birdcall I; the ground with his feet. Clarinets I & II with Flute I & II – birdcall 2; Oboe I & II with Clarinets I & II – birdcall 3. Movement 1, Bar 31 to B The Male (lyrebird) All orchestra except 37 Climax to and statement displays his tail. brass; of ‘the Display’ theme. Strings and bassoon – ‘the Display’ theme. Movement 1, Bar 38 to C The Male (lyrebird) Bassoons I and II – 76 The Lyrebird dance dances – the Lyrebird dance. theme. choreography here is (In the original score, based on a lyrebird this dance is sometimes mating dance as seen in interrupted by birdcalls, the Dandenongs by but this was cut for the Helpmann. ballet). Movement 1, Bar 77 to D The Female enters on Violins I, II, Violas & 108 Female’s theme (similar stage. Cellos – Female theme. to ‘The Display’ theme). Movement 1, Bar 109 – B The Male (lyrebird) and Full orchestra – 118 ‘The Display’ climax Female are both on Shimmering climax; and Female’s theme. stage. The Female is Woodwinds and brass – lying on the ground, the Female’s theme. Male is looking at her. Movement 1, Bar 119 – C The Male (lyrebird) Woodwinds – Lyrebird 131 The Lyrebird dance begins his mating dance. theme. dance. Movement 1, Bar 132 – B The Male (lyrebird) All orchestra except 140 ‘The Display’ climax. displays his tail. brass – Shimmering climax. Movement 1, Bar 141 A The Female covers her Woodwinds – Birdcalls Birdcalls 1 and 2 ears. 1 and 2. Movement 1, Bar 142 – B The Male (lyrebird) All orchestra except 146 ‘The Display’ climax. prepares for his dance. brass – Shimmering climax. Movement 1, Bar 147 – C The Male (lyrebird) Bassoons I and II – 150 The Lyrebird dance dances. Lyrebird dance. theme.
139 Table 4.5. Structure of Movement 1 of The Display, continued.
Movement/bar Theme Dramatic Action Instrumentation number Movement 1, Bar 151 A The Male (lyrebird) Flutes I and II – Birdcalls 1, 2 and 3. imitates the birdcall and Birdcall 1; leaves stage. Flutes I and II with Clarinets I and II – Birdcall 2; All woodwinds except bassoons – Birdcall 3.
Movement 1,Bar 152 – B, C The Female dances Flute I – Lyrebird dance 166 The Lyrebird dance solo. theme; theme and Female Violin I – Female Theme. Similar theme. accompaniment to the Rainforest setting theme appears in the rest of the strings. Movement 1, Bar 167 – A The Female runs Strings – Rainforest 175 Similar to bars 1 to 30, towards birdcalls but setting. but only birdcall 1 is covers her ears. Flutes I and II – used. Birdcall 1.
The theatrical form is reinforced when movement four uses musical themes from the first three movements, summarising and climaxing the work, rather than presenting new material. The structure of movement one is as follows in Table 4.6. It is quite obvious on examining this structure that Williamson matches each individual dramatic action with its own theme. For instance, every time the Male (lyrebird) dances the lyrebird dance (a dance that consists of hopping from side to side and front to back), the Male is accompanied by the ‘lyrebird dance theme’. When the Male (lyrebird) begins to shake his feathers, preparing to display his tail, the entire orchestra (except brass) plays a tremolo ‘shimmering’ theme. The relationships between the music and the dance in this way are very literal interpretations of each other, relying on melodic themes more than any other compositional devices. The characteristics of each theme, interpreting the synopsis metaphorically, are given below.
140 Example 4.1. i) The ‘rainforest theme’ – bars 1 to 4, 1st movement
ii) The ‘rainforest theme’ – bars 1 to 4, 1st movement, demonstrating use of the prime row.
The ‘rainforest theme’ occurs from bar 1 as shown in Example 4.1, setting an eerie atmosphere of the quiet bushland, with the first four notes in the violincello establishing the motivic basis on which most of the melodic themes are built for the entire work, that being the prime set 0 1 3 5 (indicated in the score). The birdcalls given in Example 4.2 give a hint of the Male’s entry on stage. Each birdcall is firstly presented individually.
Often the birdcall is played with the Male offstage, indicating that he is lurking in the
141 rainforest background. This is typical of the lyrebird which in nature, is more often heard than seen. At other points in the dramatic action, the Male mimes the call as part of his dance. Williamson sometimes inserts the birdcalls within other themes later in the work, without orchestral accompaniment, and uses senza misura bars, so that all the themes can fit into one bar, with an improvisatory feel. As Crotty notes, it cannot be presumed that Williamson heard these calls in nature, and notated the calls221. However, at the beginning of the 1964 film, while the titles are playing, environmental sounds are heard rather than Williamson’s score. Part of these sounds include birdcalls, so it could be that Williamson heard the calls on a similar tape, either from a documentary or perhaps taped by Helpmann himself, when he observed the birds with Hepburn. The birdcalls are appropriately voiced in the woodwinds, in a high range, with the use of grace notes and fast staccati rhythms.
Example 4.2. The three main birdcalls used in The Display. i) Birdcall 1 – bars 3 to 4, 1st movement.
221Crotty. 1999, 267. 142 ii) Birdcall 1, demonstrating the use of the prime row.
iii) Birdcall 2 – bar 6, 1st movement.
iv) Birdcall 3 – bars 11 to 12, 1st movement.
143 The other theme that Williamson uses to closely imitate the lyrebird’s natural movements is the theme that accompanies the Male’s (or the lyrebird’s) dance as shown in Example 4.3. In this dance, the lyrebird skips from side to side and back to front, hopping in time with the quavers. Unlike the birdcalls which are freer in rhythm, the lyrebird’s dance keeps a strict time, being presented in a repetitive manner echoing the lyrebird’s dance movements, and aiming to woo the Female almost through hypnotic actions alone.
Example 4.3. i) The ‘lyrebird dance theme’ – bars 38 to 40, 1st movement.
144 ii) The ‘lyrebird dance theme’ – bars 38 to 40, 1st movement demonstrating the use of the prime row.
The final theme that is used for the Male is the theme that accompanies the display of his tail. This theme is approached by orchestral tremolos, as the Male shakes his feathers preparing to open his tail. As the tail is opened, the ‘display theme’ is played by the strings and bassoon, as shown in Example 4.4. This richly orchestrated theme echoes in rhythmic and melodic content, in the Female’s themes in movement one bars
77 and 152, and is also repeated in movement four at the final climax, represented in the dance with the lyrebird’s tail fully open, as seen in Figure 4.4.
Figure 4.4. The Male and the Female at the end of The Display. Photograph from The Australian Ballet programme, 1983, front cover.
145 Example 4.4. i) The ‘display theme’ – bars 31-35, 1st movement, climax with theme. The full score shows the density in texture and markings indicating the climax. The single theme is given in Example 4.4 ii) on the following page.
146 ii) The ‘display theme’ – bars 32-34, 1st movement, demonstrating the use of the prime row.
iii) The ‘Female theme’ – bars 77 to 78, 1st movement.
iv) The ‘Female theme’ – bars 77 to 78, 1st movement, demonstrating use of the prime row.
Appropriate and varying instruments are used to voice the themes, rhythms and articulations of the motives of the characters. Yet the pitch material is very similar throughout the entire work, and is obvious at first glance from the presentations of each theme. For instance, the qualities of ‘the display theme’, where the lyrebird displays his
147 tail, the ‘Female’s theme’, and the ‘Outsider’s theme’ are similar in rhythm, melodic contour, range and articulation.
Indeed all the themes, except for the ‘lyrebird dance theme’, the ‘Outsider’s theme’, and the ‘football game theme’ are related in pitch material. This can be seen through pitch- set theory analysis222 which shows the basic intervals featured in each melody. From the very first notes of the work, the main melodic material used throughout the work is presented in the ‘rainforest theme’, as well as ‘birdcall 1’, ‘the display theme’, using the intervals of minor and major seconds. The prime form of this pitch material is:
0 1 3 5
The ‘female’s theme’, the ‘men’s theme’, and some of the themes featured in the second movement’s pas de deux and pas de trios, use exactly the same pitch material, based on the prime form given above:
0 1 3 5 7 8 10
This prime form is immediately apparent as being the Phrygian mode. This is reinforced by the use of E as a tonal centre for many sections in the work, for example the opening section, demonstrating Williamson’s traditional use of this mode.
Example 4.5. Some of the other Phrygian-based themes. i) The ‘men’s theme’ – bars 35 to 40, 2nd Movement. This theme is diatonic, using D major scale.
222Pitch-set theory is a form of analysis created by Allen Forte (1973) that analyses pitch collections, particularly in atonal music. Pitches are transposed and reduced to a prime form of pitch class sets. These can be related to other sets, literally or abstractly, through inversions etc. 148 ii) The theme from the 2nd Movement pas de deux – bars 151 to 154
iii) The theme from the 2nd Movement pas de trois – bars 296 to 300
In contrast to this material, the ‘lyrebird dance theme’ (already shown in Example 4.3) the ‘picnic theme’, the ‘Outsider’s theme’ and the ‘football game theme’ uses different pitch material, sometimes chromatic, both following the drama of the male/s ‘showing off’ to the female/s (and vice versa) in order to strike a closer relationship:
0 1 6 7
Example 4.6. Contrasting themes of behaviour in The Display. i) The ‘picnic theme’ – bars 9 to 10, 2nd Movement.
149 ii) The ‘football game theme’ – bars 330 to 331, 2nd Movement
iii) The ‘Outsider’s theme’ – bars 425 to 429, 2nd Movement
One variation to these themes is the ‘Outsider’s theme’, showing even in the pitch material, that this character is isolated from the behaviour, social understanding and intents of the rest of the characters in the work. It is however built around the same material as the row given above:
0 1 3 6 7 11
The linking of these themes through pitch material, that is the ‘Outsider’s theme’, the
‘lyrebird dance theme’, the ‘picnic theme’ and the ‘football game theme’ demonstrate the boastful performances each of the associated characters stage in efforts to attract partners of the opposite sex. From the pitch material used in the work, it can be seen that most of the 265-paged orchestral score has music material that is related, and reused throughout the work, presented in different ways. In this way, Williamson has classed the characters and their behaviours into groups, dependent on the basic material used and the way each theme is presented. These groupings follow the interpretive characteristics of the synopsis, and the appropriate themes accompany the appropriate
150 characters’ presence on stage. Although this is similar to leitmotif, Williamson does not extend the importance of the melodic material to replace dramatic action onstage. In fact the most tense moment of the work, when the Outsider and the Female kiss, is accompanied by silence, not by music. The simplicity and efficiency of material that
Williamson uses in The Display is typical of his style in this early period. In 1967,
Williamson described his style and methodology as thus:
My process of composition, whether in a small work or in a larger, certainly particularly in a large work, begins with a tiny musical germ, a tiny melodic fragment. My music invariably begins with a melodic idea, not a harmonic idea, but the germ of music, perhaps five notes, perhaps even two notes, is used and exploited in every possible way and transformed and used within a tonal context. The tonal context gives much greater possibilities of extremes of dissonance and consonance and much more dramatic contrasts, much more variety, because it is cutting against something, than the free-for- all 12-tone music or music which lives in a world of total chromaticism, where for me everything becomes grey after a minute or so, because it’s counteracting nothing…My music as I write does proceed very much by contrast. As I said, it’s very much melodic and is obsessed with vocal writing. I think everything must begin from the human voice, and everything must be singable, for whatever instrument it is written, even if it’s music for a drum it must be to some extent singable, and the element of contrast taking, I suppose, the skeletons of traditional forms and manipulating those further, give me a mode of working. I never take for granted, however, the traditional form as a mould and simply fill it with my sound. The sounds must also indicate the form, the direction the music must take. A particular type of chromatic germ, melodic germ, would indicate a certain musical process later on in the large, in musical form.223
Temporally and metaphorically, Williamson matches the ensemble numbers on stage, with the texture in the orchestra. For instance when the entire ensemble is dancing in the picnic scene, the entire orchestra accompanies. This contrasts to the Male’s
(lyrebird’s) dance where only two bassoons play. Writing for the national ballet company in Australia allowed Williamson to create a score for a large orchestra, employing some experimentation in the inclusion of percussive instruments such as the flexatone, invented in the 1920s, and sounding like a ‘musical saw’224. The harp, pianoforte and glock provide further timbrel differences, used at selective points within
223Williamson, Malcolm. Conversation with Hazel de Berg. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 8th October, 1967. ORAL DeB 290, 291, 292, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 224Flexatone. Grove Online.
Williamson’s music, like Helpmann’s choreography, refers directly to nature through the inclusion of lyrebird calls. Williamson has acknowledged that Messiaen is one composer who has influenced him:
The composers of the present who have influenced me most are Stravinsky and Olivier Messaien, a Frenchman, and I’ve never been consciously bogged down by any spirit of nationalism in music. I think one’s Australianism in music comes out in the music itself and not in plastering titles to do with gumtrees or koala bears on to the music, the real Australianness is in our nature, and we have, of all new countries in the world I believe Australia has the strongest national identity and this is there in the musical character.225
Although Williamson’s influences are built on a non-Australian basis, the attempt to include lyrebird calls, that is, using a Messiaen technique but applying it to an
Australian source, automatically makes this score sound more Australian.
Conclusion:
Music written for ballet in Australia from 1960 to 2000 has used unsurprising methods to marry the synopsis, dance movement and music. The types of works that have been typical of local ballet works are those that are narrative, telling a story, and often containing Australian themes such as Koehne’s 1914 or fairytales such as Brumby’s
Alice in Wonderland. This has given composers some assistance in not only imagining characteristics of motives, but also planning dramatic developments in the scores. Most of the works that have been written for ballet have been orchestrated for large ensembles or symphony orchestras, according to funding made available by the large ballet companies. This has advantages in allowing composers to write for an orchestra
225Williamson, Malcolm. Conversation with Hazel de Berg. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 8th October, 1967. ORAL DeB 290, 291, 292, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. 152 (often a rarity in Australia) as well as writing for a work that is performed in many cities, often with return seasons.
Vast, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, and The Display are representative works of the variety of nationalistic-themed synopses that have been popular during the period 1960-
2000. These works have been associated with large dance troupes and traditional balletic style. The music for these three works was written using similar interpretive compositional processes. For example, the use of musical themes associated directly with the onstage characters is one device that has been common between the works.
This traditional style of dance is heavily weighted towards characters, with dancers not only using highly technical steps, but also personifying the role they are playing.
Therefore it makes sense that the dance-music would use different themes for each character, enhancing the dancer’s interpretation of a character.
The environment from which the composers and choreographers originated also has had bearing on the music, and is common between the three works. The interpretation of
Australian ideologies through the synopses and subsequently the dance-music has demonstrated this. Each composer has brought their own sense of nationality to these orchestral scores.
The Display is of special significance as it was the first large scale Australian work attempted by the Australian Ballet at the beginning of this researched period, setting the example for the many similar works that followed. The following reviews of this work, two examples of many that appeared in newspapers both in Australia and
153 internationally, demonstrate how this significance was realised after viewing its premier:
When the history of Australian ballet is written mention will surely be made of tonight’s world premiere of Robert Helpmann’s “The Display”. The product of a cultured and imaginative mind, this ballet, with its Australian lyre bird theme should find its way into the repertoire of overseas companies before long….226
This is a mature ballet and, one predicts, one that will wear well. Its artistic success is basically due to that primary consideration in the creation of ballet, a collaboration between the choreographer, the musical composer, and the creator of décor. … Its music by Malcolm Williamson, haunted and continually pierced by the rich recitals of the most peerless of all Australia’s avian songsters, is melodic and eminently danceable.227
It has been noted that The Display is not an appropriate work for contemporary repertoire, as it is not in line with current trends towards non-narrative works. Its performance today would only be of interest for historical reasons228. Its success as a work, with 322 performances over a 20 year period, demonstrates its value. In its day,
The Display was an innovative work owing to the collaboration of well-known
Australian personalities, attracting attention from the media and subsequently drawing audiences. The combination of these people, particularly Helpmann and Williamson, influenced the music of The Display and its themes, as these were people who had experienced being outsiders both in Australian and international society. The aggressive themes that were explored in this work also brought notoriety, as these themes were considered to be confronting and shocking. The analytical examination of
The Display, as outlined in this chapter, exemplifies the type of narrative works associated with Australian themes during this period.
226Govenlock, James. A Highlight of Festival - Ballet triumph for Australia. The Mail. Adelaide, 14th March, 1964, page number unknown. 227Robinson, Roland. Premiere of Ballet by Helpmann. The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. 16th March, 1964, page number unknown. 228Colin Peasley of the Australian Ballet noted this to Rachel Hocking in discussion about the work. 16th January, 2006. 154 Chapter Five – Music for modern dance
Modern dance is a slippery term to use in the late 20th century as many different types of dance can fall under this heading. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance defines ‘modern dance’ as a:
term widely used in America and Britain to denote theatrical dance which is not based on the academic school of classical ballet…Modern dance pioneers eschewed the rigid hierarchy of ballet in favour of a freer movement style – favouring bare feet over pointe shoes, for example…. By the end of the 20th century, the barriers between ballet and modern dance were less pronounced as dancers and choreographers worked increasingly in both styles.229
It is the last part of this definition that demonstrates that modern dance is not a fixed style but one that can incorporate, as well as be incorporated with, other styles. For the purposes of this thesis, modern dance will refer to the type of dance that has contemporary or modern influences, and aims to produce new works, in contrast to the classical companies which continue performing classic repertoire. Many collaborations with composers have taken place in modern companies, and some possible reasons for this are given below:
Since the mid 1970s in Australian modern dance, there has been a tension between advocates of the expressionist and the objectivist impulses. Dancers are passionate about their art form and with the implementation of public subsidy for the arts there has been increased competition for the finite monies available. The Australian Ballet has been assured of continuing high level support through government policy mechanisms and regional ballet companies have traditionally enjoyed a high level of certainty of continued government support. The more contested territory of modern and post- modern dance has become an ideological battle ground on which issues of philosophies of dance and aesthetic preferences have been argued to achieve and maintain on-going funding. 230
As companies have had to compete for funding, extra reasons for attracting government support have been offered, such as the use of local composers. Modern dance companies have strived in the past to include emerging composers, for the new works
229The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. 2004, 328. 230Lester. 2000, 46. 155 that have been presented, and it has been the style of these new works that has distinguished modern dance troupes from the traditional ballet troupes.
Many modern dance companies emerged during the 1970s, established by graduates of the various ballet schools or companies who chose to become choreographers. Some choreographers danced with companies overseas in order to broaden their knowledge of contemporary dance forms and styles. The major force for modern dance-music in
Australia has been the Sydney Dance Company, with the artistic directors Graeme
Murphy and Janet Vernon. This chapter will explore some of the collaborations, especially those initiated by Murphy, partnered with the composer Carl Vine. Murphy warrants special attention when discussing music for dance in Australia as not only has he collaborated successfully with many composers, but he has built the Sydney Dance
Company into a highly successfully and influential company. Modern dance-music in its essence is to be found in Sydney Dance Company’s works more than other dance companies from this period. This chapter will therefore concentrate on Poppy because of its archetypal characteristics associated with Australian modern dance. Reference will also be made to Piano Sonata.
Modern dance in Australia was probably most distinctive from traditional ballet s in the
1960s to 1980s. In regards to music, one of the distinguishing features that emerged has been that full orchestras are not usually available. Another feature has been the wide range in lengths of works, rarely full-length and often non-narrative in nature. These factors of course affected the type of music that was composed for the modern dance style.
156 Modern dance companies and choreographers often had limited access to funds, but because they were creating movement using a different technique from ballet, they had to create new works and use new music. Many composers who have written for modern dance in Australia have used small ensembles or electro-acoustic scores. In the new works produced by the Sydney Dance Company, instrumentation has included: the moog synthesizer (for Constant Reach in 1977); percussion works played by Sydney- based group Synergy (for Air and other invisible forces, 1999, Free Radicals of 1996 and Salome, 1997); choral and electro-acoustic music (for Mythologia, 2000); and combinations of traditional Western instruments such as the ensemble for Hate (1982) which used trombone, horn, percussion, two pianos and an organ. The use of varied instrumentation will also be seen in the Vine dance-music compositions for Poppy and
Piano Sonata.
Collaborative context of ‘Poppy’:
During the period 1971 to 2000, Vine wrote twenty-three new works for dance, most of these commissioned. These works exclude the many existing pieces chosen by choreographers for new dance works, such as Helen Herbertson’s ballet Backlash, to
Vine’s String Quartet No 2. More than half of the commissioned works were written during the decade following 1971. His earliest dance works were either improvised or electro-acoustic scores, which are suitable for dance companies with limited time or financial resources, because they do not need extra musicians needed to perform the score. Choreographers have favoured Vine in the past because of the dramatic structuring of his works and their rhythmic vitality. For example, when opting for Vine as composer for the dance work Daisy Bates in 1982, choreographer Barry Moreland stated that:
157 I found [Vine’s music] had a physical quality and rhythmic drive ideal for dances.231
His music has had its successes with audiences also, and some of this can be attributed to his ability at including parody, wit and imitative music. Vine has been employed by most of the major dance companies in Australia, including the Australian Ballet and
WA Ballet, and some of his dance works have been recorded, as well as transformed into suites to be given an extended performance life.
As Vine is a writer of many dance music scores, composing for the theatre could not help but have a major influence on his other compositions. Vine’s works often feature a similar type of emotional structure, where a measured, deliberate and calm opening gives way to a thrilling, almost breathless climax, with use of energetic rhythms, and memorable melodic material. Sometimes he writes in a style reminiscent of another time or composer. For example, his short work Celebrare celeberrime (1993) uses this style of theatrical climax, and the string orchestral work Canzona (1985) feature elements of Baroque music. Vine commented:
Choreographers (and theatre and film directors for that matter) like my music because it is frequently rhythmic and has clear dramatic trajectories. Those characteristics did not “emerge” just because I wrote dance music.232
Although these characteristics may not have emerged because of dance commissions, they would have been identified and refined by Vine according to each commission.
The progression can be observed in his output of works, particularly when examining his early training. At the age of 16, Vine's first commission, an electro-acoustic work, was for dance. From 1976 to 1981, early in Vine's career, he wrote no less than twelve scores for dance commissions. During this period, Vine also worked for the dance
231Moreland, Barry. Interviewed by Nadine Amadio. About Music. 24 Hours. November 1982, 17. 232Vine, Carl. In discussion with Rachel Hocking, 25th January, 2005.
158 companies London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Sydney Dance Company as a rehearsal pianist and composer-in-residence. He participated in the Gulbenkian
International Choreographic Summer School in Guildford, England, with Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy, where Vine collaborated with choreographers, quickly composing scores appropriate for dance. From these, Vine would have gained experience as to the type of music that would best suit choreographic movement, and possibly which music would be successful with audiences. Aspects of Vine's compositional style, such as rhythmic vitality, dramatic structure, reintroduction of melodic material and use of pastiche have come from his collaborations with other artists, including dance choreographers. This observation does not pigeonhole Vine as only a dance composer, but prompts an examination of a particular source of influence on Vine's writing style. Characteristics of Vine's music, in particular the development of melodic material and the use of pastiche, have developed through his commissions for dance, as can be demonstrated through the defining work, Poppy.
Table 5.1. Vine’s scores for dance.
Date Work Company Choreographer Instrumentation Two Short West Australian 1971 Eleanor Martin Electronic tape Circuits Ballet May have been composed at the A Narrow Electronic tape and 1976 Gulbenkian Daffodil voice Choreographic Summer School 961 Ways to Amplified string Nirvana Sydney Dance quartet with 1977 Graeme Murphy (ballet titled Company orchestra and/or “Tip”) electronic tape Incident at Australian Dance 1977 Jonathan Taylor Electronic tape Bull Creek Theatre Everyman’s Sydney Dance Viola, cello, 1978 Don Asker Troth Company clavichord
159 Table 5.1 continued. Vine’s scores for dance.
Date Work Company Choreographer Instrumentation Flute, clarinet, bassoon, cor Sydney Dance anglais 1 & 2, 1978 Poppy Graeme Murphy Company trumpet, trombone, piano, percussion, electronic tape London Kisses 1979 Contemporary Cathy Lewis Flute and piano Remembered Dance Theatre Knips Suite (String 1979 Basic Space Ian Spink String quartet Quartet No. 1) London Trombone, double 1979 Scene shift Contemporary Micha Bergese bass and 2 pianos Dance Theatre Australian Dance 1980 Missing Film Jacqui Carroll Piano (improvised) Theatre Australian Dance 1980 Return Ian Spink Electronic tape Theatre Colonial Queensland Ballet 1981 Robert Osmotherly Electronic tape Sketches Company Donna Maria 1981 Spink Inc Ian Spink Electronic tape Blues Flute, oboe, Daisy Bates clarinet, bassoon, (Ballet titled Sydney Dance french horn, 2 1982 Barry Moreland “The World Company violins, viola, Within”) cello, double bass, percussion Horn, trombone, Sydney Dance 1982 Hate Graeme Murphy percussion, 2 Company pianos, organ Piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 A Christmas french horns, 2 Queensland Ballet Jacqui Carroll 1983 Carol trumpets, violins 1 & 2, viola, cello, double bass, percussion Prologue (for 1986 Australian Ballet Jacqui Carroll String orchestra Canzona)
160 Table 5.1 continued. Vine’s scores for dance.
Date Work Company Choreographer Instrumentation 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 Legend bassoons, 4 horns, (Ballet titled 3 trumpets, 2 tenor West Australian 1988 “The Night Jacqui Carroll trombones, bass Ballet of the Full trombone, tuba, Moon”) violins 1 & 2, viola, cello, double bass, percussion Australian Dance 1989 On The Edge Helen Herbertson Electronic tape Theatre Sydney Dance 1990 Piano Sonata Graeme Murphy Piano Company 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, violin 1 1991 The Tempest Queensland Ballet Jacqui Carroll & 2, viola, cello, double bass, percussion, electronic tape Beauty and Sydney Dance Electronic tape and 1993 Graeme Murphy the Beast Company compilation Sydney Dance Electronic tape and 2000 Mythologia Graeme Murphy Company choir
The Sydney Dance Company production of Poppy, based on the life of Jean Cocteau, is one of the most interesting Australian collaborations because of its connection between its subject matter and its compositional methodology. This work was an impressive achievement for twenty-four year old Vine and it enabled his music to be played to a varied, international audience, through the medium of dance. It neatly demonstrated to some extent the type of music that Vine would come to be known for, as it combines electronic and live music while exploring a variety of devices such as serialism, pastiche, parody, rhythmic vitality and shows influences from the music of Les Six.
The work Poppy was a great success. It was an all-Australian work, performed by an
Australian dance company and its accomplishment was proven in the many return seasons it enjoyed over a 13 year period. Being involved with Poppy enabled Vine to
161 develop his ‘live’ music and to explore music that would become a major influence in his subsequent compositions.
For all the patriotic boasting Poppy generated in 1978 in regards to its home-grown origins, the subject matter of the Frenchman Jean Cocteau could have seemed to be a contradiction. Yet Australian music, particularly of the first half of the 20th century, has been greatly influenced by the French music of composers such as Debussy through to Satie. While these French composers had an impact on art music worldwide,
Australian music in the first half of the 20th century seemed to quote its harmonies and textures quite literally. It may seem odd that the first full-length all-original ballet produced in Australia would be about a Frenchman, but it could also be said that this is merely echoing a practice originally established in Australian art music of composers such as Roy Agnew, Miriam Hyde, Margaret Sutherland and Peggy Glanville-Hicks.
Murphy, the instigator, and choreographer for Poppy has been influenced by Cocteau and the Ballet Russes not only in this work but other works also, for example the
Sydney Dance Company’s production of Beauty and the Beast which featured elements of Cocteau’s film by the same name. Murphy’s documentary video is titled Astonish me, directly quoted from an instruction given by Diaghilev, to Cocteau233 and this is also
“one of Murphy’s fundamental artistic credos”234. The influence Cocteau had on
Murphy’s career and Cocteau’s association with Diaghilev prove to be of great importance, as Murphy produced ballets such as Beauty and the Beast, and fantasy works such as Mythologia, both examples of characters and stories that are common in the oeuvre of Cocteau. In the ballet Poppy, the collaborators not only used Cocteau for
233Cocteau, Jean. The Difficulty of Being. As quoted by Frank W. D. Ries. The Dance Theatre of Jean Cocteau. UMI Research Press: USA, 1986, 31. 234Donaldson, Anita. Graeme Murphy. Fifty Contemporary Choreographers. Ed Martha Bremser. Routledge: London, 1999, 171. 162 their subject matter, decor and score but also as inspiration for the collaborative methodology.
The collaborations involved in the Poppy project included the choreography by Graeme
Murphy, score by Carl Vine, designs by George Gittoes, puppets by Joe Gladdin and lighting by John D. Montgomery. The video used for the analysis of this particular study was filmed by SBS at the Opera Theatre of the Sydney Opera House, directed by
Philippe Charluet. For this production, designers also included Gabrielle Dalton and
Kristian Fredrikson, with lighting by Roderick van Gelder after the lighting designs by
Montgomery. It was appropriate that Murphy, in writing a ballet based on Cocteau, would use emerging artists available to him locally. Just as Cocteau promoted contemporary artists of his time in dance collaborations such as Parade, with Erik Satie,
Pablo Picasso and Sergei Diaghilev, so too did Murphy with his team of artists, and this led to what they believed to be Australia’s first original dance work.
Analysis of ‘Poppy’:
The collaborative method used for this ballet was co-operative, with each artist being involved in the construction process from the beginning, influencing and reacting to the other. Vine said of this:
[the collaboration was] quite wild and wonderful... Frequently the choreography and the music were being created at the same time. It was terribly exciting.235
On writing about Carl Vine, fellow composer Gordon Kerry also said of Poppy:
... the development of the scenario, score and choreography was concurrent, with frequent contact and mutual soul-searching between collaborators.236
235Litson, Jo. Versatility clings to Vine. The Australian. 13th November, 1991. 236Kerry, Gordon. From avant-garde to garde? 24 Hours. September, 1991, 56. 163 This method of collaboration results in a fairly cohesive work, with a unified approach and this is evident on viewing the ballet. Vine notes that:
Some music was written before any choreography or staging took place, while other music was written in the very final stages to carefully fit movement and stage action precisely.237
Figure 5.1: Elements affecting the collaboration and creation of the work Poppy. Contextual
Ź Choreographer’s admiration of Jean Cocteau. Ź Composer’s background in writing for dance and using electro-acoustic instrumentation, with musique concrete techniques. Ź Composer’s ethic to ‘responsibly’ write for dance.
Ź Aim to create an all-Australian produced work.
Ź Collaboration method involved all collaborators contributing with ideas throughout the creation of the work.
COMPOSITION OF POPPY
Temporal Interpretive Ź Compositional structure matches very Ź Theme of synopsis on Cocteau’s life. closely with the dance. Ź Use of music from Cocteau’s time Ź Lengths of dance phrases and number of according to the dramatic action on stage. dancers are according the dramatic action Ź A combination of harmonic and on stage. compositional styles and instrumentation to Ź Use of Poulenc-styled instrumental suit the dramatic action. ensemble, contrasted later with an electro- Ź Use of similar motivic material acoustic score. throughout different melodies. ŹInclusion in the score of set dance rhythms eg tango.
237Vine, Carl. In discussion with Rachel Hocking, 24th January 2005.
164 Thus the music and dance follow each other closely, with recurring ideas and motives presented in both media. Structural points in the music meet with the scene changes, textural qualities in the music match the ensemble variations and use of space on stage and pastiche music of certain composers accompany scenes of appropriate historical characters.
Each aspect of the ballet is Cocteau, from the decor which is after his style, to the music which is reminiscent of the society in which Cocteau lived. The costuming is very much of the Cocteau period, with stage designs bare, using Cocteau-inspired drawings.
The Ballet Russes drew Cocteau towards an involvement with dance, and his ideas were particularly influenced by this company and its artistic associations. Diaghilev in particular was known for his ability to bring together choreographers, composers and artists to create a grand style of work and Cocteau not only observed this but also participated in collaborations Murphy’s approach to Poppy, through his use of co- operative collaboration, pays homage to Cocteau and the environment in which Cocteau himself was inspired and influenced:
In effect, I was bowed into the theatre with the Ballets Russes of Serge de Diaghilev which turned everything upside down and brought to this cosmopolitan world such spectacles of luxury and violence that I never had imagined existed.238
The ballet Poppy, on the life of Cocteau, presents two opposing acts. The first act gives glimpses into moments of Cocteau’s life, with scenes of his childhood, foray into
Parisian society and observations at the Ballet Russes. The final act ends with a symbolic dance between Radiguet (Cocteau’s protégé), Cocteau and the angel of death.
This scene itself is a structural bridge between the concrete historical references of
238Cocteau, Jean. Le Théâtre et la Mode. Masques, Revue Internationale. March 1945, 10-16. As quoted by Ries, Frank W. D. The Dance Theatre of Jean Cocteau. UMI Research Press: Michigan, 1986, 11. 165 Cocteau’s life and the second act, which is more abstract in nature, exploring the internal aspects of Cocteau’s mind and imagination as he recovers from his opium addiction and conceives works such as Orphee. In the video production, each scene is divided with a fermata in the music, introduced by an on-screen quote of Cocteau’s.
The structure according to the captions is given below:
Table 5.2: Theatrical structure of Poppy, detailing scene titles and captions given in the television production for SBS. Act 2 is one continuous scene but divided by the captions. The captions are direct quotations of Cocteau, translated into English.
Act 1
Scene 1 In a field of poppies ‘I see as if yesterday my svelte mother’ Scene 2 The schoolroom ‘Dargelos was handsome ... he had the beauty of an animal...’ Scene 3 The cabaret ‘I am Parisian, I speak Parisian, I pronounce Parisian’ Backstage at Ballet ‘Under the theatre’s lights, nature has no value, the short are made tall Scene 4 Russes and the tall can shrink’ Scene 5 Radiguet’s Death ‘he was waiting for his moment. Death took him first’
Act 2
‘Everything that happens in one’s life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward Caption 1 death. To smoke opium is to get out of that train while it is still moving.’ Caption 2 ‘The secret of secrets’ mirrors see the doors by which death comes and goes.’ ‘to struggle with the angel of light, the angel of machines, the angels of space and time - that Caption 3 is a task made to my measure.’
Murphy does not limit his quoting of Cocteau to the captions used between scenes. He also references some of Cocteau’s dance works and ideologies in the type of imagery he uses. For example, the angel of death who appears in Radiguet’s scene, as well as the second act, appears in a female form with a mask, like the figure of death that appeared in Cocteau’s synopsis for the ballet Le Jeune Homme et la Mort239.
239Cocteau, Jean. Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. Program notes as quoted by Ries, 113. 166 This idea of referring to Cocteau directly, through imagery and text extends into the score. Vine’s music for this work consists of direct references to society and composers of the time, as well as representative motives, instrumentation and harmonic languages to appropriately complement the dramatic development of the ballet. The construction of the score has been built within the framework of the ballet, with the musical episodes following the theatrical episodic nature of each scene. The score on first hearing appears to be an eclectic mix of live music featuring direct quotations, such as music of
Carl von Weber and Igor Stravinsky, through to an electro-acoustic soundscape accompaniment for the entire second act. Vine acknowledges in his program notes that:
The life and diverse work of .... Jean Cocteau gives mountains of raw and referential material on which to base any number of “attributive” new works .... My responsibility in the First Act was not only to enhance and complement the action on stage, but also to paint a musical portrait of Cocteau’s France at the turn of the century240.
Vine, as a composer for dance, saw that it was his “responsibility” to compose a score that fitted the synopsis not only for emotional development but also to mimic the world in which Cocteau lived, so that the audience could experience Cocteau’s artistic environment and influences. Consistent with this idea of being a “responsible” composer is another of Vine’s comments:
Creative artists must spare some thought to the comprehensibility of their work just as audiences should lift their preconceptions of what their own society has helped create. My own pre-romantic view of artist as artisan seems to have few adherents today, although such a view generally eases the burden on a willing public if occasionally complicating the task of the creator. Some of the world’s greatest music has, after all, been produced under the dictates of the most stringent briefs.241
The idea of Vine as an artisan, crafting his scores to fit their context, is extended by
Amanda Meale in her thesis Composer as Artisan: Carl Vine and the dance, and of this analogy, Vine has said:
240Vine, Carl. Program Notes for Poppy.
Vine has shown in the score of Poppy his adherence to this ideal. Tailoring a score so closely to a dance can limit its appeal and performance life outside of the theatre, yet this score has been played worldwide because of the ballet’s success and repeat performances. The outcome of the collaboration of the music, dance and decor is that a cohesive, almost chronological, and entertaining representation of Cocteau and his world is dramatically presented. In order to depict Cocteau’s musical experiences, Vine referred to many different composers and styles of music. The instrumentation was also varied, from piano solos, to electronic music, as can be see in Table 5.3.
Table 5.3: Composers and styles referenced by Vine in ‘Poppy’, Act 1.
Scene Title Reference Instrumentation Act 1: Scene 1 In a field of poppies Satie. Soprano and piano Alto Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Trumpet, Cor Anglais 1 & 2, Act 1: Scene 2 The schoolroom Milhaud and Poulenc. Trombone. No percussion and piano is hardly used. Flute, Clarinet, The Can Can, the Bassoon, Trumpet, Cor Tango and jazz styles. Act 1: Scene 3 The cabaret Anglais 1 & 2, Uses Wagnerian Trombone, Piano, themes also. Percussion Piccolo, Flute, Begins with a Satie- Clarinet, Bassoon, Backstage at the like piano solo. Act 1: Scene 4 Trumpet, Cor Anglais Ballets Russes Alludes to Weber and 1 & 2, Trombone, Stravinsky. Piano, Percussion Flute, Clarinet, Serialism and a funeral Bassoon, Trumpet, Cor march (similar to Act 1: Scene 5 Radiguet’s death Anglais 1 & 2, Satie's Socrate funeral Trombone, Piano, march,). Percussion
242Vine, Carl. Letter to Amanda Meale, quoted by Meale. Composer as Artisan: Carl Vine and the dance. November, 1993, 1. 168 This presents a problem in developing a consistent, organized score, but Vine overcomes this by linking the themes with cell-like motives that are also common to the themes. A sense of unification in musical material is achieved through the use of a returning motif that defines and affects the direction that other melodic material follows.
This motif appears in the opening bars of the first scene, both in the soprano line and piano, as can be seen in Example 5.1. The construction of this motif, a descending minor second and a rising minor third, is a summary of two intervals that feature individually in every scene. This opening motif will be labelled as the ‘Poppy’ motif due to its saturation throughout the score. On stage, the title of the work is mirrored in the set design and synopsis construction. Jean Cocteau’s procession towards the drug opium, and his subsequent ability to recover and write some of his most recognised works are the major themes in the synopsis. This journey permeates all facets of the dance work’s design. In the opening scene, Cocteau reminisces of his mother, surrounded in a field of poppies, akin to the modern symbology of remembrance and poppies. During the following scenes, Cocteau’s experiences with love tie in with symbology of opium as a love potion, a notion that descended from Greek mythology.
Yet it is these experiences with love, and subsequently death that lead Cocteau to become an opium addict.
169 Example 5.1: i) Opening of Act 1, Scene 1, Poppy by Carl Vine. Bars 1-4.243
ii) Opening of Act 1, Scene 1, Poppy by Carl Vine. Bars 1-2 at original pitch. The box around the soprano’s first three notes highlights the ‘Poppy’ motif.244
The poppy, a sign of memories, becomes opium, a drug to help forget. As appears in
Caption 1, from Act 2, Cocteau himself said:
Everything that happens in one’s life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of that train while it is still moving.245
Like many avant garde artists of this era, Cocteau was inspired by opium to write. His work Les enfants terribles was written while recovering from this addiction. During act
243These performance parts kept in the Australian Music Library is in a transposed key (down a tone) for Act I, Scene 1 and is labelled as being transposed. 244Notated by Rachel Hocking. 245Cocteau, Jean. Quoted from the program Poppy. Programs, Sydney Dance Company, 1979-. National Library of Australia, PROMPT Collection.
170 two, Murphy’s work Poppy follows his recovery and the characters of Cocteau’s works are paraded until Cocteau himself has to face the same Angel of Death who took
Radiguet, his lover, at the end of act one. The manipulations of the ‘Poppy’ motif that
Vine uses from the opening three notes of the entire work follow a similar treatment throughout the work, as it is presented from different angles and in different contexts.
Like the synopsis representation of the poppy, this motif also inspires new melodic treatment and is reminiscent of the music material that has already appeared. As with the avant garde music of Cocteau‘s era, the ‘Poppy’ motif does not readily and audibly appear as a principal theme, as it would in sonata form. This motif is manipulated, so that it is often presented in inversion, retrograde, transposed and expanded forms. As the work progresses the ‘Poppy’ motif materialises into the cell-motif on which Vine’s pastiche and original music is created, regardless of the style of music. However, the motif is part of a larger melodic fragment that is used, often discreetly, in every scene.
This fragment consists of the first seven notes in the soprano line shown above, the pitches being:
G F# A C B F Eb
(Poppy motif)
The three-note ‘Poppy’ motif occurs mainly in the 'originally' composed sections of the work but does have similar construction to the quoted sections in the score. Instances where this motif is used occur at dramatically important points, often when a figurehead character, someone important to Cocteau, appears onstage. From the opening of the work, Vine associates this motif with characters that had a significant influence on
Cocteau. The opening scene features Cocteau as a boy, observing his mother dance in a
171 field of poppies. The two onstage characters are matched texturally by two instruments: a piano and soprano singing the Cocteau verse as given in Table 5.4.
Table 5.4: Original words and English translation of Act 1 Scene 1 “In a field of poppies”, cited from Cocteau’s Les enfants terrible, the work written while Cocteau was recovering from his opium addiction.
On s’angoisse de la vitesse acquise par le cyclone One is worried by the speed acquired by the où respirent ces âmes tragiques et legeres. cyclone where these tragic and light souls are breathing.
Cela debute par des enfantaillages on n’y voit That beginning of the childishness, one only sees d’abord que des jeux. games in the beginning.
Cela debute par des enfantaillages That beginning of the childishness, on n’y voit, one only sees, on n’y voit, one only sees, on n’y voit. one only sees.
This serene and evocative scene contains echoes of Eric Satie’s style of simple, angular pianistic writing found in pieces such as Gymnopedies. Combined with the French text, it immediately establishes the atmosphere of early 20th century France. The phrasing of the dance begins and ends with the phrasing of the music, and both media are structured on one motif. The dancer here is the character of Cocteau's mother: Cocteau himself, represented as a young boy, admiringly observes his mother dance. Similarly, the melodic material is built upon the ‘Poppy’ motif, with the entire seven-note fragment being used in the opening two bars. The texture of the music is as simple as the dance movement onstage, homophonic throughout, soprano and piano sharing the same paced, sustained rhythmic movement. Metaphorically, the textual relationship of the poem with the music is based more on the words "tragic and light souls" than "cyclone" and
"speed". Harmonically the open and sometimes unresolving chords with the use of sixths and sevenths (both major and minor) chosen by Vine point towards French influences. Structurally, the ‘Poppy’ motif is used at the opening in bars one and two, at
172 the beginning of the second verse in bar seven and repeated three times in the coda, already demonstrating its significance in this entire work.
Example 5.2. i) Bars 126-133 from Act 1, Scene 2 The Schoolroom, from the original score. Bar 126 begins at the double bar line.
173 ii) Bars 126-133 from Act 1, Scene 2 The Schoolroom.
The ‘Poppy’ motif, previously associated with Cocteau’s mother, also is employed when other important characters appear over the emerging scenes. In bars 126-151 at the close of Scene 2 the Schoolroom, the ‘Poppy’ motif is presented as an ostinato played by two cor anglais, over which the alto flute and trumpet play fragments of the
174 schoolroom theme. This can be seen in Example 5.2. During this section, Cocteau and
Dargelos are left alone, dancing a short pas de deux. Cocteau’s longing for Dargelos is portrayed through the imitation in dance steps of Dargelos’ movements, the pairing of the cor anglais, in the ‘Poppy’ motif echoing the pairing of Cocteau and Dargelos.
In Scene 3, a 47 bar long tango featuring Cocteau with Comtesse Annes de Noalles is built entirely on the ‘Poppy’ motif transposed, using an inverted form in the middle section. In Scene 5, the funeral march of Radiguet (discussed in further detail later) features an ostinato of the repeated transposed form of the ‘Poppy’ motif, set to the funeral march rhythm. These examples, as well as the examples given in Table 5.5, demonstrate how Vine has used this motif as a kind of leitmotif, aiding the development of the composition's structure, and enhancing the emotional journey of the score.
Table 5.5: Occurrences of the ‘Poppy’ motif.
Scene Bar Instrumentation Pitch Presentation Act 1, Scene 1 Bar 1 Soprano, piano G – F# - A Original form In a field of Bar 3 Piano G – Ab – F Inverted poppies Bar 7 Soprano G – F# - A Original form Bar 10 Soprano Db – C – Eb Transposed Retrograde Bar 10 Piano F – Ab – G inversion Coda (over 3 Soprano Db – C – Eb Transposed bars) Retrograde Piano F – Ab – G inversion Act 1, Scene 2 Bar 37 Trumpet G – F# - A Original form The schoolroom Bar 37 Clarinet G – Ab – F Inverted Transposed Bar 38 - 39 Clarinet A# - B – G# inversion Bar 106 Cor Anglais G – F# - A Original form Bar 109 Bassoon Ab – G – Bb Transposed Expanded Bar 126 - 151 Cor Anglais Eb – C – D retrograde inversion
175 Table 5.5 continued. Occurrences of the ‘Poppy’ motif.
Scene Bar Instrumentation Pitch Presentation Retrograde Bar 126 - 151 Cor Anglais F – Ab – G inversion Expanded Act 1, Scene 3 Bar 88 Trumpet Eb – F – D transposed The Cabaret inversion Expanded Bar 96 Cor Anglais Bb – C – A transposed inversion Bar 100 – 106 Cor Anglais Bb – A – C Transposed Act 1, Scene 3 Bar 63-66 Trumpet D – C# - E Transposed The Tango Flute, Clarinet Bar 79-80 G – Ab – F Inverted and Bassoon Act 1, Scene 4 Retrograde Bar 1 Piano F – Ab – A Barre variation Retrograde Bar 6 Piano G – Bb – B variation Bar 17 Piano D – C# - E Transposed Act 1, Scene 5 All – as prime Bars 1-63 G – F# - A Original form Radiguet’s Death row 0 Act 1, Scene 5 Bars 93-96 Trumpet Eb – D – F Transposed Funeral March Bar 97 Trumpet G – Ab – F Inversion Bars 101-102 Trumpet Eb – D – F Transposed
Although the motif is frequently present throughout the score, the more obvious feature of Vine's music is his use of "attributive" music246. The quotations of composers such as
Poulenc, Milhaud, Satie and Stravinsky in Poppy are an audibly noticeable feature.
These are not hidden, obscure quotations, but witty presentations of identifiable themes and textures. As these sections in the score are re-orchestrated arrangements of other composers' works or reconstructions of their style, these imitative sections sound obviously contrast with the more ‘original’ sections of the score. However, many of the intervals enclosed within the quoted themes contain the same intervals as the ‘Poppy’ motif. In this way, Vine is able to unite the original and quoted sections of the score
246Vine, Carl. Program Notes for Poppy.
Theatrically, Vine uses music with certain associations to accompany some sections of the synopsis. For example, Vine has included a can-can for the Parisian society scene, a fanfare to introduce Barbette the trapeze artist and a ballet-class styled piano solo to accompany a barre scene. These sections, although original compositions, contain all the elements to create a recognisable association. Throughout these examples, Vine constantly refers back to the ‘Poppy’ motif, through the use of minor seconds and minor thirds. One of the longest sections in the score that contains this referential style of music is that of the tango. The tango theme, like the other themes and the ‘Poppy’ motif already mentioned, is constructed using minor seconds and minor thirds. The tango is in three large sections, with the main theme from section A given in Example
5.3.
Example 5.3: Act 1, scene 2, ‘Tango’, bars 1-16, Clarinet theme beginning at bar 5, from the original score.
This dance is in three large sections, co-ordinating with the on-stage action. The first section, in which the clarinet plays the main tango theme as seen in Example 5.3, the
Parisien society, male and female together, dance the traditional tango Most of the dance movements are in unison and the music material is presented simply, with a solo clarinet followed by harmonised triplets in the flute and clarinet. The middle section of
177 Example 5.4. i) Bars 57 to72, middle section of the Tango, Scene 3. The trumpet theme begins at bar 63 and is shown in closer detail at Example 5.4 ii).
178 Example 5.4 i) continued. Bars 57 to72, middle section of the Tango, Scene 3.
ii) The first three bars of the trumpet solo at bar 63.
the tango is faster, with the melodic material being played by the trumpet, and countermelodies appearing in the cor anglais parts. Dramatically, Graeme Murphy, who played Cocteau, and Janet Vernon, who played society lady Comtesse Anne de
Noailless dance a pas de deux, where at the end Cocteau surprisingly ends up in
Raymond Radiguet’s arms. As Cocteau and Radiguet dance, the society reappears onstage, male with female puppets, and the behaviour gradually becomes more abandoned. Here the first clarinet theme returns, but with witty interjections from other
179 instruments in time with the mischievous actions. This middle theme as seen in
Example 5.4 features the ‘Poppy’ motive of a descending minor second, plus a rising minor third (this time played by the trumpet).
As seconds (major and minor) and minor thirds are important intervals in tonal and chromatic music, the use of these intervals for a unifying motif also suits many of
Vine’s quotations of other composers, from Weber to Wagner. For example, Vine pastes together a variety of Wagnerian themes in the cabaret scene to accompany the cross-dressing trapeze artist Barbette, an entertainer known to have only performed to
Wagner’s music247. The excerpt at Example 5.5, bars 60 to 63, demonstrates the consistent movement of minor seconds and thirds that are employed throughout the chosen cited themes used in Poppy.
Example 5.5: i) Act 1, Scene 2, ‘Cabaret’, bars 60-64248. There is clear chromatic movement in the melody.
247Vine, Carl. Program notes - Poppy.
These two intervals also feature heavily in counter melodic movement throughout the first scene. For example, the first interval heard in the opening of the second scene ‘the
Schoolroom’ is an ascending minor third, played by the flute as an ostinato accompaniment throughout this scene. Perhaps the most significant use of the minor seconds and thirds are to be found in the manipulations of the ‘Poppy’ motif as can be seen in Example 5.6. This motif is used as an accompanying figure to other themes, as bridge sections and as the beginning of a tone row in scene five.
181 Example 5.6. Bars 1 to 8, opening ostinato of Act 1, Scene 2 - the Schoolroom.
Here, a minor third appears linearly in the alto flute and clarinet parts, as well as vertically as an inversion between the two instruments in bar four. This limited-ranged ostinato is used throughout the schoolroom scene, accompanying schoolboys as they play in a classroom. The compound duple time signature and playful skipping rhythm oppose somewhat the melancholic nature of the harmonies and instrumentation used, particularly the muted trumpet and seems suitable to the young Cocteau reminiscing about his schooldays and his crush on Dargelos. Climaxes in both the music and drama occur as the schoolboys’ mischief worsens and then is discovered by a puppet teacher.
As the mischief increases, Vine uses contrasting effects, either through the comical use of a solo instrument, presenting a roguish theme or by introducing instrumentation previously unused, such as the piano in ascending and descending arpeggiated triplets, coupled with chromatic movement in the horns to depict the schoolboys’ fight.
Climaxes written in the score feature tight textures, with close rhythmic movement and either unison pitch or ascending pitch, ending on a high, accented point. When the schoolboys return to their work, the unified behaviour is depicted in the score through the reintroduction of the ostinato and the muted trumpet theme. At the end of this scene, the characters of Dargelos and Cocteau perform a short pas de deux.
182 Example 5.7. i) Bars 1-8, opening of Act 1, Scene 3 - the Cabaret, from the original score.
183 ii) Bars 1-8, opening of Act 1, Scene 3 - the Cabaret249. The boxes highlight the minor 3rds and 2nds, also showing the subtle reference to the ‘Poppy’ motif in an inverted retrograde form.
Here, Vine shortens the opening ostinato and muted trumpet theme, featuring many repeated minor thirds. By doing this, Vine has established a strict structure for the scene, opening and closing with similar material, allowing this material to be varied by following the dramatic action appearing on the stage. This type of treatment is also used in the following scenes, with the contrasting material inserted for dramatic co- ordination. For example, in Example 5.7, the minor thirds and seconds are presented both vertically and horizontally, while the trombone plays an augmentation of the first three notes of the can-can theme later presented in the scene.
249Notated by Rachel Hocking. 184 Example 5.8. i) Bars 75-80, Scene 2, The Cabaret. Barbette’s Trapeze Theme from the original score.
185 ii) Barbette’s trapeze theme in closer detail, again beginning with descending minor seconds.
However, as Vine is aiming to use music that best describes Cocteau’s experiences in the nightlife of Paris, the music presented is more contrasting due to its tonal and jazz elements. What then appears is a pastiche of themes and styles interjected with Vine’s own material to unite the musical material of the scene. In this scene, the instrumentation is presented in a more homophonic manner, with the piano often being the accompanying backbone, as can be seen with Barbette’s trapeze theme below, in
Example 5.8. The piano plays a similar role when the tango and can-can styles are presented, while other instruments are given the melodic and counter-melodic material.
Throughout this scene, minor seconds and thirds are used both in the directly tonal
186 music, such as the can-can, through to the more non-tonal sections, such as the introduction and bridging sections.
The evolution of the original opening motive is completed in the final scene of Act 1.
This scene involves the death of Radiguet, portrayed as a struggle between the Angel of
Death, Radiguet and Cocteau, who is very reluctant to give in to the angel. Vine chooses to express this scene through “tortured, serial-atonal language”250. The first six notes as presented in the opening scene, in the song “On s’angoisse” are presented in inversion for the final scene. These same six notes appear in the matrix as retrograde row 0 demonstrating that the ‘Poppy’ motive consisting of the minor second and minor third intervals, which tops and tails Act 1, is an important unifying feature amongst all the pastiche. What was the opening of the act now ends the act, as the opening motive is presented in retrograde form. This whole concept ties dramatically in with the synopsis, as the first act is essentially Cocteau reminiscing. It is interesting to note the qualities of the final row used by Vine. The prime row consists of the notes:
B G# D Eb C# E F Bb C A F# G
This row begins with a diminished chord made up of B G# and D. Its final three notes are a retrograde of the ‘On s’angoisse’ motif, consisting of a descending minor third and rising minor second. Orchestrally, this row is shared between the eight pitched instruments, with each instrument playing one note of the row. Each pitch is sustained and overlapped and rows are also overlapped. This contrasts with the other row presented in this scene, the ‘Tritone row’.
250Vine, Carl. Program notes for Poppy.
187 Figure 5.2. Matrix of the tone row as presented in Act 1 Scene 6251.
I0 I9 I3 I4 I2 I5 I6 I11 I1 I10 I7 I8 P0 B G# D Eb C# E F B b C A F# G R0 P3 D B F F# E G G# C# Eb C A Bb R3 P9 G# F B C Bb C# D G A F # Eb E R9 P8 G E Bb B A C C# F# G# F D Eb R8 P10 A F# C C# B D Eb G# Bb G E F R10 P7 F# Eb A Bb G# B C F G E C# D R7 P6 F D G# A G Bb B E F# Eb C C# R6 P1 C A Eb E D F F# B C# Bb G G# R1 P11 Bb G C# D C Eb E A B G# F F# R11 P2 C# Bb E F Eb F# G C D B G# A R2 P5 E C# G G# F# A Bb E b F D B C R5 P4 Eb C F# G F G# A D E C # Bb B R4 RI0 RI9 RI3 RI4 RI2 RI5 RI6 RI11 RI1 RI10 RI7 RI8
251Matrix compiled by Rachel Hocking. 188 Example 5.9: i) Bars 1-8, Act 1, Scene 6. Radiguet’s Death.
189 ii) Bars 1-7, Act 1, Scene 6. Radiguet’s Death, outlining the prime row (indicated by the numbers).
The tritone comes to the foreground in this scene. Vine uses the most dissonant of intervals to reinforce the “dark, atonal” qualities associated with Radiguet’s struggle against death. This interval is present in the prime row shown above, but Vine also uses it to create a new row which he alternates with the already stated row. The ‘Tritone row’ is orchestrated differently from the opening row, with polyphonic pairings of the entire row, played by two or more solo instruments. The row consists of:
B F Bb E A Eb G# D G C# F# C
The ‘Tritone row’ is a cycle of six tritones in total, descending, each followed by an ascending perfect fourth. Its role is as a countermelody or contrasting melody to the
‘On s’angoisse’ row: it is a more energetic row, with triplet quaver rhythms or crotchet rhythms and is always presented vertically in the one instrument. Although Vine uses the tritone interval in the scenes prior to Scene 6, it is not at the foreground as much as it
190 is here, where it is needed to portray the atonal desperate nature of this scene, a final fight with death. The choreography in this scene also contrasts greatly with the music, adding to the dramatic struggle. At the opening of the scene, although the music is slow and sustained, Radiguet’s movements tend to be energetic, using jumps and stretches to display his youth and vigour. The dance movements tend to remain active throughout the scene. Radiguet does not gracefully give in to death, rather he, and Cocteau, both fight against the Angel of Death, an aggressive fight.
The scene ends after a climax, where musically the rhythm intensifies, the pitch and volume increase and the texture thickens, with addition of timpani, and gong sounding the toll bell. After a grand pause, the funeral march begins, where Radiguet is carried by white pallbearers, with imagery of Cocteau such as the open umbrellas. Here the act finishes. The funeral march is orchestrated with the appropriate rhythm and use of
Grand Cassa, but the opening motive is repeated throughout this section, as can be seen in Example 5.10. Up to the end of Act 1, the audience has been shown scenes of
Cocteau’s early life, the external forces that motivated and influenced him. In contrast,
Act 2 is a more abstract interpretation of Cocteau’s thoughts and creative ideas. Vine has followed the synopsis very carefully in the music he designed for this: the outside influences of Act 1 are shown through the appropriation of music from external sources, combined with Vine’s own interpretation of this period of music. The internal thought processes and creations of Cocteau dramatically portrayed on stage are echoed in the electronic soundtrack Vine created for Act 2. This electronic soundtrack samples sounds from Cocteau’s films, but is essentially a musique concrète composition.
191 Example 5.10. Bars 87 to 102, Act 1, Scene 6. After the final stages of Radiguet’s life at bars 87 to 92, the Funeral March begins at bar 93.
192 Example 5.10 continued. Bars 87 to 102, Act 1, Scene 6. After the final stages of Radiguet’s life at bars 87 to 92, the Funeral March begins at bar 93.
Although the instrumentation and musical content of each act are dissimilar, the methodology of composition is quite comparable. For the electronic section, Vine recorded sounds and manipulated, them, a similar method to his use of pastiche in the first act. Like the first act, where Vine found material from other sources and rewrote the styles and themes of these works, in the second act, Vine has recorded and electronically manipulated existing sounds, such as Cocteau's voice, to produce an appropriate soundtrack. The first electronic tape recording of Act 2, made in 1978, was revised by Vine around 1981, and this revised version exists on the videorecording made for SBS television of Poppy at the Sydney Opera House in 1998. Of the original version of Act 2, Vine says:
193 The material limitations were immense. There was one 4-track magnetic tape recorder, and a handful of different analog synthesizers that I now can't recall. I also used some synthesizers of my own design, as that was my "forte" in those days. A good deal of that music was electro-acoustic, recording the clanging of bits of metal, glass, nuts and bolts; sticking together little bits of magnetic tape; playing them backwards, forward, and on massive "loops" of tape suspended between boom-microphone stands...So a good deal of the original was plain, old-fashioned musique-concrete, supplemented with "sequenced" material using a variety of voltage-control devices running a raft of analog synthesizers....252
The version of Act 2 made in 1981 contains the original Act 2 soundtrack in the first and last five minutes of the act253.
The updated "version 2" of Act II was mostly completed during my time as Lecturer in Electronic Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, using a state-of-the-art (at the time) 16-track recording studio but still with a mix of analog synthesizers and voltage-control devices, but still with concrete elements. From memory there were about four complete sections of the "original" version that were kept, more-or-less intact, in the revised version.254
As a young composer, Vine had not received any commissions at this stage for chamber music. The bulk of his work prior to Poppy consisted mainly of electronic pieces, some improvised (and subsequently withdrawn), written for dance and theatre. Poppy was also significantly more substantial in length, at 90 minutes than his other works up to this point which were all under 20 minutes. Scoring one act for nine instruments and the other act for electronic music helped to solve this problem of extra length required and suited the theatrics of the synopsis at the same time. For Vine personally, this was an important work as it enabled him to closely study works of composers from
Cocteau’s time, and these composers still remain an influence in Vine’s compositions today. Of this observation, Vine has said:
I had never before made any serious study of “Les Six”, and it was a great delight to discover all of this music in greater depth. Perhaps the most lasting impact came from my “Re-write of Spring” - an irreverent “rendition” of the opening night performance of Stravinksy’s masterpiece re-arranged for nine instruments. After the first season of ‘Poppy’ it became necessary to “Re-write” the “Re-write” to avoid any copyright infringement and possible legal action. By that stage I knew the Stravinsky inside out
252Vine, Carl. In discussion with Rachel Hocking 24th January, 2005. 253Vine, Carl. Program notes for Poppy.
The influence that this research had on the young Vine is noteworthy. After this composition, some reviewers have noticed the influences contained in Vine’s works.
Since Poppy was composed, the use of parody, quoting composer's style, textures, orchestration and motives has been a device employed by Vine, not only in his theatrical works but also in his concert hall works. Reviewers of performances of his subsequent works have noted, sometimes negatively, similarities between the character of some of Vine's works and works by previous composers. For example, Vine received some criticism for the similarities between his first Piano Sonata and Eliot
Carter's sonata. Another concert hall work, Vine's Piano Concerto, prompted this comment:
Carl Vine's Piano concerto begins promisingly enough. It soon becomes obvious that this is another of Carl's 'parody pieces'... sometimes I think I hear nods to Bartok, Villa- Lobos and Stravinsky...256.
While the observation of Vine's use of parody is not a new finding, it is linked to his dance compositions and shows the influence writing for dance has had on Vine's compositional style, an influence that Vine sometimes is fond of denying. This device's origin is in his dance music, his collaborations with other artists, and his use of themes from other nationalities and eras. Interestingly, its genesis is found in this particular dance work Poppy as a solution to the problem of finding a link with the era of Jean
Cocteau. Following this work, Vine has used parody to give concert hall audiences a way to approach newly composed music, a genre that many regard as unreachable or unrelated to their previous aural experience and therefore unenjoyable. For this, Vine has been criticised of ‘selling out’ and writing ‘commercial’ music, instead of using the
255Vine, Carl. In discussion with Rachel Hocking 24th January, 2005.
195 favoured avant-garde style of the vocal music elite257. The composers that Vine quotes in the dance work Poppy are composers that Vine has quoted in subsequent concert hall works, this not by any means a coincidence. The influence that Cocteau, through
Murphy, has had on Vine is a significant one and the early seeds of composers who would remain in Vine's compositional vocabulary can be seen in the work Poppy. Vine uses a similar methodology to create electronic music and live music in some aspects of the score. This similarity can be seen in Poppy, through the scoring of the ensemble and electro-acoustic acts. The first act uses pastiche for the live, more traditional ensemble type while the second act uses musique concrète techniques for the electro-acoustic instrumentation. These two devices could be seen to be similar compositional processes as both of these devices rely on the inclusion and manipulation of pre-existing material.
This cross-over in technique becomes more apparent when examining the textures and instrumental devices employed by Vine in subsequent works.
Comparison with ‘Piano Sonata’:
Another dance work of Vine's, the Piano Sonata, was also written for the Sydney Dance
Company and also employs techniques whose roots are found in electro-acoustic music.
Written in 1990 for Graeme Murphy, the piece was used for the Sydney Dance
Company's production by the same title in 1992 for their 15th birthday celebrations.
Similar to Elliot Carter's Piano Sonata of 1946, Vine's sonata is divided into two movements, both intensely rhythmic giving the idea of movement. This work is dedicated to Michael Harvey who played the sonata live to accompany the Sydney
Dance Company. Perhaps the most popular and successful Australian piece to have found a life outside of the choreographic world is the Piano Sonata, and Vine clearly
256Plush, Vincent. The Piano in our lives. SIGLO. No 9, 63-68. 257For example, see the aforementioned article The Piano in our lives by Vincent Plush. 196 approached the composition of this work as he does his concert works rather than his dance pieces, with the intention of making it a virtuosic listening piece. Even though this has been documented258, there are similarities between this work and other dance works such as Poppy. Since its premiere, Harvey has made the sonata his signature piece and it has been used in piano competitions such as the 1993 Ivo Pogorelich
International Piano Competition and the Sydney International Piano Competition, and has been recorded several times. Danceworks, a Sydney company also rechoreographed this piece in their work In the Company of Angels, along with some Ross Edwards songs, during their 1993 season for their tenth anniversary celebrations. At both presentations, the sonata was performed live.
The fact that the sonata was performed live provides a starting point for the discussion of the temporal and interpretive elements of the piece that make it suitable for dance.
There is no storyline for the music. Instead imagery needs to be seen in the music itself.
The character within the music of increasing and decreasing momentum, the varying textures, the rhythmic vitality, are caught up with the actual live performance of the piece itself: it is a virtuosic piece. First, the metaphorical elements of imagery and interpretation include the visual energy seen in a live performance of a solo pianist. The words of Debussy come to mind in the drama of a live performance:
The attraction of the virtuoso for the public is very like that of the circus for the crowd. There is always a hope that something dangerous may happen...259
The dramatic element of having a live performer, on a piano, playing such an energetic piece has a relationship with the dance. In this case, the Murphy production was simply titled Piano Sonata, implying that the dance extended and was reliant on this piece. The
258Meale. 1993, 14. 259Debussy, Claude. Monsieur Croche: the dilettante hater. London: Norgate, 1927, 44. 197 Danceworks version of this also had Michael Harvey play this live. Of the Murphy version, a reviewer said:
Harvey's powerful performance at the keyboard is visually discreet, but so much a part of the whole impact that his live presence becomes as important as that of the dancers.260
The dance work Piano Sonata choreographed by Graeme Murphy featured two rods of hanging lights that dangerously swing around the eight silver body suited dancers, reflecting the imagery of risk in performance. The piece of music itself is a piece that moves between extremes, in texture, range, rhythm, harmonic language and melody.
The opening of the first movement and close of the second movement is soft, featuring slow descending fourths in chords.
In the first movement, the melody is expanded like an improvisation, with rhythms that meander around the regular pulse of the chords. Gradually the drama is built up through the movement with contrasting rhythms, tempi, textures, ranges and dynamics. The constant use of a low bass note every two bars provides an anchor for structure. The rhythm throughout the first movement is continuous, with the diminution and eventual augmentation of pulse being the process through which the tension can be built up and decreased throughout. In the second movement, the contrasts move between intense fast sections and the slow sections of the first movement. The main tonal theme that is the climax of the first movement is also used in the second movement. Vine's use of modes, including traditional major/minor forms, and atonal writing is prevalent throughout and also serves as a contrast between harmonic languages.
260Sykes, Jill. Murphy's sonata mixes play and danger. Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, 29th May, 1992, 12. 198 The diminution and augmentation of pulse affect how the dance work is phrased as well as the momentum of the work. There are multiple time and tempi changes throughout which serve to aid the increasing and decreasing intensity of the dance. The direction given at the preface to the sonata is that:
tempo markings throughout this score are not suggestions but indications of absolute speed. Rubato should only be employed when directed, and then only sparingly. Romantic interpretation of melodies, phrases and gestures should be avoided wherever possible.
This of course, is vital when considering accompanying a dance work as dancers and musicians are relying on timing for co-ordination, not necessarily beat for beat but at the very least, beginnings and ends of movements and phrases as well as concentration of energy. In the first movement, the pulse begins as slow minims which then turn into triplet crotchets, crotchets, quavers and then finally to semiquavers. In most of these bars, a note is played on every single pulse. The final slow section from bars 161 to the end alternates between using minims and triplet crotchets for the pulse. In the second movement, the pulse immediately begins as semiquavers and augments to crotchets, triplet quavers, then quavers before returning to semiquavers.
Example 5.11. Increasing pulse in the first movement of Carl Vine’s Piano Sonata.
Like the beginning of the first movement, the second movement ends using minim pulse. In both the first and second movements, most of the pulses have a note or
199 multiple notes played on them giving a continuous momentum to the music, an innate sense of motion and energy.
There is much use of repetition, as is found in many dance-music works. Not only is repetition used as a macro structural device but also within structures. For dance audiences, the use of repetition helps to familiarise the listener to the piece as well as provide landmarks for the dance's framework. Section 2, beginning at bar 50, uses a semiquaver pulse, leaps that are greater than an octave in the accompaniment, and a memorable theme that is first introduced as a shadow of what is to follow. The time signatures alternate between 5/4 and 4/4. Section 3 has a totally different character, the range is narrower, using the bass and the articulation is staccato. No melodic theme is provided, contrasting with the section that preceded this. Rather, the rhythm is broken up into groups of four and three semiquavers, using the intervals of 3rd, 4ths, 5ths. The time signatures in this section alternate between 7/16 and 2/4. At bar 148, Section 2 reappears but not in full. The diatonic theme is repeated as are the glissandi and cluster chords at the end of this section. Then a likeness of Section 1 is used to end the movement. The tempo returns to the original speed and the dynamics, texture and pulse mirror the opening. However, the melodic material uses an ascending shape rather than a descending shape.
200 Example 5.12. Vine's Piano Sonata 1st movement bars 1-2
The second movement is a structure of alternating rapid perpetual motion sections and slower sections, both using motives and devices from the first movement, but with more intensity. Repetitions within each section of the movements are common throughout the piece, with a lot of material being stated in two bar phrases and then being repeated.
The extreme contrasts between material found in the chordal sections and the material found in the perpetual motion sections provide obvious dramatic imagery to the piece, aiding the dancer's interpretation.
The placement of notes within a space also relates to dancing and how dancers can be placed within the space of a stage, as well as how many dancers are used. Textural devices are used to help give different theatrical options to the imagery and interpretation. The fact that one instrument is used, that is the piano, may imply that the dancing that would best relate to the piece would not use many dancers. In the Murphy production of this, only eight dancers were used, and in the Herbertson production, only seven. There are moments in the music that provide large areas of space that may relate well to a solo dancer, or a duo, and Murphy appropriately choreographs, with one particular section consisting of a intertwined trio. Textural devices move between wide ranges of chords, some unison moments (for example beginning of second movement),
201 layering of parts where a melody, countermelody and accompaniment provide a thick sound. The dynamics and articulation also help to vary the music, with a range between ppp and ff used. Some passages are quite busy with pp dynamic. The textures in this work echo textures that Vine has used since his early electro-acoustic works. Elements of electro-acoustic origins are evident upon listening to the Piano Sonata, as it seems that some sections of the work are fast-forward presentations of a previous theme.
While the concept is similar to classical use of diminution and augmentation to manipulate musical material, its practise is more modern as it extends from electro- acoustic musique concrète techniques.
As in Poppy, Vine favours the use of minor seconds and thirds in the melodic content of this piece. Some excerpts can be seen in Example 5.12 and Example 5.13. In the opening bars melodic and harmonic movement is by descending thirds and seconds, while the melodic content given in the second example shows the melodic movement similar to the ‘Poppy’ motif in bar 383, but in retrograde. It would be no exaggeration to see Murphy as the Australian version of Diaghilev, and to see Piano Sonata as a culmination of Murphy's and Vine's collaborative relationship, representative of all past collaborative efforts, extending directly from the influences of Les Six, Cocteau and
Satie as found in Poppy. After all, both works are Vine-Murphy collaborations, both are in two sections beginning and ending in contemplating manner, both contain direct musical examples of other composers' styles. However this does not necessarily demonstrate a direct link between Poppy and Piano Sonata, but rather illustrates a similar language that Vine favours throughout his works, particularly dance works.
202 Example 5.13. Vine's Piano Sonata - 2nd movement bars 381-384
Conclusion:
The metaphorical elements that are useful to a dance interpretation include the image of the virtuosic, the energy of continuous pulse and the dramatic contrasts achieved through different range, dynamics, textures, time signatures, tempi and harmonic progressions. These interact with the temporal elements that are necessary for co- ordination of time, structure, tempi, time changes, texture, dynamics, timbre, harmonic and rhythmic accents, and phrasing. The Piano Sonata No 1 of Carl Vine is an example of Australian dance-music that has appealed to dance and music audiences. As a piece for dance, it provides contrasting drama, vitality and a continuing sense of motion, through musical devices. Its success outside of the dance theatre is owed to its energy and virtuosity. In this case, these essential dramatic qualities for the dance work also 203 are essential qualities for music listeners. The elements that contribute to the piece's success as music for dance are also the elements that contribute to its success as a concert hall piece. Through Vine's dance-music conceptual trends can be identified, right from his earliest works. Some features of Vine's music, such as industrial-like textures and effects, and the use of parody, originate from his earliest pieces and extend through to current works. These devices are consistent in both his electronic works and live works. However, two important features, the use of pastiche, and Vine's later leaning towards more tonal music can first be seen in the dance work Poppy. This work, a landmark work for Vine, introduced him to composers whom he has continued to quote in style and texture throughout his career. Other features that make Vine an appropriate composer for dance, such as rhythmical vitality and dramatic structuring, also extend into his concert works. The crossover between his electro-acoustic music can be seen in the work Poppy, while the crossover between concert hall music and dance works can be seen in the work Piano Sonata. The significance of these two pieces has been realised in Australian music history, as these are both well-known works of Vine. There is a consistency in composition throughout his works, independent of the instrumentation (including electronic) or sound sources used. The people that Vine has collaborated with, for example Graeme Murphy, have influenced
Vine. Writing for dance was in Vine’s own words “a wonderful training ground”261: it was a genre that allowed Vine to quickly develop new works for a specific function, with immediate performance.
Modern dance in Australia has encouraged many composers to write collaborative works for instrumentation they favour such as the use of the piano in Vine’s Piano
261 Vine, Carl. In discussion with Rachel Hocking, 24 January 2005.
204 Sonata. Choreographers such as Murphy have given further opportunities and exposure to Australian composers, influencing these composers’ output in their other works throughout their compositional career. For example, it was shown in Poppy that through Murphy’s interest in Jean Cocteau and his association with the Ballet Russes,
Vine was introduced to Stravinsky. Since this indepth study of Stravinsky’s scores,
Vine has continued to refer to Stravinsky’s scores in works such as his Piano Concerto, as noted by musicologists such as Vincent Plush.
Other dance styles have emerged out of modern dance including dance-theatre and experimental dance. Music for these productions will now be discussed in the next two chapters.
205 Chapter Six – Music for dance-theatre
Dance-theatre is a term relating to a specific presentation of a type of contemporary work, that incorporates influences from other areas such as popular culture. These influences can be seen in the performance of the work through references contained in costume, type of dance and type of music used. Dance-theatre has also involved other media such as film, literature, song, installations and dance movement sometimes references circus or gymnastic styles. Venues have varied from art galleries to outdoor locations. Although the term dance-theatre is not listed in The Oxford Dictionary of
Dance262, it is referred to in the Currency Companion to Music and Dance in
Australia263, as including: “singing and dialogue to film and other multimedia techniques”264; references to various styles of music and dance within a single work; and
“disruption of traditional narrative”265. This however does not mean that dance-theatre is limited only to Australian works. As noted by Boughen, dance-theatre originated in
Germany during the 1970s from the Wuppertal Dance Theatre, but has extended to become an international genre266. Of dance-theatre, Lester states:
The term ‘dance theatre’ was used to distinguish the work of the company from ‘pure’ dance companies with little clarification or explication of what that means. There is an assumption underlying most critical comment, which was sometimes made explicit in particular writings, that ‘movement’ and movement expressed as only a trained dancer can perform it lay at the heart of the work.267
262Craine, Debra and Mackrell, Judith. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2000, reissued 2004. 263The Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. Edited by Whiteoak and Scott-Maxwell. Sydney: Currency House, 2003. 264Boughen, Shaaron. Dance Theatre. The Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. Sydney: Currency House, 2003, 222. Here she is quoting The Dance Handbook 1988, other details unknown. 265Boughen. 222. 266Boughen. 222. 267Lester. 2000, 98.
206 As emphasised here, the main difference between dance-theatre and say, circus theatre, is that a trained dancer is involved in these companies. In Australia, the first company to use the term dance-theatre was the Australian Dance Theatre, established in 1965 in
South Australia. Brief reference will be made to some of these companies and the work of Bangarra Dance Theatre in particular will be examined in some detail.
The style of musical score typical of dance-theatre works, like the physical dance movement used in this genre, also refers to contemporary culture, through devices such as the instrumentation chosen, musical themes or sampling of recordings through use of electronic equipment. Developments in technology have particularly influenced staging methods in this genre. These developments include increased sophistication in the treatment of lighting, sets and film, and developments in musical technologies such as higher quality of synthesizers and electronic equipment, and the use of sampling.
Scores for dance-theatre tend to be pre-recorded, popular music-styled and studio produced. The aim of dance-theatre is to stimulate and surprise audiences with references to culture that audiences understand, but would not necessarily expect in a dance work. Even with all these distractions, dance still remains the main focus and these events have usually been presented by dance companies, not musical or other media-based companies. The additional elements used in performance can present more considerations and complications for the dance composer, and this chapter will examine how dance composers, particularly David Page, in his work for the Bangarra Dance
Theatre, have collaborated and incorporated outside influences into their own style of writing.
207 Dance-theatre companies and aesthetics:
One of the major dance-theatre companies is the Australian Dance Theatre, a South
Australian company founded in 1965 by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, whose artistic intents included “[opening] the horizons for provocative contemporary and cutting edge dance”268. The dancers for this company are currently trained in various movement styles including gymnastics, classical ballet, breakdance, martial arts and contemporary dance. Their work Housedance was performed and televised outside the Sydney Opera
House as part of the Millenium Broadcast in 2000, with the dancing taking place on the sails of the building. This work involved the dancers being able to abseil, one example of the incorporation of other types of movement into a theatrical setting.
Danceworks was founded in 1983 by Nanette Hassall, with the specific intentions of including all dance members creatively. She says “the process of dance making was a defining notion”269 and the importance of the inclusion of the word ‘process’ here is not to be underestimated. Dance-theatre works aim to be visually-stimulating in performance, by the inclusion of other artistic forms, and the process of creating the work is also crucial. The intent is to enrich the process through the inclusion of more ideas and lead to more original thought. The commitment to working with extra elements can complicate the collaboration process. The artistic collaboration may be fraught with challenges so when a shared vision is arrived at a great deal of energy is put into nurturing the ‘basic’ collaborative relationships and keeping them intact and stable.
268Australia Dancing.
blends abstraction with theatricality and extends the boundaries of dance and theatre with works that blend speech, dance and visual media270.
A further example, the Meryl Tankard Company founded 1989, has performed in different spaces and its links to other media forms include its work with photographer/visual artist Regis Lansac. The Paige Gordon and Performance Group
(founded 1993, also known as PG & PG) is:
not just about new movement and innovative presentation, but also about a camaraderie amongst colleagues, a standard or professionalism and above all an interest in making dance accessible by making it entertaining271.
This company stresses that references to popular culture are intended to make the dance entertaining and accessible, not to alienate the audience with new and unexpected events.
Another area of reference that is used in dance-theatre works is that of Indigenous culture. The definition of Indigenous here includes the first Australians, also known as
Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and refers to the traditional 250 or more language groups, the various lands, peoples, the cultures they embraced and the contemporary situations in which these people find themselves. These various cultures are spread over Australia, in both urban and outback communities. Groups such as the
Bangarra Dance Theatre have incorporated Indigenous stories, music and dance forms into a Western theatrical setting, blending these ideas with contemporary dance and popular-based music scores. From the late 1980s, coinciding with the bicentenary of
270Australia Dancing.
209 European settlement in Australia, to 2000, there has been a significant growth in the number of companies founded with the intention of taking traditional Indigenous stories to a wider audience. These groups include some of the work by Dance North, the
Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre and Bangarra Dance Theatre (further discussed below), extending from institutions such as the National Aboriginal Islander Skills
Development Association (NAISDA), an education institution that teaches traditional
Indigenous dance at a diploma level. The Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre (AIDT) was formed in 1976 and became a professional company in 1991272. Composers who have been commissioned by these groups include David Page, Tony Lewis, Stephen
Francis, La Donna Hollingsworth, Andrew Sinclair, Colin Bright, Peter Wells, James
De Mars, Blair Greenberg, Andrew Thomas, David Chesworth, Peter Rankine and
Andy Arthurs. The singular-word titles of the works give some indication of the
Aboriginal origins of the pieces for example ‘Fish’, ‘Passage’, ‘Colours’, ‘Ochres’, words which conjure up images of land or journeys, important elements in Indigenous life. Reference to Aboriginal culture has been in the arts spotlight since John Antill’s
Corroborree orchestral suite of 1946, yet collaboration with and permission from
Indigenous peoples were not generally sort after until the 1980s, when government arts funding moved towards finding an Australian voice. It was intended that the bicentenary of European settlement in Australia (1988) would be celebrated by arts groups and funding opportunities were provided, but in the event it turned out to be a time for national questioning as to whether European settlement was to be celebrated or lamented, particularly for the Indigenous cultures which had suffered suppression in the years following 1788. Australian identity was questioned and promoted during this time by many artists, including composers who looked to the Australian landscape for
271Australia Dancing.
210 musical inspiration, not only in dance works but other forms such as opera and instrumental compositions. Peter Sculthorpe’s works Earth Cry and Kakadu, Barry
Connyngham’s Bennelong and Vast date from this period. While research on Australian
Western composers has discussed the inclusion of Aboriginal material, not much has been written on the extending of Indigenous culture into Western society, as this is a relatively new phenomena. Peter Dunbar-Hall’s and Chris Gibson’s work titled Deadly
Sounds, Deadly Places: contemporary Aboriginal music in Australia273 examines how
Indigenous themes and music styles have been used with references to popular culture.
Stephanie Burridge’s thesis The Impact of Aboriginal Dance on 20th Century
Australian Choreography with a Practical and Creative Study274 examines issues that are more important in Aboriginal dance than in Western dance, including ownership issues, structure of events and importance of ceremonies, personification of spirit, and particular dance-movement styles.
Bangarra Dance Theatre is the company which, by incorporating traditional Indigenous dance, created a new and innovative style in dance and music. Founded in 1989 for
Indigenous artists, Bangarra means “make fire” in the Wiradjuri language of NSW275.
Its artistic and aesthetic aims are given on the company’s website, which includes the following vision and objectives:
Vision: To maintain the link between the traditional Indigenous cultures of Australia and new forms of contemporary artistic expression with respect and integrity, giving voice to social and political issues which speak to all people.
272Dunbar-Hall, Peter. Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre (AIDT). The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Ed. Warren Bebbington. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997, 1. 273Dunbar-Hall, Peter & Gibson, Chris. Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: contemporary Aboriginal music in Australia. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2004. The cover features a photograph of a Bangarra dancer from the work Bush. 274Burridge, Stephanie. The Impact of Aboriginal Dance on 20th Century Australian Choreography with a Practical and Creative Study. PhD thesis. University of Kent, 1997. 275
In order to achieve these aims, the company has employed cultural consultants for advice on the inclusion of traditional stories, dance and song, and has emphasized appropriate traditional recognition even in the process of creating their works. Bangarra has used a mix of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance styles and dancers have come not only from these backgrounds, but recently from non-Indigenous Australian cultures also. This dance company’s background and name exemplify the truly mixed
Indigenous and popular culture that is dominant in Bangarra’s makeup. Bangarra, which originated from NAISDA, was established by an African-American dancer,
Carole Johnson in 1989, who as a touring dancer from the USA recognized the need for such a voice within and without the Australian Indigenous cultures. Although the name
“Bangarra” originates from Wiradjuri language, the largest NSW tribal area traditionally encompassing the Parkes, Griffith and Bathurst areas, the dancers of the company do not necessarily originate from this area, and neither do the stories, dances or music. The reference to making fire, in Bangarra’s name, perhaps represents what
Johnson wanted to achieve, making fire in Australian society by expressing Indigenous culture through a new artistic movement. Part of NAISDA’s syllabus involved sending students ‘up north’ to areas such as Arnhem Land, so that Indigenous students could experience traditional Aboriginal culture, even if it is not the culture of their own origin.
276
1980s, was innovative in producing a new style of dance, one that referred to
Indigenous social and cultural issues, incorporated traditional stories, and was accompanied by traditional dance-styles and music, but was set within the Western theatrical stage tradition in a contemporary context. Through the expansion of traditional stories into contemporary cultural settings, Bangarra has been able to make relevant links with old and new Aboriginal cultures as well as urban and remote communities. In its own words, Bangarra defines its style as:
an electrifying and distinctive style through which to tell the contemporary stories of urban Aboriginal and Islander people: modern day Dreaming fused with the sacred myths and traditions of the past.277
The music used to accompany Bangarra’s works is strongly associated with the dance which it accompanies. David Page has stated that he aims to preserve the original music with the dance it accompanies278. The traditional association of music and dance found in Indigenous culture is maintained in this extended theatrical form.
The inclusion of traditional stories from discrete origins in location and culture has been a process approached with caution and respect for ownership. In some cases the origin of songs in Aboriginal culture is extremely important as it asserts legal responsibilities of land, kinship and tradition. When the appropriate people are performing such a song
(which includes dance and music), they are embodying the land from which the song originates, asserting legal rights over ownership of that place. Therefore, songs can only be performed by owners who have a relationship to the place of origin through birth or some other appropriate relationship. For Bangarra, a group with mixed origins,
277Bangarra Dance Theatre. The Totem Program. (promotional flyer), Sydney: Bangarra Dance Theatre, 2002. As quoted by Dunbar-Hall and Gibson. 2004, 82.
213 a cultural consultant is employed to develop links and create relationships between remote communities and the urban community, and to negotiate permission to perform particular works with the traditional owners. For example, Djakapurra Munyarryun was employed as a cultural consultant for Bangarra from 1991 to 2003. In an interview,
Russell Page described Munyarryun’s involvement:
You sit here talking to him and he’s nodding his head a lot and the next minute he’s away talking to [elders]. He’ll be talking on the phone, sometimes for an hour, then he’ll get off and say ‘We’ve got permission’…. he is like an elder to me, someone I really respect.279
Table 6.1: Dance works by the Bangarra Dance Theatre using original music compositions by Australian composers, to 2000.
Date Work Choreographer Composer 1991 Up Until Now Stephen Page David Page 1992 Praying Mantis Dreaming Stephen Page David Page 1994 Ninni Stephen Page La Donna Hollingsworth and David Page 1994 Ninni Stephen Page Page 1994 Ochres Stephen Page and Bernadette David Page Walong 1997 Fish Stephen Page David Page 1998 Bipotim (Before Time) Albert David Stephen Francis and David Page 1998 Bipotim (Before Time) Albert David David Page 1999 The Dreaming Stephen Page David Page 2000 Skin (Spear) and Skin (Shelter) Stephen Page Stephen Francis and David Page 2000 Skin (Spear) and Skin (Shelter) Stephen Page David Page 2000 Awakenings Stephen Page Stephen Francis and David Page
In 1991, the Page brothers developed the Bangarra company even further by using traditional family relationships in production of works, shown in Table 6.1. Stephen,
Russell and David Page, Indigenous people who grew up in urban Brisbane with a limited Indigenous education, attended NAISDA and through this, were exposed to other Aboriginal cultures. They too, were sent to Arnhem Land and maintained these links by regularly visiting to maintain authentic links, as well as employing Djakapurra
278Page, David. Urban Clan. Film by Michelle Mahrer. Released by Ronin Films, Music Arts Dance Films, 1997.
214 Munyarryun from Yirrkala280 as Indigenous cultural advisor and head dancer. The Page family’s background is from the Stradbroke Island and Munaldjali clan in the
Bundjalung nation of south east Queensland. So from 1991, Bangarra Dance Theatre’s artistic development included the blends of Yirrkala, Munaldjali/Stradbroke cultures with its origins in Wiradjuri/central New South Wales, demonstrating a blend of
Indigenous clans and nations. The blended remote Aboriginal sources for their work areas do not render their work untraditional or inauthentic. Rather, remote Indigenous communities have become connected with urban Aboriginality through the work of companies such as Bangarra. The significance of their work, performing traditional dance and music through new idioms, is demonstrated through the gathering of stories from many communities and presenting a complex and layered picture of Australian
Indigenous lore. This success is extended by the touring Bangarra has done, nationally in capital cities, and also internationally.
Early on in Bangarra’s life, during the late 1980s, dancers representing regions that were referred to in their dance works were intentionally involved as dancers with the company, so that the company would be “truly representative”281. This acknowledgment to origin was also included in the music that was chosen by composers for the company such as David Page, who in interview, stated:
For Bangarra, the music and dance have to work closely together… I think it’s important that the original music is with the original dance that is choreographed for the dancers, especially with the new technique that is being developed. A couple of years ago Stephen and I … wanted to get a technique going. So we went up to Yirrikala and Maningrida …. For Aboriginals who haven’t been there, it’s important to show them that the spirit and feel of the dances are there…the identity is there.282
279Page, Russell. As interviewed by Joyce Morgan. Oldest show on earth. 7th November, 1998, 15. At the time of this article, Munyarryun was 25 years old (born 1973). 280To see Yirrkala’s location, refer to Figure 6.2. 281Bangarra Dance Company. Aboriginal Australia – the National Aboriginal Video Magazine. Volume 15 Produced for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. 282Page, David. Urban Clan. 1997.
215 Bangarra’s aims are given in this quote by David Page. The new technique that is referred to here is that of combining contemporary Western dance traditions with
Indigenous-based dance movement that is particularly a ‘grounded’ style of dance.
Indigenous dance takes place outdoors, and usually dancers and musicians face each other, so placing traditional dance in a Western theatrical context completely reframes this work. The inclusion of traditional Indigenous dance has been vital to this company’s work, and in its short history, the company has become internationally known for its unusual dance style. It is also important to urban Indigenous cultures providing a type of bridge between non-urban and urban Aboriginality. The international appeal and popularity of Bangarra were reinforced when the Page brothers were asked to participate creatively in the 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony.
Their production, called Awakenings, was performed live to an audience of 110,000 in the stadium and broadcast via television to 3.5 billion people.
The Indigenous use of music within traditional culture, that is of the connectedness of song, dance and instrumental playing, comes within the definition of dance-theatre, yet
Bangarra takes this further by using and referencing contemporary dance, lighting, instrumentation, in a contemporary Western dance space or a traditional outdoor dance venue. David Page reflects this contemporary style in his type of composition, referring to rhythm ‘n’ blues music with Indigenous music.
Bangarra’s decision to rely on family relationships to create a work extends a traditional
Indigenous ideal. Stephen Page has been the choreographer and Artistic Director for
Bangarra since 1991. Russell Page has been a dancer with the company during this time and David Page has been the dance company’s composer also. The brothers refer to
216 their relationship, using Indigenous symbolic language, as a “collective dream”283. This collective dream is vital to the distribution of information within Indigenous culture, and the Page brothers realize the importance of passing on stories to the next generation.
What they pass on is what they call “the collective, the collaboration, the family”284.
They see themselves as “maintenance people of culture, and to make a new dreamtime and keep the dreaming alive”285. Although the Page brothers collaborate using traditional Indigenous family relationships, their individual backgrounds bring professional experience to the Bangarra company in both Indigenous and Western traditions. For example, Stephen Page trained at NAISDA as a dancer, was a member of the Sydney Dance Company and has choreographed for other companies such as the
Australian Ballet. David Page has musical experience and training from a young age, when he was signed up by Atlantic Records as a singer at the age of twelve. He studied at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music at the University of Adelaide, South
Australia, learning composition and arranging as well as voice and saxophone. David
Page is an example of a composer who has experience as a performer entertaining on stage and is able to bring this experience to his compositions. He has also composed for the Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre, film and television. Both Stephen and
David Page have been trained in and worked in Indigenous and non-Indigenous productions.
In conclusion, the Page’s method of collaboration (using family members) and influences (mixing Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds) affects the context in which all Bangarra works are created. The mixed backgrounds of Stephen and David
Page are evident in their work, with contemporary dance-styles and rock/soul musical
283Urban Clan. 1997. 284Page, David. Urban Clan. 1997. 217 styles mixed with Indigenous dance-styles and music. Both acknowledge and use
Indigenous material because of their birth and family links with Indigenous culture.
These contextutal elements that are brought to each Bangarra dance work affect the interpretive and temporal concerns as can be seen in the analysis of the work Ochres.
Collaborative context of ‘Ochres’:
Created in 1994, Ochres demonstrates the variety of origins and influences contained within Bangarra’s and particularly David Page’s work. This work was a collaboration between Stephen Page, Bernadette Walong (choreographers), David Page (music),
Djakapurra Munyarryun (cultural consultant), Jennifer Irwin (costumes), and Joseph
Mercurio (lighting). The involvement of so many people, as well as the incorporation of traditions that have been practiced over many years, meant that the creation of the work was stimulated and shaped by many ideas. Stephen Page stated that:
Ochres was a collaborative work between myself, Djakapurra and Bernadette Walong – we all worked together, although with sections one of us would be more involved…Either way, we all brought our own stories and inspirations to the work – so I may have a very different idea of ‘intent’ and ‘meaning’ than Djakapurra or Bernadette – I think that difference is something to be celebrated.286
David Page’s composition of the score for Ochres was written as the choreography was produced, as described here:
When I was writing the music for Ochres, the studio where I was composing was right next door to the dance rehearsal studio, so Stephen, Bernadette and I were constantly connected throughout the creative process.287
Typically for dance-theatrical works, the score for Ochres was produced in the studio, with a recording being used to accompany the live dance performances of the work.
285Page, David. Urban Clan. 1997, Music Arts Dance Films. 286Page, Stephen. Choreographer’s notes – Ochres.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Entertainment and Community
Award for Best Soundtrack in 1995. Ochres has been performed by Bangarra Australia- wide as well as in Germany, Japan, New Caledonia, Indonesia, India, Switzerland, and excerpts from the same work have been included in the later work Clan.
The reference to and use of Indigenous music so important to the aesthetical aspirations of Bangarra’s work has specific resonances in Ochres and the context in which each work is conceived: the subject, the synopsis’ unfolding through a combination of traditional and contemporary dance, the type of instrumentation that was chosen, the hierarchy of the dancers, and the incorporation of gender-specific dances, affected the choices of music and therefore the resulting sound qualities of the score. This is illustrated in Figure 6.1. The way these influences impacted on the score for Ochres will be discussed with particular reference to how the music contributed to the construction of an Indigenous dance-theatrical work. On the surface, the inclusion of five traditional Aboriginal songs is apparent, but these songs are incorporated into the contemporary score by means of both traditional and contemporary practices. Firstly, the origins and access to each of the five songs will be examined, as well as their qualities and associated traditions. Secondly, the synopsis and its interpretation, including the apparently seamless transitions from contemporary to traditional songs will be discussed.
219 Figure 6.1: Contextual, temporal and interpretive elements derived from aesthetic concerns in the Bangarra work Ochres.
Contextual
Ź Composer’s and choreographer’s experiences in both contemporary styles and Indigenous forms of music and dance.
Ź Composer’s and choreographer’s common interest in Indigenous background and access to Indigenous communities.
Ź Family collaboration in consultation with cultural advisor.
COMPOSITION OF OCHRES
Temporal Interpretive Ź Incorporation of Indigenous percussion Ź Overall structure uses combination of instruments and rhythms. free sections, traditional songs, and pop- Ź Internal structure of each movement styled music. These sections flow from one follows the dance structure. to another, like an Indigenous song cycle Ź Traditional music is paired with each performance. traditional dance. Ź Aboriginal themes of land, ceremony Ź Principal dancer Munyarryun takes and people’s relationship to these leadership role in the traditional dances. fundamentals are explored in the synopsis Ź Symmetrical phrasing used in dance and through the songs chosen or newly written, music, in phrases of 2 bars x 4 beats or 4 following the dramatic development bars x 4 beats. closely. Ź The instruments used are a combination Ź The theme of relationship with the land of synthesized sample sounds/ is reinforced through the inclusion of environmental sounds, recordings of environmental sounds as though the traditional singing and use of yirdaki and performance was taking place outdoors. bilma played by Munyarryun. Ź Mainly functional harmony is used in accompaniment of Indigenous songs, and in the contemporary songs. Other elements typical of Indigenous music such as use of drones and monophonic textures with rhythm is also a feature of the score.
This 55 minute work is structured in five movements, using traditional dances, contemporary dance with an Indigenous flavour and freely choreographed sections that link both styles. As described:
220 OCHRES runs in a sequence of five parts, beginning with the spirit of ochre, followed by the four essential colours; yellow, black, red and white.288
The sections, with synopsis, are given in Table 6.2. As can be seen in these notes, traditional dances are named within each section as well as the dances’ origins in terms of location. Each of the traditional dances and music was used with appropriate permission from the songs’ owners.
The idea of using ochre colours and their significance as the subject originally came from Stephen Page’s education with NAISDA, where he was sent to Yirrkala to learn about traditional ceremonies from the elders289. The use of ochre would have been part of this instruction and from these experiences he brought the ceremonial practices which are used throughout the work. For example, in the first movement, a ‘paint up’ ceremony is performed solo by Munyarryun, using yellow ochre, the appropriate colour for Munyarryun’s moiety Yirritja. This is so that Munyarryun can cleanse and awaken the performance space which represents of the earth, and the dance can begin. At the very end of Ochres, Munyarryun dances and sings to finish the performance, symbolically thanking the land and letting it sleep290. Each of the colours is explored symbolically through the dance movement and music. Stephen Page gives an explanation below of the collaboration and the synopsis:
288Program notes. Ochres. Videorecording from the Festival of Perth, WA: Bangarra Dance Theatre and ABC, 1996. 289Page, Stephen. As interviewed by Ruth Hessey. Black and white soul. The Sydney Morning Herald, 10th November 1995, 10. 290Page, Stephen. Choreographer’s notes – Ochres.
Ochres Spirit – ‘The Light’ Music – David Page Vocals – Kirk Page
Yellow ‘I believe the landscape to be mother. Its flowing rivers she cleanses in, the yellow ochre she dresses in, the sun and the seasons she nourishes gathering, nesting and birthing along her travels.’ Music – David Page Featuring Tjipari Dreaming – Western Desert Women Ngarti Language Group Women’s Funeral Dance – North West Cape York Etanyanu Language Group
Black ‘An ash storm has blown over. The call and the pain of initiation can only be viewed from a distance…Men’s Business’ Music and Vocals – David Page and Djakapurra Munyarryun Featuring traditional songs Buffalo Dance and Stick Dance from Yirrkala Vocals and Yirdaki Djakapurra Munyarryun Torres Strait Island Language from Murray Island – Pinau Ghee
Red Custom, law and values placed on the relationship between women and men have been on a path of change since time began. In each of these relationships there is a struggle between Youth, Obsession, Poison and Pain. Music and Vocals – David Page Featuring Yirrgambeh Language group Yirdaki and Vocals Djakapurra Munyarryun Torres Strait Island Language and Vocals from Kala Kawaw Ya Language Group – Glenda Aragu
White At dawn Mother Earth yawns, her call engulfs the white ochre spirits to spiritually bathe them in preparation for the day’s journey. Music and Vocals – David Page and Djakapurra Munyarryun Vocals and Yirdaki Djakapurra Munyarryun Featuring traditional Ochre Dance song from Yirrkala292
Yellow – This is female spirit – mother earth in all her forms as represented by the women and the yellow ochre…. A lot of the movements in Yellow are inspired by female energy and their connection to the land – the nurturing of children, feeding, gathering, water, bathing, birthing…. Black – Male energy… A lot of Black is a cut and paste of animal mimicry which is integral to traditional dance and we have stylized…Red – Red is more about contemporary social issues… Youth - rural kids…Obsession - the energies between male and female….Poison - the kinship system…Pain - the way women and men nurse each other when they know that death is on the horizon. White – In White it is as if we have taken all those inspirations from what has come before and used them to create this new world… In White every time they ensemble they are really paying respect to the spirit land – they come together, they bring their energies together.293
291Program notes. Ochres. Videorecording from the Festival of Perth, WA: Bangarra Dance Theatre and ABC, 1996. 292Commas/apostrophes and capital letters as written in the program notes. 293Page, Stephen.
Aboriginal music is significantly different in style from the music of the Western tradition. To quote a summary of Indigenous music:
Aboriginal music is primarily vocal, and its traditions are entirely oral. Songs, which may be accompanied by instruments of various kinds (mostly idiophonic), express the religious beliefs, philosophy, and natural science of the Aborigines. Much of the repertory belongs to the rich ceremonial life; and participation in, and attendance at, ceremonies is often restricted according to age, sex, and social identity.294
Composers such as Peter Sculthorpe have quoted Aboriginal song fragments, however, it was not until a composer with an Indigenous background wrote a score that incorporated both Western and Aboriginal traditions, that a work was produced which extends and develops traditional forms in a new way. It will be argued here that the form and structure of a dance work is particularly suitable in this context. These unique achievements made by the Page brothers during their search for a new contemporary
294Stubington, Jill. Alice M. Moyle: an Australian voice. Problems and Solutions: occasional essays in Musicology presented to Alice M. Moyle. Edited by Jamie C. Kassler and Jill Stubington. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1984, 360-361. 223 Table 6.3: Structure of the score for Ochres, taken from the video recording of the work filmed live and produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Movement Time Structure Instrumentation
Introduction 0.00 Introduction – sustained synthesizer note on F5. Synthesizer, to Ochres to Clapsticks with F2 synthesized drone. clapsticks, (the spirit of 3.41 Song – ‘Come, see the light’ rock/soul style in Fm, sung 3 drumkit/synthesizer Ochre) times. 2nd and 3rd repetitions feature vocal improvisation percussion, male (soul-style) and humming between repetitions. (See vocal. Example 6.3) Environmental Postlude - instruments fade out. Environmental sounds sounds – crickets, are heard. water, night sounds.
Yellow 3.53 Introduction – free, synthesized sounds (around E and B) Recordings of (women to with breathing and whispers. Aboriginal women’s only) 15.40 Section 1 – Tjapurri Dreaming song with synthesizer songs with body accompaniment in Em. Sung by women with clapsticks clapping or accompaniment. clapsticks, Section 2a – Women’s Funeral Dance song with no drumkit/synthesizer accompaniment except body clapping. Sung by women percussion and (see Example 6.1). synthesized pitched Episode 1 – synthesizer, percussion and clapsticks with sounds. sampled melismatic vocals. This finishes with rattling of Sampled sounds - percussion. breathing, Section 2b – Women’s Funeral Dance featuring crying- whispering and a style of singing. Sung by women. female talking in an Episode 2 – free section with sampled sounds such as Indigenous breathing, huffing, whispering, then environmental noises. language, huffing. Section 3 – pitched (Cm/CM) and regularly-pulsed Environmental rhythmical section with bird sounds. No vocals. sounds - bird calls, Episode 4 – environmental sounds with synthesized drone night sounds, rain, C# to G#. wind. Section 4 – rock-style percussion plus clapsticks, synthesized chords and guitar, sampled sections from songs in Sections 1 and 2a. Postlude – all synthesized sounds and percussion fades out so that only song from Section 1 is heard. This also fades out.
224 Table 6.3 continued: Structure of the score for Ochres, taken from the video recording of the work filmed live and produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Movement Time Structure Instrumentation
Black 16.06 Introduction – free, male Indigenous calls, night noises Synthesizer, (men only) to and bird calls. clapsticks, didjeridu, 27.40 Section 1 – solo male speaking in Indigenous language. drumkit/synthesizer This passage is played three times, each repetition with percussion, additional synthesized drones around C, Eb and F (see recordings of Example 6.2). Aboriginal men’s Episode 1 – drones on F and C in synthesizer, songs with stick environmental sounds. clapping. Section 2 – Buffalo Dance song, sung by a male, with no Sampled sounds – accompaniment. Subtle environmental sounds can be male Indigenous heard. calls (rolling Section 3a – Stick Dance song, sung by a male, with tongue), with calls, didjeridu and clapsticks, repeated twice. Noises are also male speaking in an made from the dancers’ sticks. Each repetition ends with Indigenous didjeridu hooted overtone. language, Section 3b – continuation of Stick Dance with modern Environmental rock accompaniment. Begins with only percussion, then sounds – night uses sampled male voice, birdcalls and didjeridu calls. noises, wave/wind Episode 2a – slower section with single synthesized sounds, bird calls. melodic line, acts as introduction to Section 4a. Section 4a – traditional dance and song with clapsticks and didjeridu, very rhythmical with stamping. Sung by a male. Episode 2b – repeated again with additional of speech and birdcalls. Section 4b – repeated twice. On 2nd playing, more percussion and pitched synthesizer is added. Postlude – solo male speaking, then Buffalo Dance is heard once more. Fades out with speaking.
225 Table 6.3 continued: Structure of the score for Ochres, taken from the video recording of the work filmed live and produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Movement Time Structure Instrumentation Red 28.07 Introduction – layered sounds of girls laughing, boy Synthesized pitched (men and to speaking in English, calling and teasing. Synthesized sounds, women 42.17 sound is added, with a female speaking in an Indigenous drumkit/synthesized couples) language. percussion, Section 1 – Youth - regular rock-style rhythm with clapsticks, didjeridu. sampled female voice in an Indigenous language. Sampled sounds – Didjeridu sampled also. Synthesized sounds around Eb. male/female Features a didjeridu solo. conversations in Episode 1 – sampled female/male conversation in English, both Indigenous and with laughing. All instruments fade out and regular new English languages, rhythm with slapping sound begins. laughing, teasing, Section 2 – Obsession - sampled male voice solo ‘tch-tch’ sounds, introduces song. Drumkit/synthesizer rhythm section in ‘shh’ sounds rock-style, with pitched synthesizer accompaniment to an (female), male English song. Structure is verse, chorus, piano solo, speech in an chorus. Song ends with melismatic vocals at a slower Indigenous tempo, rhythm and instruments having faded out. language. Section 3 – Poison - in two halves (male and female). Environmental First part uses sample of male speaking in an Indigenous sounds – storm language, clapsticks, didjeridu drones, calls and guitar. sounds. Second part uses percussion, sample of female speaking in an Indigenous language, with synthesized pitched sounds. Episode 2 – introduction to Section 4. Freely composed, tremolo drums, environmental sounds of thunder, rain and singing from Section 2. Section 4 – Pain - regular rhythm with drumkit/synthesized percussion, extended melismatic soul- style singing (male). Fades out to end. White 42.26 Introduction – free, sustained synthesizer sounds, bird Synthesized pitched to calls, wind chimes, all around Eb. Use of female calls sounds, 55.00 (rolling tongue), thunder and rain sounds, ending on B drumkit/synthesized major triad. percussion, Section 1a – regular rhythm, with sampled calls and Ochre clapsticks, didjeridu, Dance song, sung by solo male accompanied by clapsticks. male vocals. The vocal line contains descending phrases over the range Sampled sounds – of a fourth. female calls (rolling Episode 1 – interlude to Section 1, use of cricket noises, tongue), male fading out of rhythm and features E drone. birdcalls, Section 1b – repetition of Section 1a. Features a whispering. synthesizer solo and vocal sounds are layered. The bass Environmental moves in a descending pattern that is not in the same sounds – rain, harmonic realm of the voice. thunder, crickets, Section 2 – slower tempo, same harmonic progression as birdcalls, wind, Section 1. Male calls, male vocal song “Ochres spirit is water, frog sounds. now fading”. Structure of song is verse, then chorus. Episode 2 – postlude of Section 2, with thunder noises, whispering, and rain sounds. Section 3 – solo didjeridu. Use of spat overtones and lively cross rhythms typical of North East Arnhem Land. Then entire Ochre Dance is performed with clapsticks, didjeridu and male solo singing. Postlude – environmental sounds, which fade out.
226 style were predicted by Catherine Ellis in her text Aboriginal Music: education for living, in 1985, where she said:
…Aboriginal culture has had very little effect on the white community. Aboriginal music is not a product for popular consumption. It assumes, as part of its existence, total involvement, whereas the Western world tends to regard music, like most things, as a consumer product.
There have been no attempts in Western music to modify this difference in approach to music, and few attempts to absorb Aboriginal culture into Western art forms. Where these have occurred they tend to be superficial, simply throwing in an Aboriginal component without necessarily understanding it. The evolution of a suitable musical idiom which combines elements of both cultures has so far been slower than that process in art. Rarely does an Australian musician seek to acquire a serious and sympathetic understanding of Aboriginal music. Possibly the synthesis can only be achieved by an Aborigine who has learned enough about European music as well as his own. The fusion of ideas that has occurred in the spheres of painting and sculpture indicates that Australian music may have suffered a loss at both cultivated and common levels. 295
The combinations of music in this score were only made possible through collaboration with the Yirrkala people, and David Page’s method of inclusion of traditional music demonstrates not only an understanding but also a respectful knowledge and acknowledgement of Aboriginal law. Ellis may not have foreseen that it would take a community to create this music rather than an individual. The fact that this new fusion of musical forms was achieved through a score for a dance work is significant in itself.
Song and dance are extremely vital elements of Aboriginal society as it is through these forms that custom, law, history and religion are passed orally from generation to generation. The inclusion of Munyarryun in the Bangarra company meant that the company had to be flexible as Munyarryun would sometimes be needed back at
Yirrkala to assist with dance for ceremonies:
Munyarrun [sic] is frequently called back to his own land, where his participation in community ceremonies is regarded as a sacred responsibility. ‘Bangarra understands. When there is a wedding, a funeral or birth, I have to go,’ he says. In his absence, and without his advice and consent, traditional dance cannot be performed.296
295Ellis, Catherine. Aboriginal Music: education for living. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1985, 158. Emphasis added. 296Munyarryun, Djakkapura. As interviewed by Ruth Hessey. Black and white soul. The Sydney Morning Herald. 10th November, 1995, 10. 227 Mandawuy Yunupingu, who like Munyarryun comes from Yirrkala, has stated that land, constitution and song are all one tight unit that cannot be separated or isolated into individual elements297. He has also explained that performing a dance transforms the story of the ancestor or origin of land, with the dancer taking on this spirit and demonstrating copyright, land ownership and unity. The ancestor’s spirit is activated by the dancer and this means that the music alone does not represent the Indigenous performance in any meaningful way. All other elements of the performance, such as the dance and its ceremonial significance must be acknowledged and incorporated. This is why it would only be through a dance work that a truthful contemporary Aboriginal score could be presented and accepted within a Western theatrical tradition. The social importance that is placed on these traditions cannot be overstated, which is why David
Page also felt the responsibility to create a score that fittingly included the music that is associated with each traditional dance.
Analysis of ‘Ochres’:
David Page’s inclusion and extension of traditional forms occurs on many layers. Most obvious is the inclusion of recordings made of clans from around Australia. Some of these songs are sung by Munyarryun, as they originate from his area Yirrkala, while others are historical recordings originating from other tribal areas in Australia. The locations from which the dances, songs and languages originate are various widely- spread places across Australia as the map in Figure 6.2 shows. Djakapurra Munyarryun is from Yirrkala, and so dances and sings the Yirrkala dances contained in Ochres. The dances and songs for each origin are not mixed together, but appear in singular discrete presentations, linked by episodes that are freer in nature. The five dances that are used
297Yunupingu, Mandawuy. Musicological Society of Australia National Conference. Interviewed by Aaron Corn, September, 2005. 228 in Ochres are: Tjipari Dreaming, which uses a recording of Western Desert Women from the Ngarti language group; Women’s Funeral Dance, using a recording of the
North West Cape York Etanyanu language group; Buffalo Dance, from Yirrkala, with music performed (in recording) by Djakapurra Munyarryun; Stick Dance, from Yirrkala, with music performed (in recording) by Djakapurra Munyarryun; and Ochre Dance
Song, from Yirrkala, performed (in recording) by Djakapurra Munyarryun.
Other recordings of speech from Torres Strait Island language group (Murray Island),
Yirrgambeh language group and Kala Kawaw Ya language group are also used throughout the work. In Example 6.1, a notational transcription of the song Tjipari
Dreaming sung by the Western Desert Women of the Ngarti language group is presented. It demonstrates musical qualities typical of Indigenous songs from the
Western desert. The downwards movement in melodic contour over an octave with two leaps upwards over a large interval followed by additional descents within this song is very characteristic; clapstick (paired sticks) accompaniment gives an introduction and end to the song; the rhythm is mostly syllabic; and it is monophonic in texture. Ellis notes these characteristics in her description of central Aboriginal music in Grove
Online:
There are certain elements of desert region music that remain constant throughout the entire area. It is primarily syllabic vocal music based on cyclical structures…Musical instruments are only used for percussive accompaniment or for representation of spiritual beings… Melodic shape is normally one of descent followed, after a breath, by a significant rise to further descent... Song is understood to be a powerful agent in influencing non-musical events. There is a widespread belief that song enables performers to draw on supernatural powers left within the soil by the sacred ancestral people.298
298Ellis, Catherine. Australia: 2. Central Aboriginal music. Grove Online.
Yellow. One of the most obvious distinctions is the different languages that are used.
Figure 6.2: Map of Australia, showing approximate areas where sources originate for Bangarra’s Ochres. The black dots indicate capital cities of Australia.299
Stylistic musical elements are also different, with clan-songs at Yirrkala being performed by male singers, and accompanied by clapsticks (bilma) and a didjeridu
(yirdaki) drone. Didjeridu “hoots” often mark the end of a section of a song, while calls such as birdcalls will ornament the song300. These elements are apparent in the Buffalo
299Map (c) copyright Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2005. Accessed 18th December, 2005
Example 6.1: Tjipari Dreaming recording as performed by the Western Desert Women of the Ngarti language group, featured in ‘Yellow’ of Ochres.301
Unlike some dance work accompaniments, where unrelated recordings are presented one after the other abruptly and without coherence, these songs, although from different regions, are linked by episodes that preface the textural, harmonic, timbral and
301A notational transcription by Rachel Hocking, 2005. 231 rhythmical qualities of the included recordings. The songs are grouped together in the appropriate movements, for example, the women’s songs are placed in the same movement Yellow, and Munyarryun’s dances are in the same movement Black.
Texturally, David Page used the contemporary didjeridu style typical of Yirrkala, that is as a harmonically related drone, to link the harmonic material of the songs to the
Western functional harmonic style characteristic of popular music. To do this, he uses the final note in the traditional songs as the tonic drone on which the surrounding
Western musical material is based. For example, in Tjipari Dreaming at Example 6.1, the final note is E3, so E becomes the ‘tonic’ drone note in the accompanying synthesizer. Tjipari Dreaming also passes around the note G, so the Western material prefacing and accompanying this song is around E minor, with the song introduced by a single sustained B4, acting as a functioning dominant note. In reference also to the texture, David Page continues the unison singing that is a main feature of Tjipari
Dreaming in the synthesizer part, reducing the accompaniment to single notes, layered in a thin texture over the E drone. The synthesizer stops chosen often have string-like timbral qualities, which blend with the environmental sounds that also feature throughout this composition. It is worth noting here that the didjeridu in North East
Arnhem Land was originally used as a rhythmical percussive instrument rather than a pitch-based instrument. Traditional rhythms played on the didjeridu are highly complex, incorporating cross-rhythms, multiple accents and timbres through devices such as spat overtones and hoots302. Sometimes rhythm was free and not related to any accompanying melodic material (sung). However, because of the incorporation of the didjeridu into popular music as well as its increasing popularity in Australia, melodic
302In discussion with Jill Stubington, March 2006. See also Trevor Jones. 232 and timbral effects have superseded traditional uses of this instrument. Page’s and
Munyarryun’s collaboration resulted in the use of both traditional didjeridu as seen in the didjeridu solo at the end of ‘White’ as well contemporary didjeridu drones as discussed here.
Another feature typical of the traditional songs is that of the syllabic rhythmic style.
This style is reinforced as an important feature through the dance movement at the beginning of Black (see Example 6.2), where the dancers’ movements are precisely in time with the unaccompanied speech heard in the soundtrack. The rhythmical qualities of the traditional songs are in contrast with the soul-style singing of the contemporary songs that use melismatic decoration. However, the traditional songs’ rhythms do not sound incongruous as other sections within the score use pre-recorded speech tracks from different language groups, each track producing its own rhythmical qualities.
While these would not be understood by all audience members and though translations are not provided, the natural contour contained within each oration, and the emotion and energy of the voice are scored with appropriately chosen percussion or pitched material.
Some discourses are sampled using modern electronic techniques to cut up sentences and played in a rhythmical way, occurring every two or four beats.
233 Example 6.2: an outline of the rhythm of the speech patterns used at the beginning of Black.303
These extra discourses link the contemporary music with the syllabic rhythmical qualities of the traditional songs. Other rhythmical patterns, typical of accompaniment used in Aboriginal music, are carried out in the course of the performance by the dancers themselves. These patterns are played by instruments such as the sticks used in the Stick Dance and body clapping, used in Yellow and Black. This is additional to the clapsticks which are heard throughout the entire score. Electronic sampling has provided David Page with a way to include the instruments commonly associated with
Indigenous music, that is, the didjeridu and clapsticks, in a more contemporary way.
This is done by placing short bursts of these instruments on percussive accents, such as the first beat of each bar, paired with a rock-styled drum pattern. Some of the sampling is used in a traditional way, as calls to mark the beginning, end and/or sections of contemporary-styled composition, particularly in White, where many of the styles used throughout the work are layered to produce a climax in the score. Of the inclusion of traditional music, David Page states:
Each section of Ochres developed a mood as the story evolved. I was aware of each mood so I found instruments and sounds to reflect that. I was fortunate enough to have the privilege to work with and utilise the traditional music from Yirrkala to use in this
303A notational transcription by Rachel Hocking, January 2005. 234 contemporary work. Djakapurra allowed me to fuse those two styles together. So most of the moods are pretty much inspired by the traditional elements featured in the music works. When using the yirdaki [didjeridu] Djakapurra would improvise and then I would adapt its rhythm to contemporary sounds.304
The traditional songs are in contrast with the contemporary songs written by David Page and sung by Kirk Page. As already noted, the vocal lines in the contemporary songs are sung in a modern soul-style, with use of melisma or improvisation that increases the amount of ornamentation with each repetition of melodic material. These songs are in a style familiar to the Western ear, using functional harmony, and known song structures such as verse and chorus, with the lyrics in English. An example of one of the songs is given below in Example 6.3. This song is performed with three repetitions, each repetition increasing in vocal intensity through the use of contemporary ornamentation.
Like the traditional songs, this song is accompanied by a synthesized drone on F, the key being F minor, and clapsticks are used as the foremost percussion instrument. The
English lyrics give the audience some aural sense of the importance of the symbol of the ochre, and the accompanying powerful intense dance-stylised performance of
Munyarryun painting himself with the ochre and preparing the stage floor for the dance to come only intensifies the spiritual meaning attached to this symbol.
Like many traditional Aboriginal songs which may be repeated many times in their entirety during a performance, the song in Example 6.3 is repeated, avoiding the typical verse and chorus structure found in the other contemporary songs within this dance work. Although the melodic contour does not strictly follow a pattern typical of
Aboriginal songlines, most of the phrases do move in a downwards direction, consistently ending on the tonic or resting note F. Of his compositional style, David
304Page, David. Ochres: commentary by composer.
The fact that songs are the pivotal structural points that punctuate this score, whether traditional or contemporary, is indeed itself a feature common with established
Aboriginal music. For the contemporary songs, a male tenor pop-styled voice is used, and similarly the Aboriginal quotations used in the score are predominantly performed by a male. The decision to use songs for this breakthrough work was not necessarily an aesthetic-driven choice based on Aboriginal song-cycle ceremonies. David Page states that:
I love working with lyrics the most, but a lot of choreographers do not like working with them, but I persuaded Stephen and Bernadette to have lyrics in the show, especially traditional language.
Ochres contains lyrics in both English and traditional language. A lot of the meanings of the lyrics reflect the connection of the Aboriginal people to the land…In terms of my creative process, it depends on what inspires the work at the time. Lyrics might come to me first, so I will begin with that but mostly the music and other sounds are created first.306
His comment that the meanings of the lyrics reflect connections underlines what happens in the unfolding of the performance. The different languages used throughout the work give a surface connectedness to Aboriginality (by means of rhythm and phrasing), even without understanding the languages, and this is extended through the
305Page, David. Urban Clan. 1997. 306Page, David.
The songs, both traditional and contemporary, are linked together structurally by the use of episodes. These episodes are vital to the score, not only in the way that different musical styles are connected, but also in the material contained in the episodes, that is the use of environmental sounds. The episodes written tend to sound freely improvised as these sections lack percussion or downbeat accents, but even so, they are often shaped over symmetrical phrasing of two and four bars. Single sustained synthesized notes, reminiscent of the didjeridu drones, or the use of didjeridus themselves, are used in the background textures of these episodes. The foreground gives dramatic context to the score and the stage action, through the use of noises such as: night sounds, including crickets, frogs, breezes; water noises, including rain and thunder; free or rhythmical percussive noises made by clapsticks; and human sounds, such as Aboriginal birdcalls, breathing, ‘tutting’, and whispering.
The dance movements match these sections structurally, being freer and dissonant in style, compared with the unison dance moves that are typical of the song sections in the score. The environmental sounds, such as the night noises, aurally place the performance in an outdoor location customary with Aboriginal ceremonies, even though the performances take place indoors in a theatre.
237 Example 6.3. ‘Come, see the light’, from the introduction of Ochres, with vocal line and clapstick.307
This style of composition is one that David Page uses throughout the works for
Bangarra. For example, in the work Fish, environmental sounds, traditional songs and contemporary rhythmical sections combine in a similar way to that of the score of
Ochres308. The story, symbology and songs refer to ceremonial Aboriginal traditions and again Munyarryun’s contributions are not only in dance, but in music also. Lyrics are still used as a basis for some of the structured sections, with some contemporary songs using Aboriginal texts. Additional instruments used in this work, include a violin
307Notated by Rachel Hocking, December 2005. The notation here is approximate, using the Western popular music style of notation – therefore the vocalist sings 1 octave lower than written. 308Bangarra Dance Theatre. Fish: an unborn soul. Video produced by Aanya Whitehead and Paul Hinfress. Victoria: Front Row Video, 1998. This is a cinematic adaptation of the 1997 dance work Fish. 238 whose solo is reminiscent of an Irish fiddle style, at the beginning of Act 2 and noises such as whale or dolphin song at the end of Act 3. In all of these works, the common factor is the link with land and environment that is seen in the costumes, sets, subject matter, dance-styles and musical scores. It is enhanced by the dancers rolling in the dust, covered by paint, as if they are part of the dust and land, in the work Ochres. This link is so strong that it seems that the dancers have sprung out of the natural environment, and that the landscape is bigger than them. In this aesthetical way,
Bangarra has been able to capture the essence of Aboriginal people’s relationships with land, transforming the dance-theatre into a place far removed, in time and location.
Conclusion:
Dance-theatre scores involve cultural references on a large scale, not only in synopses, but also dance-movement and musical style. Through the involvement of traditions from other areas, such as that of Indigenous Australia in the work of the Bangarra
Dance Theatre, musical scores have had to accommodate a larger range of influence.
Often the scores for dance-theatrical works are contemporary/popular in sound, and many composers have formed long-lasting creative relationships with choreographers with whom they share artistic vision, including the willingness to incorporate other theatrical possibilities. The medium of dance-music has enabled David Page, the predominant composer for the Bangarra Dance Theatre, to work with his brothers, exploring the traditional Indigenous background that was unavailable to them as they were growing up in Brisbane.
Other composers in Australian music, particularly from the 1970s to early 1990s, sought to include Aboriginal music in their predominantly Western compositions, in order to
239 find a unique Australian sound. Melodic fragments, instruments or rhythms were often superficially imposed onto scores, or instrumental works were given Aboriginal- sounding titles. Usually, these additions were appropriated without suitable permission.
However, David Page, through his creative work with Bangarra, has sought to appropriately include works from traditional Aboriginal sources, with the help of
Djakapurra Manyurryan. This has involved a process of visiting the people at Yirrkala, becoming a member of one of the clans, learning important ceremonies, seeking permission from appropriate elders and then creating scores that blend traditional and contemporary styles of writing.
The merging of styles created by David Page, in conjunction with the new style of dance created by Stephen Page, has brought innovations to Australian music. With
David Page’s personal interest in Indigenous culture, thoughtful and intensive consideration has ensured that the way traditional music is included has resulted in successful, evocative scores. This however has not produced a flood of similarly- created scores in Australian music circles. Rather the opposite has happened: because of the Page brothers’ meticulous work, composers better understand the significance of
Aboriginal ceremonial works and the issues involved in using Aboriginal music outside its traditional home, and now would not readily include Aboriginal material.
Composers have now realized that to follow David Page’s example, permission needs to be sought and the performance needs to portray the proper spirit. Therefore, the new compositions in Australian music that are true to Indigenous practices are those compositions written by Indigenous people, combining their educations in both
Aboriginal and Western music methodologies. Young composers such as the virtuosic
240 didjeridu player, William Barton, are writing works that, like David Page’s work that emerged in the 1990s, present Aboriginal music to a new audience.
Bangarra’s approach to collaborating scores is both representative of dance-theatre and innovative at the same time. Through the incorporation of a cultural consultant,
Bangarra has mirrored the method typical of dance-theatre practitioners. However, the fact that they have done this to gain appropriate permission for the inclusion of certain references opens the doors to possibilities of collaboration in other dance-theatre companies. Bangarra’s use of the cultural consultant also has important bearings on
Australian music. Much discussion in academic circles (for example, by critics such as
Stephen Knopoff) has been focused on ‘appropriation’ of traditional Aboriginal music, but Bangarra has found one solution to this perplexing political problem, pointing new directions for incorporation of Aboriginal and Western music in Australia.
241 Chapter Seven – Music for experimental dance
Music for experimental dance was a major movement in Australia during 1960-2000, but with small audiences and often unreported or non-reviewed performances, it was not in the foreground of public awareness. However, there have been many dance works written for this genre because of the increased availability and use of technology and the emphasis placed on the artistic process as opposed to the artistic outcome. Works written for this genre were often performed once only, were less opulent in presentation and toured less than works that became part of the repertoire of an established company.
The emphasis placed on the artistic process in the collaboration or creation of a work is the key to understanding this style of dance work. Sometimes the creation of the work was spontaneous; at other times there was reference to philosophical or political arguments. The overriding idea is that the interest is in the exploration of multimedia relationships. Because of the different experimental relationships existing between composer and choreographer, apparent paradoxes can appear in discussion of experimental dance works and music's role within it. Funding for these works was, and still is, limited, with some works written gratis, highlighting personal interests in the process of collaboration for all artists involved. This type of work in Australia could be said to be following influences of Cage/Cunningham, with dance and music not referring to each other literally, however, some of the collaboration relationships explored in experimental dance also resonated with the Judson Dance Theatre ideologies that emerged in the USA during the 1960s. The implication intended here is that similar developments were happening internationally in both dance and music, not that Australian developments were necessarily following from USA trends. Many of the Australian composers moved in international artistic communities and the composer
242 Warren Burt has suggested that some American trends may have emerged from
Australian practices309. However most discussions of 20th century modern dance centre around North American companies and choreographic developments, hence the reference to USA schools of dance aesthetics. In Australia, many different ways of working have been used in collaboration even while maintaining same choreographer/composer relationships over many years, for example Warren Burt and
Eva Karzcag. Discussions of this style focus on technology and the versatility of composers, who sometimes have invented new instruments, and sometimes have become participating dancers themselves. The type of music composed for this style of dance has been different and varied, more electronic in nature and less formal in style compared with music written for other areas of dance.
Definitions and boundaries of experimental dance and music:
In The Oxford Dictionary of Dance310, no actual definition of ‘experimental dance’ appears as a genre, although it is discussed under the heading Post-modern dance:
post-modern. A somewhat vague term... that encompasses all kinds of experimental dance beginning in the 1960s and continuing throughout the 1990s.... The emphasis was on minimal movement and a vocabulary of everyday steps that could be performed by anyone, trained dancer or untrained novice.311
Attempts to define or describe post-modern dance aesthetics in Australia have been made by many, including the following one by Eleanor Brickhill:
Often experimental dance has been most prolific in periods marked by social upheaval, expanded awareness and pervasive views such as new ideas about peace, feminism, sexual equality, individualism and communal awareness, which flourished in the 1970s.... Roles became more loosely delineated; collaboration and personal involvement came to the fore... In 1970 the Sydney dancer Philippa Cullen engaged dancers, musicians, electronics artists and visual artists to assist her to develop ideas about finding
309Burt, Warren. The '70s in the 90s'. As interviewed by Libby Dempster in Writings on Dance: constellations of things. 18/19, Autumn 1999, 73. 310The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Edited by Debra Craine and Judith Mackrell. Oxford University Press: New York, 2004. 311Post-modern. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Edited by Debra Craine and Judith Mackrell. Oxford University Press: New York, 2004, 376-377. 243 a form that would lie between dance and music. The collaborators adhered to an idea that there was no delineation between a person who created electronic circuits and one who embodied ideas in movement or sound.312
In accordance with this description, many of the dance works considered experimental for this study have involved composers as dancers, choreographers and poets also, with attempts at blurring the roles of each contributor involved in collaborations. The inclusion of artists from other disciplines, writing music or creating in other mediums, has been facilitated by the development in technology. Much music written for experimental dance has involved composition through electronic means.
Many composers define experimental music differently from John Cage's identification of it as music generated by processes that preclude prediction of how it will sound. Another American composer, Herbert Brun has said: 'We're interested in the music we don't like, yet'. Chris Mann ... takes the view that 'experimental music is not a problem- solving environment (that's commercial music) but a problem-seeking one'. Experimental music making... encompasses Cage's influence, work with high and low technology, improvisation, sound poetry, linguistics, invention of instruments, microtonality, ideas of 'competence', multimedia, music theatre, community music and other activities when they are aimed at finding music 'we don't like, yet' in a 'problem- seeking environment'. 313
Here, the idea of competence or lack of competence is an important consideration in the usage of artists who are contributing outside their area of expertise or discipline. The emphasis in experimental ideology is to explore and experience processes in creating dance works. Placing the artists in the role of amateur enables them to start again and observe their exploration, without holding any previous bias or expectation. The end result is de-emphasised to some extent. Both Ros Bandt and Warren Burt, composers who themselves are interested in experimentation and have been involved with experimental music, agree with this idea:
312Brickhill, Eleanor. Experiment and innovation in dance. Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. Edited by John Whiteoak,and Aline Scott-Maxwell. Sydney: Currency Press, 2003, 263. 313Burt, Warren. Experimental-music movement. Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. Edited by John Whiteoak,and Aline Scott-Maxwell. Sydney: Currency Press, 2003, 266. 244 Experimental music may be defined as any aural creation devoted to the process of exploration. The nature of the experiment is very often more important than the music outcome314.
I am an exploratory musician. My kind of activity used to be called "experimental," but today, with every group of 2 or more British teenagers with fathers rich enough to buy them synthesizers and drum machines calling themselves "experimental" while they write more rock and roll in the same old self expressive way, a new term is needed.315
As this movement is concerned with the process in which works have been created, the roles of each artist have been questioned and to some extent, have shifted according to the individual artist. The genre of experimental music that emerged during 1960-2000 in Australia carried many issues that are worth investigating in this research. These issues stem from the idea stated in Eleanor Brickhill’s description of post-modern dance, and its related music, that the lack of expertise is crucial. Issues include: composer’s inventions of instruments out of readily available materials; composers participating as dancers; dancers participating as composers; the use of technology and its availability; the different labels composers have given themselves to explain their music; the shift of composers into musicology; the stylistic references to mundane or everyday sounds, (a commonality with musique concrete); and finally, the lack of documentation of the works produced.
Two paradoxes emerge within these issues: the use of the label ‘experimental’ in spite of its avoidance of focusing on outcomes; and the importance given to amateur music- making even though these groups often emerged out of institutions of expertise such as universities. Throughout this chapter, these issues will be discussed and conclusions will be made about their relationship to dance and their impact on the music used for experimental dance.
314Bandt, Ros. Experimental music. The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Edited by Warren Bebbington, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 206.
245 The context in which the work was created is an important source in understanding the performance, although this has not always been documented by the artists involved. On the other hand, many composers have found themselves having to explain their work to audiences because it is so different from other types of music. So much material on composer attitudes and processes can be found to support research into this area.
Indeed, some have become academics in an effort to support their experimental work as well as to teach these methods and promote their work, musicologically.
There have been a large number of composers involved with experimental dance-music collaborations in Australia during 1960 to 2000. Some of these composers have worked individually with choreographers, while some work as groups or ensembles; some have been employed for television, film, advertising and club music, because of their expertise in the use of electronic sound and its accessibility. The composer’s ability to work in different situations shows a versatility that is also evident in their invention of new instruments or their use of mundane materials as instruments. This has related closely with dance aesthetics including mundane, natural movement. As in the Judson
Dance Theatre, which emerged from New York in the 1960s, experts are not encouraged. Twyla Tharp (choreographer) has pointed out:
At the Judson you could only walk and run - if you danced, you had sold out.316
The use of musicians trained to play in a concert hall orchestra with a history of entrenched repertoire is similarly avoided.
315Burt, Warren. Ramble from biographical notes held at the Australian Music Centre, The Rocks, Sydney.
246 Dance that has involved everyday movement, such as that akin to the Judson school of thought is reflected in these experiments with sound. This is related to the musique concrete tradition of finding unusual or everyday sounds, but in experimental dance- music these sounds are not electronically sampled and manipulated. Rather these instruments are used live. Examples of composers who have explored instrument invention to accompany dance include Sarah Hopkin's "harmonic whirlies"™. These are instruments that are made from plastic flexible hosing and cut to different sizes to produce different pitches. The hose is then swung in the air to give the sound. A picture of these instruments is given in Figure 7.1, taken from a newspaper article, which stated that:
anyone can play these which was Hopkin's intention317
Her dance works using these instruments include Wind Music for Earth and Sky (1986),
Sound Playground (1987), She-Oak Sings (1987), Sky Song (1988) and Play (1988), all choreographed by Beth Shelton. These works further embodied the idea of post-modern dance and dismissal of expertise, as anyone was able to play these instruments. In the works Play, Sound Playground and She-Oak Sings, the dancers themselves played the instruments, so the actual skill and visual gesture of the playing of instruments became part of the dances. Ross Bolleter, in the dance-music for Not My Tragedy (1987) used electric and manual hedge clippers with a piano accordion. Ros Bandt in her piece Let's
Go Fishen' (1984), choreographed by Sue Healey, used original instruments made from lengths of sewer pipe, known as PVC sound thongaphones.
316Tharp, Twyla, from her autobiographer Push Comes to Shove. As quoted in Post-Modern. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Edited by Debra Craine and Judith Mackrell. Oxford University Press: New York, 2004, 377. 317Clarke, Suzanna. Positively uplifting. The Courier Mail. 18th July, 2005, 13. Emphasis added. 247 Figure 7.1: Sarah Hopkins’ harmonic whirlies318
Another consequence of being involved with dance-music for experimental movement is that dancers and composers have extended themselves through exploring other artforms. Hopkins’ harmonic whirlies have enabled dancers, who are not skilled musicians, to participate onstage as musicians. Other composers have used a similar idea, such as Warren Burt's And/or (1995), with Morgan Thorson as choreographer, which had six dancers playing tuning forks. The composer Richard Hames, with his ensemble ‘The Victorian Time Machine’, had dancers doubling as instrumentalists, using amplified microsounds in the 1979 work ...quasi somnolentum Amanita Muscaria.
Some composers such as Warren Burt have also danced in some works, but another interesting area is the exploration dancers have made, in composing dance-music themselves. Luke Smiles, a dancer with Chunky Move, has written dance-music for the
Australian Dance Theatre (Birdbrain 2000) and for Chunky Move (Corrupted 1998) as
318The Courier Mail. 18th July, 2005, 13.
248 well as the Nederlands Dance Theatre. The technological developments in computer composition made during the latter part of the 20th century have enabled composers such as Luke Smiles to create soundtracks for dance. Dancers have also improvised music through the use of systems such as the ‘3DIS movement to sound interface’ that will be discussed later in this chapter. The technology is often adaptable to any situation and does not occupy much stage space, nor demand a high budget. Pre- recorded music has also been suitable for dancers, as the same tempo can be kept for each performance; choreographers view pre-recorded music as more reliable than live musicians. However, some composers have used technology live, as an instrument, playing from laptops in real time. Composers from this period have not necessarily had to be skilled in score reading and need not be skilled musicians.
Many of the experimental groups during the 1960s to 1990s have emerged from universities, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. There are only a few recordings and/or videos available to hear or view, to observe the outcome of the aesthetic arguments of process expounded by individual artists in musicological writings. The extent to which technology is prevalent in experimental music and dance can be seen from the number of websites and forums now available on the worldwide web, established by individual composers or groups seeking to promote and exhibit their work.
Another area that has been common in both experimental dance and music is the highlighting of aesthetic differences in order to distinguish this music from the more mainstream types of dance and music. In defining these ‘modern’ or ‘post-modern’ styles of experimental music, the labelling composers have adopted for themselves is
249 sometimes changed to ‘sound artists’ or ‘sound photographer’. For example, Ros Bandt has described herself as a "sound artist" in her bibliographical notes held at the
Australian Music Centre, Sydney319. Darrin Verhaggen, Luke Smiles and Peter
Westbrook have composed ‘soundtracks’ as opposed to dance-music scores320. Other composers have formed groups which also write music for television, radio and advertising companies, such as: Supersonic (consisting of Andrew Lancaster, Anthony
Partos and Peter Wells); Six Degrees Architects; and Moose Mastering (Franc Tetaz); this abandons the use of their personal names as composers altogether and focuses instead on a corporate-styled image. These labels and others such as ‘sound sculpture’,
‘sound design’ have implied a shaping of a sound environment where all types of sound or noise can be included. Not all composers in this genre have used these dynamic labels to demonstrate their compositional differences. For example, Warren Burt has said of this:
The skills of a composer today include developing a sensitivity to environmental sound and an ear for mixing/sequencing/editing sounds just as much as they involve knowing the range of an oboe or how to voice chords. [The work of experimental composers] is as "composerly" as the work of any maker of instrumental or vocal work. We don't need new words to describe what current words describe perfectly well.321
Similarly, in another interview Burt stated:
People have been saying, 'I don't do music, I do sound art.' This is the same thing that you're talking about in dance. It's a linguistic oppression you take on yourself. People see this thing called 'music' and this creature called 'the composer' and they say, 'No, I'm not a part of that. There is a certain level of pretension there' there is a social world I'm not a part of. Therefore, I'm going to use another term for what I do, to describe my different scene.' that term is sound-art, so when people say, "That's not music," one can reply by saying, "That's right, it's sound art." People can't quarrel with that. And it's the same thing - there's this dance establishment and you're oppressed by that, so you say, "I'm not dance, I'm a performative tradition" or whatever. As opposed to biting the bullet and saying, "No, what I'm doing is dance.... and you'd bloody well better accept it!" So I see those as self-adopted oppressions.322
319Bandt, Ros. Biographical notes.
250 While Burt has not labelled himself as a ‘sound designer’ or ‘sound sculptor’, he has been specific with some of his works' titles, implying certain attempts in exploring dance-music relationships. For example Sunrise to sunset (1978) with choreographer
Eva Karczag was subtitled an "all day dance and music marathon, with Eva Karzcag, dance, Warren Burt, music and friends", inferring a social and informal context. His work Improvisation of 1990 (with dancer Jane Refshauge) was subtitled a "duet with the dancer", implying that the music and dance were necessary to each other, in equal partnership. Another work from 1981-2 Explorations of 31 (with choreographer Beth
Shelton) was subtitled "sound sculpture with live electronics and dance". As Burt's earnest attempts at explanation of works imply, the idea of exploring process over outcome has been a difficult one to standardise in, or even include in, modern
Australian repertoire during the period 1960-2000. These attempts to discuss and label their work have also culminated in some composers becoming musicologists in order to make their type of work understood. These include composers such as Ros Bandt,
Andy Arthurs and Warren Burt who established the New Music Newspaper with Les
Gilbert in the late 1970s for this very purpose. Other composers have also become academics but Burt has commented that it was especially necessary in the case of these composers so that their work would be discussed in the correct way323. Those musicologists were very concerned with processes; their philosophies and their contextualisation are often explored and discussed in the literature.
In this genre, composers have not needed to rely on large dance companies to collaborate. Instead individual dancers and composers have produced works together.
Owing to the presumption that anyone can create a work regardless of expertise, a
322Burt, Warren. As interviewed by Dempster. 1999, 75. 323Burt, Warren. As interviewed by Dempster, 1999, 55. 251 prolific and rich genre has emerged, which includes not only individual composers and dancers collaborating together, but also composers collaborating with each other for dance projects also. Dancers have often worked in ensembles, each contributing to the choreography, and some composers have worked in a similar way. Some examples of composers collaborating together include Ros Bandt with the ensemble LIME (Live
Improvised Music Events) consisting of Gavan McCarthy, Julie Doyle and Carolyn
Robb for the work Let's go fishen' 1984; composers David Pye with Mark Cain for the work The Living Room (1994); and composers Cathie Travers with Lindsay Vickery for the work Electronic Big Top 1998/9.
The type of music that is associated with experimental dance has not necessarily fitted into the traditional idea of concert-hall music. However, some composers such as
Andree Greenwell have attempted to use electronic instruments in a traditional way, performing on FX units live. This has allowed composers to become performers also, improvising in real time with the dancer. As this form of dance is so concerned with processes, improvising has allowed audiences to view the process of collaboration live, therefore the importance placed on process has also been used as a compositional device.
One such composer who has been involved with many areas of this style and many dancers during this period is the composer who has already been quoted in this chapter,
Warren Burt. As a writer, he has contributed many articles on the subject of post- modern music, and processes used in experimental and electronic music. He has composed many original works himself and has also observed and documented other composers and artists. In Table 7.1, details of his works with their associated
252 choreographers, year and instrumentation can be seen. No dance companies are disclosed here as Burt has worked with individual choreographers, not companies, a point worth highlighting. A selection of his dance works, some freely improvised and some more formally defined, will be explored, in light of his artistic philosophies and their relationship with dance. The path between these works and the culmination of the
3DIS movement-activated music will then be outlined. Further discussion will explore what has been achieved in a structural sense and the broader implications for music and dance in Australia. From this, conclusions will be drawn about this area of dance-music and how it sits in relation to other works written for dance.
Discussion of Warren Burt’s music for dance:
Warren Burt, formerly from North America, has been a resident of Australia since
1975 revisiting his homeland occasionally. He firstly learnt the accordion and flute, but after studying with numerous composers including Keith Humble, Joel Chadabe and Kenneth Gaburo, has been involved with composition and discussion concerning composition. He has been a recipient of composer fellowships from sources including the Australia Council. As a young musician in the USA, Burt attended the New York
City Ballet viewing Stravinsky/Balanchine collaborations and attended works by
Merce Cunningham, no doubt observing the various experimentations of music and movement interactions324 emerging at the time. During his compositional studies at the
State University of New York under Joel Chadabe, he met John Cage who has become one of many influences in Burt's work. Throughout his compositional output, Burt has regularly written music for dance, as well as improvising for dance performances at such places as Al Wunder's Theatre of the Ordinary in Melbourne. At least thirty-eight
324
Music Centre, listed his interests as:
1. Performance of music by non-professional (amateur and/or inept) groups as a means of instantaneous structural reduction of same. 2. Development of real-time electronic music systems (both audio and video) and performances of same. 3. Development of ultra-cheap electronic sound producing systems in conjunction with 4. Development of environmental inter-reactive systems 5. Composition of epics using all the above (and other) resources.325
Other interests that have been listed in various biographical notes that have appeared in conjunction with Burt's articles include:
to combine research into musical applications of chaos theory with interactive composing and performing. In making these pieces, I wanted to see if any aspects of this new branch of science would be useful to music.326
Burt’s musical interests have consistently continued as listed above, but perhaps one of the most appealing explorations is that which has concerned “development of environmental inter-reactive systems”, as can be seen in the collaborative work he was involved in with the 3DIS system.
325Burt, Warren. 1976. Held at the Australian Music Centre, Sydney NSW. 326Burt, Warren. International Synergy Institute. Volume II, Number 2, New Mexico, International Synergy Institute, 1991. 254 Table 7.1: Burt's works for dance.
Date Work Choreographer Instrumentation 1977 12 Hour Place Eva Karczag, Instruments & electronics Nanette Hassall 1978 Danger Dance Eva Karczag Unknown 1978 Miracles of the Gay Smog Eva Karczag Solo piano Angels 1978 Pocket Calculator Music 1 - Eva Karczag Solo baritone, ukulele 39 Penguins by Moonlight 1978 Sunrise to Sunset Eva Karczag Unknown 1978 Silver (Piano Dance) Eva Karczag Piano 1979- Slow Moving in the Big Eva Karczag Electronic 1980 City 1979- Intercut Eva Karczag Electronic 1980 1980- Computer Dance Video Eva Karczag Electronic sounds 1981 1981- Explorations of 31 Beth Shelton Electronic 1982 1981 Four pieces for synthesizer Eva Karczag Synthesizer. One version has optional violin. 1981 1983 For Libby Dempster Libby Dempster Solo piano accordion 1985 Dance accompaniment for John McLaughlin 2 channel tape made on Fairlight CMI John McLaughlin 1985 Heaven/Below Jane Refshauge Piano accordion, percussion and live electronics 1985 Two Dance Eva Karczag Live electronics and whistling Accompaniments for Eva Karczag 1986 The Duck Tapes - Chapter Lou Blankenburg Unknown 9 - the Flesh of this Fowl 1988 Pond (dance titled "Retort Nanette Hassall, 50 solo voices and 50 tuning forks, with II") Tim Gruchy optional drone 1989 Fair Exchanges - See the various 3DIS system, samplers, digital horn, lighting dance, hear the music 1990 Improvisation Jane Refshauge 2 dancers with piano accordions 1990 Improvisation - quartet Gudrun Percussion and voice Markovsky and Glenda Laslett 1990 Improvisation - quintet Gudrun Voice, ukulele, piccolo, bird call Markovsky, Linden Nicholls, Peter Trotman, Al Wunder 1990 Improvisation - trio Sylvia Staehli Tape mixing and electronics 1990 Improvisation with Al Al Wunder MIDI wind controller and tapes Wunder 1990 In Transit John McCormick Percussion, sound sculptures and live and Hellen Sky electronics. 1992 Accompaniments for Eva Eva Karczag Computer, voice tapes, voices, flagong, Karczag electronic birds, percussion, small objects & environmental sounds. 1992 Apt Conspiracy Eva Karczag Live music & taped words 1992 Emanzipation Gudrun Live electronics Markowsky 1993 Triptych for Sandra Perrin Sandra Perrin Concrete sounds on tape
255 Table 7.1 continued: Burt's works for dance.
Date Work Choreographer Instrumentation 1994 Dance suites for Eva Eva Karczag Live interactive computer music, recorded Karczag's "Horizon Rerun" voice, environmental sounds, digital delay 1994 Penguins Penguins Al Wunder Top hats, tails, electronics, tape, accordions, Penguins Penguins humdrum, film, voices and hundreds of Penguins figures and images of penguins 1995 And/or Morgan Thorson 6 dancers with tuning forks 1998 Sorrento Suite Various live computer performance 1998 de-orbit burn Eva Karczag live computer performance 1998 Sounding the Space Theatre of the speaking voice, live computer sounds, small Ordinary loudspeakers moved by people 1999 Actors and Musicians - a 3 Planet Cafe improvised music, instrumentation unknown act play (classified dance by Burt) 1998- many various improvised Theatre of the Various including piano accordion 1999 works including "Year of Ordinary Fridays" series 2000 Krillsong unknown unknown
Interactive music and dance systems - the 3DIS system:
One example of the culmination of collaboration in experimental dance and music that has incorporated the usage of original equipment and an exploration of changing choreo-musical relationships is that surrounding the use of the 3DIS system in the
1980s. This piece of equipment was invented by Simon Veitch, a student at the
Canberra School of Music, in 1979 for the purposes of composing electronic music.
Australian composers and dancers had been experimenting with technology and its adaptability towards a movement-driven sound process before this. For example, the dancer Phillippa Cullen, in collaboration with composer Greg Schiemer, used the instrument theremin, as invented by Lev Sergeyevich Termen in 1920327. The sound of a theremin is made by high-frequency oscillators, with the physical movement towards or away from the circuit controlling the pitch. The end result is ascending or descending oscillating sounds. This instrument, which was toured throughout Europe during the 1920s and was used by composers such as John Cage and Edgard Varèse, is
327Montague, Stephen. Termen, Lev Sergeyevich. Grove Music Online. Edited by L. Macy. Accessed 30th August, 2005,
The skill in playing a theremin lies in the positioning of the dancers’ hands in relation to the instrument's antenna, known as 'space control' which is a requirement that many dancers could relate to328. Theremins were used in works such as A Rain Poem by
Cullen and Schiemer (1975), performed at the Computer Festival of Arts and Sciences,
Canberra and Body Sonata (1974) for two humming dancers, two theremins and two space harps invented by Schiemer. This experimentation including dancers in music improvisation was discussed by Cullen in her article Towards a Philosophy of Dance:
Now there has been discovered a number of electronic devices which can transform human movement into different forms of energy. The detection is through radar, light intensity or a change in the electro-magnetic field around the dancer. The energy released can be converted into sound. Thus the dancer can make his own music. But whether this discovery is taken up by the dance world depends on our readiness for this reversal of the elements: and whether dancers are skilled enough to make music and whether they should be producing recognizable musical structures. The separating of dance and music in the Merce Cunningham group and the work in silence of some other companies seems to me a good preparation for this new relation. It releases the dance from the imposed dynamics and time of the music and forces a new independence.329
Similar exploration has also been carried out in movement-directed soundmaking through the use of pressure sensors, and infrared sensors, feeding to video cameras. The
3DIS system330, representing Three Dimensional Interactive Space, has been employed by composers such as Warren Burt, exploring dance-motivated sound, where the composer sets up the musical space for the dancers to improvise within. Although the
3DIS system was invented for musical purposes, its usefulness as a security system was
328Orton, Richard and Davies, Hugh. Theremin. Grove Music Online. Edited by L. Macy. Accessed 30th August, 2005,
Systems, marketing this product to security companies such as Chubb Securities331.
Figure 7.2: Philippa Cullen using a theremin in her work Homage to Theremin 2, 1972332.
The 3DIS collaboration was held between 1988 and 1989, appropriately titled Hear the dance, see the music - Fair Exchanges. The collaborators involved included composers
Ros Bandt, Warren Burt, choreographer Shona Innes, and dancers Sylvia Staehli and
Jane Refshauge. Articles have been written on this topic by Burt, and published in
331Shorter, Damon. Virtual sculpture to set hearts racing. ANU Reporter.
For our purposes, the input devices were four small television cameras (each about the size of two matchboxes), and the output devices were musical synthesizers and samplers. The operation of the system is based on extremely simple principles. The users of the system look at a live picture from one or more of the cameras, processed by the computer. With a ... mouse, they indicate on the TV screen which particular area of the screen they wish the computer to be aware of. The computer then calculates, 30 times a second, the average brightness level of that particular area... What it would do now would be up to the users.
Each area one isolates out from the view of the TV cameras is called a 'gang' and with the present system, one can have up to 99 separate areas like this. Each 'gang' may be active on up to four cameras, so that if two or more cameras look at the same space from different angles, one could define space from multiple perspectives, resulting in a truly three dimensional definition of space. With this system, one can define an entire space consisting of areas with separate musical functions, creating a conceptual equivalent of 'keyboards' which consist not of physical objects, but of invisible but sensitive shapes in space....3DIS stands out.... as being the most versatile, and the one least attached to the concept of physical contact with an object producing musical information.335
Because this system removed physical contact with music making, Burt viewed the
3DIS as being a suitable interactive system for dancers. The considerations of the composer in this type of environment are somewhat different to that of a composer writing for a traditional Western live ensemble. As Robert Rowe observes in Machine Musicianship:
The role of the designer "or composer" in such a complex system is one of describing modes of interaction and degrees of freedom within and between multiple agents. "The designer of the performance introduces into the system the sound and music knowledge, the compositional goals, the aspects of integration between music and gesture (including a model of interpretation of gestures), and decides the amount of (possible) degrees of freedom left to the agent as concerns the generative and compositional choices" (Camurri, Ricchetti, and Trocca 1999).336
The 'integration between music and gesture' is the relationship that is explored and manipulated in Burt's works for the 3DIS system. In the six works created for the Fair
Exchanges event, different environments are set up for the dancer/s to move within, creating and reacting to sound in the process. In many cases, the dancer/s became the
333 Burt, Warren and Thompson, Anne. Fair Exchanges: 3DIS Computer/Dance/Music Project. Writings on Dance. Melbourne, 1990. 38-44. 334Burt, Warren. The 3DIS System. Sounds Australian. Volume 19, Sydney, 1988, 27-33. 335Burt and Thompson, 1990. 38-39. 336Rowe, Robert. Machine Musicianship. MIT: Massachusetts, 2001, 373. 259 musician/s and musical improviser/s, while the composer (Burt and Bandt) pre-defined the boundaries, or the limitations to the improvisations, prior to the performance. In this way, the traditional dance-music relationship was inverted. In regards to this, Burt described the process:
In the dancer's movements were actually responsible for the sound, the dancer's function vis-a-vis music had changed. In essence, the dancer now was the musician. And the composer, who might usually give very precise instructions (notation) for performers to interpret (though that's not the usual way either Ros or I compose) was here faced with a different task: that of defining a system of spaces and sounds in conjunction with a dancer in such a way that both sequences of movement and the resulting sounds might have some sort of artistic potential....
The problem the 3DIS system raises most immediately is one which is central to much post-modern dance: the relationship between sound and movement. As implied above, in using this system, composers could not think in purely sonic terms, and choreographers could not think in purely kinesthetic ones. Rather, we found it necessary to surrender the integrity of our specialist art forms in order to evolve a working method that would address both our needs and the capabilities of the system in a more holistic manner.
This also, of course, creates problems for the viewer. If the rules are changed for us, they are also changed for the viewer. The work demands to be perceived differently from either silent dance work or work where music is used as either accompaniment or decoration.337
Paradoxically, was the music then a slave to the movement as the movement created the type of music? Could composers have freed dance music from the rigid requirements of traditional music for dance only to find that the new method was just as restrictive as the old, though in a different way? This could be seen as the end result, yet this is challenged in some of the pieces, as the dancer was instructed to react to the sound that they have triggered. Here, a circular process from movement to sound to movement again was set up. This could also become a challenge to the audience, as current research from the University of Western Sydney is concerned with audience reactions to contemporary dance, and how mirror neuron directs audience tastes to some extent338. If the composers and choreographers find themselves in a new collaborative situation, the
337Burt, and Thompson, 1990, 40.
260 audience might find the result challenging. However, an observation of the performance of Fair Exchanges makes it clear that regardless of how the action and music came about the result is a cohesive integration of both artforms. It is obvious how the titles of the works for this event, the movements interpreted by the dancers, and the sound environments chosen by the composer, were very much planned together.
Each of these variations in choreo-musical relationships will be explored and outlined in the six pieces created for the Fair Exchanges experiment: awaywithwords; For Percy
Grainger and Burnett Cross; Inside/Out; Free Trade Zone; Mungo; and Random. The context in which these works were created, that is, with the exploration of the 3DIS system in mind, affected the temporal and interpretive aspects of the work to such an extent that these areas were in essence dependent on the system itself. As the collaborators wanted to use a system that would need to be triggered by movement to produce sound, temporal factors of the sound such as rhythm, texture, instrumental effects chosen, as well as metaphorical factors such as interpretation of an idea or synopsis, character of sounds chosen and structural developments following drama of movement were shaped by the dancers. Examples of these direct effects between the choice of the 3DIS system, exploration of sound with movement relationships in each work and how these choices affected the sound of the music will be discussed. The idea of using equipment such as the 3DIS system led the collaborators to choose certain synopses or dramatic environments aiming to discover and explore as many variations possible available with this system. This can be seen in Table 7.2 below:
338Glass, Renee and Stevens, Kate. Making sense of contemporary dance: an Australian investigation into audience interpretation and enjoyment levels. Report prepared for Fuel4arts. Sydney: University of Western Sydney, February, 2005. 261 Table 7.2: works for the 3DIS system by Warren Burt et al, and their meaning within the context of the 3DIS environment.
Work Exploration using 3DIS and relevance awaywithwords Music influencing dance movements Inside Out (For Graham); Random; Mungo Dancers as musicians, improvisers and to some extent, composers. For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross A tribute of sorts to Grainger and Cross, Australians who invented electronic music machines, incorporating also the idea of dancers as musicians Free Trade Zone Highlighting exploitation in the making of electronic equipment
The soundtrack for the first piece in this set of works for the 3DIS system, awaywithwords, featured, as implied by the title, only words. These words, consisting of clearly spoken verbs (for example ‘search’, ‘drift’, ‘tap’, using male and female voices) were presented in varying textures ranging from monophony to polyphony.
This was represented by the texture of dancers ranging from two to four on stage, their spatial placement in the performance space affecting the sound. The dancers relied on the word that they triggered to shape their movement, sometimes miming the spoken word (for example the word ‘search’ would lead a dancer to interpret all facets of the verb through mime).
The work away with words began without any sound, and when the sound entered, it gave the movement context, that is, the words explained the actions. The dancers increased the dynamic and varied the rhythm of the movement; this affected the soundtrack’s intensity and texture and in turn the soundtrack directly influenced the movement. As the work began in silence, the dancers’ movement was purely concerned with gesture. Once the words were triggered, the dancers then reacted to the trigger, and their reactive movement in turn triggered other words, and thereby changed the physical movement once again. This ongoing cause and effect in choreo-musical relationships is demonstrated in Figure 7.3 below.
262 Figure 7.3: The basic relationship of dancer/s with 3DIS system as demonstrated in awaywithwords.
The context and background to this work was directly dependant on the setup of the
3DIS system, in both the creation of the sound and the movement. As described by
Burt, the placement of the gangs was in two sets of five words on each side of the performance space as illustrated in Figure 7.4. Burt described the setup of this:
In awaywithwords, the opening work, ten ‘gangs’ were placed at the edges of the space in two groups of five. Each gang triggered off a recording of a different single word. These words were chosen from a vocabulary of words mostly common to both dance and computer languages, with a few words thrown in that were common to neither. The dance began with a silent duet between Shona and Sylvia. They crossed the space until they crossed the gangs and triggered off the words. At this point their dancing changed. They used the words as triggers, or instructions, for improvising movement. In some cases, the relations to the words were quite direct and humorous. In others, they were more oblique. A series of duets and quartets followed, with Ros and myself also triggering off the words with our movements. In this way, we hoped to establish the contrast between musicians’ (untrained) movements, which was almost always directly concerned with making sound, and dancers’ movement, which might or might not be directed, in this case, to sound production.339
Each gang referred to a different word, so that when a dancer moved into the gang, the individual word was triggered. During the dance, the composers Warren Burt and Ros
Bandt also triggered the words through less-trained movement to show, as Burt explained, the contrast between movement created for dance, which carries training and experience, reacting to the sounds, and the amateur movement of a musician purely to create sound.
339Burt, and Thompson, 1990, 40. 263 Figure 7.4: An overhead view of the setup of the performance space for awaywithwords. Each rectangle is a gang representing a different word.
This also demonstrated the traditional roles of the musician and the dancer, that is the musician's gesture is purely to create sound, with the movement being purely the means by which sound is created. The dancer traditionally moves with the gesture being the end result of the artistic intent. Therefore the dance has a direct impact on the texture, rhythm, and energy of the music, but the music in turn has a direct impact on the type of dance movement initiated. Musicians and dancers in this work were still acting according to their traditional roles, but the context of the work has a direct impact on the sound, in real time live performance as well as the background setup of the work.
The work For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross follows a similar type of sound triggering system, where the dancers' movements produce the music, but the idea of dancers as musicians is furthered to produce counterpoint between two and three parts, as Grainger had originally intended with the instrument he created. The sounds for this work were taken from the Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne, where one of Grainger's and Cross's inventions is on display, the 'reed-box-tone-tool'. This
264 instrument was devised in 1950 from an Estey reed organ, where the reeds had been retuned to contain 36 distinct pitches within one octave. Two of these octaves are used for the dance, so as Burt notes, this work has a direct historical link with Grainger and his earlier exploration with sound experimentation.
The historical link carries through the costumes and the idea of interaction in Edwardian society, as noted by choreographer Shona Innes. This dance has obvious choreographed sections throughout. It features three people on chairs, in period-like costume. The interactions of their relationships are shown by movement of the dancers with chairs across parallel lines towards and away from each other.
Figure 7.5: The gangs for the dance For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross. It can be seen how each gang represents a single note, placed very close to other gangs340.
One type of sound is used in the soundtrack that accompanies this dance, that is an electronic noise ascending and descending in pitch, following the approaching of and
265 moving away of dancers to and from each other. In this regard, the music tends to follow the dance, as the dance is choreographed, but the music seems improvised. The attempt to produce musical counterpoint meant that the dancers would be moving at certain times to produce certain layers. This resulted in the music affecting the synopsis for the work. That is, the choreographer Innes noticed that dancers would move towards and away from each other, thus the interactions (meeting and parting with) became the narrative premise for the work. The thematic material explored the meetings that were part of Edwardian society, with the dancers at one point, humorously sitting down to have a cup of tea. This deepened the impact of the music on the actual movement. The relationship did not only depend on the dancers movements to produce sound, but also to create counterpoint, thus affecting their direction, timing and ultimately emotional context.
Figure 7.6: An overhead view of the setup of the performance space and dance direction of For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross.
340Photograph from Burt and Thompson. 1990, 43. 266 The relationship between the dancers, the music and the story could look like the diagram in Figure 7.7, with interactions going in every direction. In regards to the music, Burt claims that an attempt was made to play the pitches according to the counterpoint that Grainger had spoke of. This counterpoint is easy to hear as well as watch.
Figure 7.7: Interactions based on exploration of Grainger’s experimentation.
The opening theme occurs at 1 minute 30 seconds, after an introduction that demonstrates the origin of the work through the playing of a Grainger recording. The theme is very simple, and is presented as an ascending motive, from the lowest note sampled almost to the top. Of course, the dancers do not move until this moment as they are triggering the notes. The theme is then inverted as can be seen in Example 7.1.
267 Example 7.1: A notational representation of the opening theme, demonstrating the simplicity of counterpoint that occurs early in the work For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross.341
Complexity is added to the music in a traditional way, with the addition of other voices, statements appearing in each voice, inversion, and presentations of the same material in different ranges. The musical relationships between statements are very easy to see in the dance as the direction of the dance within the performance space determines the notes played. Therefore in this way, the dancers are instrumentalists making music through their gesture and direction, rather than having physical contact with an instrument. Variations in triggering can be heard in the ‘playing’ of the music depending on the way each dancer’s costume moves within the gang, for example, one dancer’s dress sets off a gang at a different time from the dancer wearing coat tails.
341Notational representation of the music transcribed by Rachel Hocking. 268 Figure 7.8: Relationships between subject choice and dance/music outcomes found in For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross.
Contextual
Ź Aesthetics of post-modern sound and movement, as well as use of electronic equipment.
Ź Experimentation with a new technology.
Ź Both choreographer and composer collaborated together to create this work.
COMPOSITION OF FOR PERCY GRAINGER AND BURNETT CROSS
Temporal Interpretive ŹLengths of phrases and texture integrated ŹAttempt of dancers to create sound led to with the production of the sound. synopsis structure and subject matter. Ź Music and dance movement are not Ź Homage to Percy Grainger included always together as some emotional sampling his instrument and using a climaxes occur in silence. Grainger recording. Ź Instrumentation used was electro- Ź The length of this work meant that one acoustic. motive and one type of instrumentation was used.
It is worth noting at this point also that the interactive system is not subtly presented.
One consequence of the way this system is used for this work is that the most intense moments in the drama, when the dancers meet, is the time when no sound occurs at all.
This is because the stillness in movement creates rests/silence as the lack of movement is not triggering any music. This could be seen as an ‘anti-climax’ that is opposite to traditional climaxes in music and dance. The choreography of this work consisted of dancers walking, or running around, and even though the movement changed, the music basically remained the same. Of this, Staehli stated:
269 We were making movement choices in order to compose sound. Not being a composer I found this relationship very challenging – to have to ‘listen’ physically and musically simultaneously. A difficulty I experienced was that movement quality did not affect sound quality in any way. Interestingly, the sound in a sense was subservient to the movement, and yet as dancers, our main focus in performance was on composing.342
While the process of collaboration is interesting, there are some issues that should also be considered. The title of the work For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross implies that the work is a dedication of sorts, from one group of experimental artists to another.
However, when Grainger’s vision of free music is explored, contradictions arise.
Grainger states that:
Free Music demands a non-human performance. Like most true music, it is an emotional, not a cerebral, product and should pass direct from the imagination of the composer to the ear of the listener by way of delicately controlled musical machines. Too long has music been subject to the limitations of the human hand, and subject to the interfering interpretation of a middle-man: the performer. A composer wants to speak to his public direct. Machines (if properly constructed and properly written for) are capable of niceties of emotional expression impossible to a human performer.343
This comment suggests that machines would do a better job of interpreting a composer’s intentions than a human performance, which is the traditional way of presenting existing music compositions.
The Free Music machines constructed by Grainger for this purpose used rolls of paper, similar to piano rolls, to create the sound, so that the machine was a direct performer. In this way, Grainger claims that the true intentions of the composer are portrayed directly to the listener. Like Grainger, Burt and Innes make use of new technology, but using a totally different method. Burt’s musical interests encompass amateur music-making, the use of cheap available electronic technology, and live electronic performance involving groups. This is clearly in conflict with Grainger’s original perceptions of his experimental music, who wished to omit the “middle-man”, that is the performing
342Staehli, Sylvia. Interviewed by Anne Thompson. Fair Exchanges: 3DIS Computer/Dance/Music Project. Writings on Dance. Melbourne, 1990, 45. 270 musician. In fact, Burt has added many middlemen with the inclusion of three dancers, the choreographer, the process of sampling Grainger’s instrument and the transferring of the sample for use by the 3DIS system. The “limitations of the human hand” as referred to by Grainger, also appears in Burt’s work. Curiously, the notes sampled for this work, which Grainger intended to be free in pitch, were confined within a two octave range, with Bb as the lowest and highest notes.
Figure 7.9: Example of a free music machine, from the Grainger Museum, Melbourne.
Burt further limits this by using the Bb as the beginning and final notes, as well as placing the note F at the dancers’ turning points. From this a kind of dominant-tonic
343Grainger, Percy. Free Music Tablet 2. 6th December, 1938. 271 relationship is audible, although not in strict Western scale tuning. At important structural moments during the work, dancers are placed around the middle Bb, again giving this note a tonic function. Although the collaborators dedicate this work to Percy
Grainger and Burnett Cross, it is the spirit of experimentation that is referenced rather than the processes of Grainger and Cross’s work. The relationships used for this work, demonstrate a total music and dance integration. Both the music and the dance are independent equal voices, but the dance is acting as a true visual image of the sound of the music. Through the use of technology, dancers have been enabled not only to artistically create movement but also to create sound, as if playing an instrument. Shona and Innes have taken Grainger’s ideal of Free Music played by machines and highlighted its antithesis through the human-triggered computer. The starkness through which Grainger’s Free Music counterpoint is presented in this work is anything but free.
The interpretation, which uses humans for performance through dance movement manipulation triggers the machine or the computer in such a way that during the moments where intense human emotion is seen, no music, free or traditional, is heard.
The use of human dancers to trigger a mechanically-driven sound emphasises the importance of the human performer to create music. This integration is furthered, as in this work the composer has become the creator of the spatial environment determining choreographic direction for interpretation of his score, while the performers are both a trio of musicians and dancers. In this way, the traditional relationship of choreographer and composer has moved from counterpoint to inverted counterpoint.
Therefore, counterpoint, a type of polyphony presenting independent and sometimes opposing voices, is seen in the presentation of the music and dance, as well as the process of creation. The music and the dance shape are integrated in performance,
272 using movement towards and away in the phrase shape, with two to three independent musical voices and dancers. In the process, there is movement towards Grainger’s idea of Free Music through the historical acknowledgment found in the instrumentation, displayed in the costumes, and extended in the synopsis. Opposing ideas are displayed in the use of human performers controlling machine, and there is the addition of the composer/choreographer’s changing roles. So in the process, the conflict between tradition and experimentation is presented, both independent ideas running in a type of counterpoint at the same time, producing an innovative collaboration in the integration of music and dance.
The next work in the 3DIS series, Inside out (For Graham) explores further the idea of the dancer as musician, with the movement creating the sound, in turn impelling and reacting with the dancer. This work features solo dancer Jane Refshauge remaining mainly in one place, interpreting rhythm through her body, as if by electric shock. The soundtrack features a drum machine with the subsequent addition of a low pitched drone. The dancer begins creating the percussion sounds through her movement. She then reacts to the rhythm of the drum machine, increasing in intensity as the drums climax. This is shown in Figure 7.10. After the climax, the drums stop and the dancer keeps moving, as if winding down. The dance finishes in silence.
The main dilemma that Burt had was the lack of physical feedback that is found with a musical instrument. Burt has described the type of feedback felt when playing a keyboard or percussion instrument as equivalent to the physical feeling left when
‘hitting’ something. Unfortunately in creating sound through the 3DIS system, this type of feedback is not given. These contradictions and limitations of the 3DIS system are
273 explored in this work and are particularly apparent at the end of the piece, when the dancer is left to finish dancing without accompanying sound, although she is using similar gestures to those that made the sound originally. Thus, the movement originally made in order to create the sound, or sound gestures similar to those made by an instrumentalist, in turn becomes dance movement. Refshauge says:
Figure 7.10: The unfolding of performance for Inside Out (For Graham)
With Inside/Out, the piece I choreographed based on a drum kit programmed in a grid around me, I listened to a lot of drumming until I found a drum sound that I could inhabit as a dancer. The musical composition was translated into a movement rhythm. Then an exciting thing happened for me in working with this piece. My body began making sound composition decisions. To do that I had to know in my body the exact placement of the 27 gangs and the sound that resulted from triggering each gang. The programme had to memorized by my muscles. It took 3 months to programme these 27 gangs to set the sound I wanted for a 5 minute piece. In the end I felt able to meet the demands of improvised composition with this work.344
The practice which Refshauge undertook to memorise positions of gangs in order to produce sounds from muscle movement is identical to the practice musicians undertake to play their instruments. Even in her preparation for the performance of this piece,
Refshauge became a musician through her dance movement and the capabilities of the
3DIS system.
344Refshauge, Jane. Interviewed by Thompson. 1990, 47. 274 The work Free Trade Zone introduced the elements of technology and unpredictability into the dance-music relationship. The context of this dance was extremely important and was provided to the audience in the program. As Burt states "the piece was not just a dance/music composition, but was intended to be viewed by an audience that had knowledge of the text"345.
Table 7.3: The synopsis from the work Free Trade Zone346.
Labour costs in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the new bases for Atari production, have been estimated at one fifth the wages earned by non-union American employees. Female migrants and urban working class women are channelled into labour intensive jobs in foreign industries. These international high-tech corporations treat the majority of their labour force (female production workers) as a labour reserve whom they employ as disposable temporaries, poorly paid and given no social security. Fresh single women from the countryside provide a constant flow of replacements. The third most dangerous industry, in terms of exposure to cancer-causing substances, is electronics. Throughout the production process electronics workers in the Philippines are exposed to acids, solvents and gases which have various physically damaging effects, causing, for example, eye defects, cancer, lung disease, and liver and kidney troubles. In one soldering job, every girl gets sick from the smells after a year of work, but the company forbids transferring to another work unit...Often, women displaced from assembly plants are forced to seek work in hotels and brothels. As members of a Western society, we are all involved in a consumptive lifestyle which exploits others. We must be aware of the flaws in our tools, which contradict our efforts at positive change. -BASED ON WRITINGS OF AIHWA ONG AND SISTER MARY SOLEDA PERPINAN
Philosophically, this work contains many contradictions, which not only influenced the choice of music and text as well as the electronical process, but also the context of the work, that is, a work dependant on technology. This is particularly true in light of the words:
As members of a Western society, we are all involved in a consumptive lifestyle which exploits others. We must be aware of the flaws in our tools, which contradict our efforts at positive change.347
Those who participated in this collaboration could be viewed as being associated with these "exploiters", as in the process of experimentation, they themselves have become consumers, regularly using this same or similar technology that causes the problems
345Burt and Thompson. 1990, 41. 346Quoted from the original program for Free Trade Zone. Burt and Thompson, 1990, 42.
275 outlined in the accompanying text for Free Trade Zones. The ‘contradiction of efforts’ can be seen in the dancer's movements for this work. The dance movement itself appears to be very casual and relaxed, with a solo dancer eating an apple on stage, moving backwards and forwards, while strolling. The dance movement comes from the lower half of the body, through the legs, while the arms are only employed in the mundane activity of consuming the apple. Accordingly, Burt included relevant excerpts of music to be triggered in the gangs. These sound sources featured skilled musicians' performances from the countries of China, Upper Volta (now known as Burkina in
Africa), Laos, Japan and Zaire, all countries which have been exploited through free trade agreements with Western countries. However, the collaborators added a certain amount of unpredictability to the process by making some of the triggers react with a delay. Burt explains the process:
.. a random time-delay was built into the triggering-on of each sound, and the sensitivity of the areas was set very low, so that there was as great a chance that a sound would only begin some time after Sylvia [the dancer] had gone through its area, or even that she would turn on, and then turn off, a sound, before any actual sound had been heard, as there was a sound would turn on when she actually went through the gang [sic].348
The dancer, moving through the gangs, triggers the sound, and in the process some music becomes overlapped. The dance movement changes direction when the textures and rhythms change in the music; this then produces the probability that another sound source will be triggered.
347Quoted from the original program for Free Trade Zone. Burt and Thompson. 1990, 42. 348Burt and Thompson. 1990, 42.
276 Figure 7.11: Possibilities of music and movement for the work Free Trade Zones.
The soundtrack to the next work in the 3DIS series, Mungo, consisted of electronic static sounds, soft and sometimes silent. This work was mostly choreographed so that certain sounds would be triggered at certain times349. A solo dancer begins in contact with the floor, softly and slowly rolling over and over. As low-pitched sounds are added to the soundtrack, a second dancer is revealed, standing, strolling and observing.
In contrast to these sounds, percussive ‘jingly’ noises as well as sounds similar to wind chimes or rattling keys are heard. Both dancers explore movement with the ground, sometimes almost crawling. A third dancer is added, first standing then exploring the ground in a similar way to the other dancers. When the dancers are not lying, moving on the ground, then they are examining the ground as if searching for something tiny on the ground. More intense music follows this, with the additional layers sounding like didjeridus. As the more recognisable live instrument/s are added, the dance becomes more intense. One by one, the dancers begin to move more energetically and rhythmically, with some slapping noises made by dancers on the floor. At one stage, a recognisable pitch is heard, playing a slow pulse, while the dance seems to be more choreographed at this point, with identical movements being danced, including twirling.
277 The dancers return to lying on the floor and are filmed sitting on the floor, at which stage the film fades out.
The space for the final work in the series, Random, is presented as three equal areas, divided vertically, by three long dangling ropes. The dancers explore their ropes individually, hanging, climbing, twirling, and walking around the ropes, each movement triggering the 3DIS system. The sampled sounds used for this work featured rainforest noises with electronic pitched sounds and an improvised live electronic saxophone.
Again, the improvisations and movement grow in intensity together, and moments of stillness in the dance are reflected in the music and vice versa. During the exploration of the ropes, the dancers use the ropes in pairs, leaving their areas of the stage to change ropes. The keyboard and saxophone are fairly static in harmonic movement, staying in the same range, and using the same scale. This work dies out with unaccompanied bird sounds. Of this work, Staehli commented that:
..we chose to make a virtue of the system’s unpredictability350.
This statement demonstrates that the improvisation of the movement and music tied directly with the aesthetic intent given in the title of this work Random.
Conclusion:
Experimental dance comes with its own type of music and associated experimentation in music. This has been shown through the innovations that composers such as Sarah
Hopkins and Warren Burt have undertaken. In experimental dance, the dance presented tends to be raw, less disciplined and less neat than pre-choreographed works. The inclusion of everyday movement adds a contrast to intense dance movement, and this
349Staehli, Sylvia. Interviewed by Thompson. 1990, 47. 350 Staehli, Sylvia. As interviewed by Thompson. 1990, 47. 278 reference carries over to the types of music used to supplement these works. For example, the music that Burt has made for the 3DIS system and its associated dance revolve around one musical motive, simple in nature, and this is maintained throughout the soundtrack. Contrasts appear, and there is sometimes development towards a climax or a conclusion, but no forms of multi-movements or multi-themes seem to appear.
These works are short in length, and self-contained. Many such soundtracks for experimental dance are improvised, with either music following the dance or the dance following the music.
The philosophy of the composers associated with experimental dance is vital to understanding their style of composition and hence the sound of their work. The context and intent with which Burt creates his works give the works significance. As
Burt himself says:
..I.. feel that music is totally helpless on its own. I certainly can't listen to a piece of music on its own. Somebody hands me a CD, record, or tape with no explanation, I'm lost. I can listen to some of it. But for my own perception, I need contexts like crazy. So I have to know, Who did this?, Why did they do it?, Where did they do it?, and so on.351
The context which Burt creates for his music is to be found in the many collaborative works he constructs, the collaboration adding extra meaning to the sound. F Burt's music for dance is explained by its title, and the dance, improvised or choreographed according to the same process that is described in the title of the music, gives an extra explanation of the music's significance. The compositional processes used in Burt’s music for dance are explained by the titles, and when the dance is improvised or choreographed according to the same processes, it adds an extra dimension to the significance of the music.
351Band, Ellen. Motivation interview with Warren Burt. Musicworks. Vol 48, Autumn 1990, 8. 279 Another artistic reason that is relevant to Burt's composition is that of changing the audience’s awareness of sound and music. Burt explains:
...there comes another major motivation besides the curiosity which is sound as a means of changing consciousness. I really want to use at least some of my work to advance our own perceptual capabilities.....Listening.... to get a sense of How can we listen, what are the many ways of listening? And how can we change ourselves to make ourselves more responsive and more responsible?352
To further investigate this, Burt gives an example of a student who questioned how a composer could use "a lot of emotional and intellectual energy into sounds which are basically uninteresting". To this Burt replied:
The sounds are not uninteresting, I become fascinated with the 'Why' of this particular sound: if I use a microtonal technique what does it sound like? I'm first of all motivated by curiosity and I might find it sounds like nothing I know and so then I'm very curious about training myself to learn to listen. I have a certain group of listening skills that apply to familiar musics, can I develop listening skills that will apply to unfamiliar musics?353
This is an interesting paradox to present in a society that musically is interested in outcomes. Burt further clarifies this in another article, by stating that there are three groups of composers that exist: those concerned with writing for chamber ensembles, in which the outcome is not only the performance but also a musical score from which the work can be played again; those concerned with popularist writing where the outcome is a CD or recording which can be played again; and those who are not concerned with the outcome but processes involved (but may have originated or received training from either of the two previous groups). As Burt states:
If a composer deals with making objects... society is offered two options - either accept, and ultimately absorb the object offered, or reject, and ultimately ignore it. On the other hand, if a composer chooses to deal with process, the options offered society are not clear - because society is not set up to deal with working in this manner.354
352Band, 8. 353Band, 10. 354Burt, Warren. Seven composers in three parts. Art Network. Vol 6, Sydney, 1982, page unknown. 280 The idea of the process dominating the artistic outcome affects the type of music written by these composers, who have collaborated with dance. The dancers that these composers work with carry similar interests in focusing on experimentation rather than outcome. Possibly the involvement with dance has not been so much an influence on the composition style but a mutual interest by artists involved in the collaboration in the exploration of the process.
Music for experimental dance is an area that has enough in common with other types of dance, to allow it to be discussed in terms of contextual, temporal and interpretive elements. This area of music has been heavily influenced by the environment in which it has been created. That is, because choreographers have been interested in finding a form that would lie between dance and music, they have collaborated with willing composers who share similar interests in experimentation. This has led to developments in technology, including the use of the Australian-invented 3DIS system, a system that presents a limited environment, but allows dancers to become improvisers and musicians. Experimental composers themselves, such as Burt, have been interested in amateur music making, permitting in a sense, dancers to be involved in the music- making process without any exclusivity on the composer’s part. Because of these experimentations in collaboration, the dance-music originating from this process presents as a cohesive equal to the other parts of each work. Dance has also allowed composers such as Burt who are interested in movement of music to pursue this further through using and inventing instruments, technology and software that can assist this, as well as taking up dance themselves. This in turn has impacted on Burt's music:
...I don't think I'd have been as connected with my body, or made music in the way that I do, or be so insistent on the physical and social nature of music, without my experience of working with dancers, doing body work with dancers, and dancing myself.355
355Burt, Warren. In discussion with Rachel Hocking, 17th August, 2005. 281 On first glimpse of Burt's non-dance works it can be seen how much the social nature of music is important to him. Many of the ensembles detailed in his works have the added
"and friends" in the list of participants. Experimental dance and its associated music have encapsulated the ideologies behind this movement as roles have been blurred and exploration in both process and equipment has taken place, with collaboration being mutually beneficial. As Burt has stated:
When you collaborate, you do things you wouldn't do on your own. So a lot of the dance music I've done has been the result of the desires of both the dancer and myself. If I hadn't worked with the dancer in question, the piece wouldn't have happened. In the case of all the years of work with Al Wunder and friends at Theatre of the Ordinary, that has honed and tightened my improvisation abilities in a way that just working in the music scene never could have done. Al's positive feedback workshops were one of the best post-post-graduate trainings I could have done as a musician356.
The manipulation of processes involving technology had had a direct impact on the type of music created for this area of dance. With systems such as the 3DIS, textures, directions and rhythm/phrases of music are directly affected by the dancer/s in real time.
Even the length of the piece could be determined to some extent by the dancer, if the collaborators had decided that this would be the case. It seems that experimental dance has been able to form musicians out of amateurs, widening the musical experience of dancers.
356Burt, Warren. In discussion with Rachel Hocking, 17th August, 2005. 282 Chapter Eight – Conclusion
Original music for theatrical dance in Australian, during the period 1960 to 2000 is a genre that involves a specific methodology in composition because of collaboration. At least 205 composers have created individual original scores specifically for dance, producing more than 550 works. Composers have been commissioned by dance companies, freelance choreographers, and in some cases have initiated the collaborations themselves. Funding to create partnerships between composers and choreographers has often originated from government organisations, but composers have sometimes also worked without payment, interested in writing for a different medium. This research has covered the commissioning opportunities composers have had during this four decade period, and has shown that composers have worked with many different styles of dance, including ballet, modern, experimental, and indigenous.
The composers who have been commissioned during this period have come from many different experiences and training backgrounds, including traditional Western concert hall music, Indigenous and popular music backgrounds. This has resulted in composers being involved in the production of a variety of works, from very short one minute works, through to full-length dance works, using different dance and music languages.
Owing to the various backgrounds, both choreographers and composers have developed attitudes through their experiences working in each other’s disciplines. Within the period of this study, choreographers, who most often direct the collaborative relationship formed with composers, generally have tended to work from the music once the music has been composed, rather than working from the movement first. In the 1980s, there have been some individual choreographers who have sought to
283 experiment with their methodologies. These choreographers were seeking a more egalitarian collaborative relationship with composers. However, larger companies such as the Australian Ballet, have organisational systems in place, which require music prior to rehearsals. Some choreographer and composer partnerships like Warren Burt and
Eva Karzcag have been fruitful in their output. Other choreographers such as Graeme
Murphy have regularly commissioned various composers. These relationships are not always smooth: sometimes problems occur. Several choreographers have had problems with scores arriving too late, or dissatisfaction with the final music score. Composers have sometimes felt uneasy about the significance of their input, as well as the difficulty in the lack of support from music circles.
There are direct and real consequences concerning Australian music for dance, 1960-
2000. Firstly, dance has provided employment opportunities for composers. Secondly, it has given composers access to larger resources and allowed them to attempt innovative and/or big ideas. Thirdly, the way dance-music has been constructed has been different from other collaborative music because of its precise relationship with dance. Lastly, dance-music is an area of composition that many have contributed to but is rarely referred to in musicology in general. This has to some extent ignored the ways choreographers and dance interactions may have impacted on composers.
These issues, as well as directions for future research, will be discussed, and conclusions drawn about the tradition of dance-music practices developed in Australia.
The context of this study is firstly explored and the context of the analytical method used in this research is given. From these, the common practices of composing for
284 dance in Australia show not only the tradition that has emerged, but also what this composing context has allowed.
Analytical methods:
With new international scholarly focuses in exploring dance-music relationships, theories have been proposed for analytical models. Some of these models include those of Paul Hodgins, Nicholas Cook and Stephanie Jordan. For example, Jordan, one of the foremost scholars in this area, claims that:
.. I set out to develop the debate, in the belief that, when we go to the theatre, whether we realize it or not, music can be just as important to our experience as dance, if not more so. Music and dance are seen as interactive, interdependent components or voices, each working upon the other, so that the whole experience becomes more than the sum of its parts. The result is that it becomes possible to talk about distinctive musical- choreographic styles, for instance, the particular style of a work or a choreographer.357
Her text Moving Music: dialogues with music in twentieth-century ballet358 focuses on the unfolding dance text as seen in performance, rather than the affect of collaboration on dance-music relationships.
We might ask, for example: if nearly all dance happens to music, what does the music do for the dance? And what does dance do for the music? Do we hear as much as we see? What is this property called musicality? Can music be subversive: are there issues of power to consider?359
In the foreword Jordan observes that technical language is yet to be developed for choreo-musical relationships and this in fact shows the development status (or lack thereof) in dance research, which still relies on other disciplines such as musicology and ethnomusicology for interdisciplinary discussion techniques360.
357Jordan, Stephanie. Moving Music: dialogues with music in twentieth-century ballet. London: Dance Books, 2000, ix. 358Jordan. 2000, ix. 359Jordan. 2000, ix. 360Jordan, 2000, x. 285 She also discusses the ‘remoteness’ of dance scores but argues that they are as useful as musical scores, offering:
another kind of looking sideways: structural issues relate to the broader issues of context in remarkable ways.361
Jordan notes that commissions of music are fewer in number than dances made to existing music, but she insists that commissions do not change the “style” of dance created362. To quote Jordan:
I have become increasingly interested in the meaning or narrative aspects of musical- choreographic analysis, incorporating ideas from the new musicology and from film music theory, which so often have taken their models from literary theory. I have also adopted a more dialectical mode, referring out from my musical focus and back again to relate musical concerns to the other aspects of a ballet. While I believe that there are occasions for a specialised analytical approach, such an approach loses its force if operated in isolation. My book does not stress the working process and collaboration of choreographer and composer, only as much as these affect performance interpretation, or as general background to a ballet. Besides, examples of the collaborative process are already well documented [for Balanchine, Ashton and Tudor whom Jordan refers to] and a commission or style of collaboration does not necessarily produce a particular kind of work. Given, too, the current intellectual shift from author (process and intentions) to reader and the fact that twentieth-century ballets to existing music far outnumber those to commissioned scores, it seemed valid to concentrate on the dance texts.363
Jordan’s research, as she has clearly stated, is based on her reading of balletic performances, rather than analysis of choreographer and composer intent. In this study of musical works commissioned during 1960-2000, on the other hand, choreographers have been shown to be clearly influenced by composers’ works, as their comments documented in this research demonstrate. Comments by Graeme Murphy stress the impact that composers have had on his choreographic style, and other choreographers have also described how they have used music as a basis for their work. Given that choreographers have been influenced by composers, the reverse has also been shown to be true: choreographers have affected composers’ styles. Clearly the process of
361Jordan. 2000, x. 362Jordan. 2000, xi-xii. 363Jordan. 2000, xi-xii. 286 commissioning music for dance has encouraged composers to learn new methodologies and styles for composition.
To place this research within the context of Jordan’s this thesis explores a more practical approach to documenting composer methodologies364. As dance research is still establishing its parameters, the analytical methods that are currently in use are those that use a narrative style that can be read by those with or without specific music or dance skills. They focus on the observer’s perspective rather than from the intentions of the composer or choreographer, with implications for performance. This research has been from a differing but complementary direction and it is hoped that composers wanting to write for dance could refer to this documentation for methods that have been explored in the past, and experiences that others have encountered.
This study assumes and demonstrates that the process of collaboration affects the performance outcomes. The research relies on the commissioned scores in Australia for dance and it is inclusive of more areas of dance than simply traditional ballet.
Studies of Australian music up to this point have not always embraced music for the dance, but before researchers embark on textual analytical methods, the origins of compositions need to be noted and documented to show how choreographers and composers were working together during this time. Interactions and collaborative methods in Australia have not been documented as much as international relationships have been, and this study demonstrates the extent of production that was occurring here between 1960 and 2000. It also investigates whether experimentations, similar to those seen internationally, were being explored.
364Jordan. 2000, xi. 287 This research has demonstrated that composers have sought to complement dance works by crafting ‘responsible’ scores that not only reflect the intentions of the dance but act as aural set designers, giving contextual meaning to movement. The analytical method that was created for this research was based on evidence that constraints have been placed on composers who write for dance. This centred on the thread that music for dance is crafted according to its function. This is an obvious statement but it needs to be made because in the past, discussion of dance-music has ignored the original intentions. In contrast the composers who have been studied in this research have been very specific about how they have written for dance. Discussing dance-music in terms of its compositional context, and interactions with the temporal and interpretive elements of dance, this study demonstrates how composers have answered to commission requests during this period. In this way, the functional music that has been written to fill the role of music for dance has to some extent been crafted to another’s requirements. Terms some composers have used as their compositional response to a commission have included words like ‘responsibility’ (Carl Vine) and ‘integration’
(Graeme Koehne) demonstrating that composers have wanted to write music that will function appropriately with the dance. Like a crafted, functional item, dance-music has been often well-used with many works being performed a great deal, to the composers’ advantage.
Australian choreographers’ and composers’ approaches to collaborating for dance, as well as models of choreographer/composer relationships, reinforce that limitations have existed when working together. This has meant that composers in the past have considered these restraints when writing. Therefore, the method of analysis developed for the case studies, examining the interactions of the contextual, temporal and
288 interpretive requirements of dance-music has illustrated how composers worked in response to these constraints. Composers’ ideas of ‘crafting’ through collaboration have been interpreted in different ways. The ballet score of The Display by Malcolm
Williamson showed that although Williamson wrote in a structural style which he termed ‘dance symphony’, the themes used throughout the symphony were still related, with the fourth movement providing a summary of themes, unlike traditional symphonic form. Moreover, most movements were linked by an attacca, therefore respecting
Robert Helpmann’s overall structure of the dance work as a one-act ballet.
In a similar way, Carl Vine assisted Graeme Murphy’s vision of a two-act full-length dance work Poppy illustrating the outer life of Jean Cocteau in Act 1, and the inner workings of his mind in Act 2, through the contrasting instrumentation used in both acts. The conventional ensemble of Act 1 was representative of Cocteau’s outer
Parisian world, while the electro-acoustic score of Act 2 was a fitting depiction of
Cocteau’s imaginations. Musically, Paris circa 1900 was also audibly apparent to the audience through the number of direct excerpts Vine incorporated into his score, by composers such as Stravinsky and Wagner.
Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Ochres demonstrated how David Page faithfully integrated traditional Indigenous music into a contemporary score, with cultural advice from
Djakkapura Munyarryun, thereby crafting the score to fit the inclusion of Indigenous dance in a culturally suitable manner. These inclusions of traditional dance-music influenced the structure and instrumentation of the score.
289 The collaborators for the 3DIS system, Warren Burt, Ros Bandt and Shona Innes considered a close collaborative style, appropriately responding to each other’s concerns with process and the integration of technology. This affected not only the type of music used, but the way the music was played, as well as the invention of technology to solve collaboration issues. Analysing these works through their function of the integration with dance explains compositional choices that could not be explained through traditional music analysis. For example, the methods through which dance-music themes are developed occur in different ways dependent on theatrical issues such as characterisations and synopsis. Using this method of analysis also demonstrates how collaborations with other artists have worked, and the effect artists have had on each other.
This style of analysis also confirmed that dance-music is a functional type of music written for a specific context, and so has not always been successful as performance music when transferred from the dance theatre to the concert hall. This does in no way denigrate dance-music or imply a lack of virtuosity or skill, but rather displays that composers need to be more creative in finding solutions for this genre of music. The ways composers overcame collaboration issues and still created scores that are unique in sound as well as being innovative is another area of interest in dance-music. Australian composers have taken the stance of composing in co-operation with their patrons/choreographers. This is unlike some other directions that have been explored internationally, including intentionally composing in isolation (such as
Cage/Cunningham) or setting new dance movement to existing music. The experimentation seen locally during the period 1960-2000 demonstrates that this music is relationship-dependent and therefore needs to be referenced this way. It shows that in
290 some cases, the ideas in the music may have originated from other sources, and then have been transformed by the composer.
The analytical method adopted for the case studies The Display, Poppy, Ochres and the works for the 3DIS system can also be applied to similar collaborative methods found arising out of these case studies. This is a representation of the popular collaborative processes used by Australian choreographers and composers during the years 1960-
2000 and is demonstrated in Figure 8.1. Here, the original model for analysis has been developed concerning practices used in Australian dance works at a level inclusive of most collaborative relationships during this time. The analytical method adopted is one which shows the context in which the collaborations took place, and the temporal and interpretive outcomes of the individual dance works. The thesis explains how the background of the collaboration affected the outcome of the music, how the music has affected developments in the composer’s style and in Australian music. This style of analysis, which demonstrates that influence flows in both directions, raises questions about music which have gone before. Composers’ interactions with other artists, particularly choreographers, are examined fully to arrive at a clearer understanding of musical decisions that have been made. The study also explores analytical methods of dance and music relationships. Thus the analysis demonstrates how the dance commissioning of composers influenced Australian music and shows how this previously unrecognised genre of Australian music is both extensive and seminal.
291 Figure 8.1: Summary analysis of Australian dance-music, 1960-2000.
Contextual
Ź Both the choreographer and composer bring their experiences to the collaborated project.
Ź The choreographer often commissions the composer for new music, rather than the opposite.
Ź Composers have opted to follow choreographers’ instructions, writing ‘responsibly’, adapting to the project’s synopsis and adopting company artistic policies.
COMPOSITION OF DANCE-MUSIC
Temporal Interpretive Ź Musical structure that is shaped by the Ź Dramatic placement of dance work dance synopsis and sometimes altered by through musical referencing to other choreographers. cultures, periods or historical events. Ź Instrumentation chosen according to the Ź Use of pastiche, also as a referencing resources available as well as suitability device. to the synopsis and aesthetic aims of the Ź Use of repeated motives, often collaborators. associated with characters (particularly Ź Instrumentation and texture altered in ballet). throughout the dance work according to Ź Use of harmony that fits in either with dramatic action, number of dancers the context of the synopsis or aesthetic onstage and role of dancers. aims of both composer and choreographer.
Extent of the field and documentation:
Many Australian composers have written dance-music during 1960-2000, and the findings are tabulated in the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia
1960-2000, in Appendix A. The sources used for the information in the catalogue originated from many places, both primary and secondary in nature. Scores, films and recordings held at the National Screen and Sound Archives and the Australian Music
Centre give direct examples of the work which composers and choreographers have produced. Composers’ aesthetic tastes, experiences and personalities have been
292 revealed in their writings, including academic journal articles, personal opinion pieces and diaries (often held in biographical archives such as those held at the Australian
Music Centre). Other newspaper reviews and musicological analyses demonstrate how audiences were reacting at the time when many of the dance works were created. The interviews of composers and choreographers, held at the National Library of Australia in the Oral Histories Archives have proven invaluable as primary records of artists’ opinions during a specific historical period. Many archives that were explored also had documentation including dance programs, advertisements, press releases and letters from which detailed information was able to be obtained. Records of performances were also available through online databases such as the AusStage database, which give facts about the collaborators, companies and theatres involved. None of these sources were comprehensive or complete. However, the all-embracing Catalogue of Original
Music for the Dance in Australia, 1960-2000 is an additional valuable record of composers, choreographers and dance works from which certain trends can be observed.
The dance works’ details recorded in the catalogue were verified by the composers wherever possible, as well as the dance companies and/or the choreographers. This ensured that the information given in the catalogue is thorough, reliable and accurate.
A massive growth in the number of dance companies was seen during the period 1960-
2000 and the adventurous policies of these companies allowed many opportunities for the employment of local composers for new music. Significant events in Australian cultural history such as the Bicentenary of European settlement encouraged the creation of dance works to mark the occasions, and gave composers access to writing for large ensembles such as for orchestra. The increasing numbers of dance companies occurred in many dance genres including the modern and ballet traditions, contemporary dance,
293 dance-theatre and experimental dance. Each of the choreographers working in these areas collaborated with composers in different ways and relied on the musical score to varying degrees. As technology developed, so did dance-music, with many works later in the researched period being written for electronic instrumentation. Most dance companies during this period commissioned Australian composers as part of their dance-creating, thus establishing collaborative relationships between composers and choreographers.
In the context of music research carried out in Australia, works for dance are undervalued and not recognised and it is hoped that this study will help rectify this problem. Many of the composers, choreographers and dance companies involved in this research were keen to share their experiences. They are satisfied with the collaborations that have taken place during 1960 to 2000, and these experiences continue to inform their current work. This research has extended musicological work carried out in
Australia, through documenting new information, databasing records that may have been lost or at least were currently hidden, acknowledging choreographer’s support of composers, opening up an area of music that is rarely discussed, demonstrating that
Australian composers have professional relationships and experiences that impact on their work, and experimenting with a type of analysis to show how all of this affects the sound of the music.
The nature and importance of the collaborations:
The perceptions of those working in collaborative relationships are vital to understanding the outcome of each dance work. Direct quotes from composers, choreographers and reviewers give insights into how the collaborators viewed the
294 projects they were involved in. These comments also demonstrate the extent to which choreographers and composers relied on each other for ideas. For example, some choreographers used the newly created scores to motivate dance movement, while some composers attempted to use the dance-music scores in the concert hall, promoting their music to another audience. Four main methods of collaboration between choreographers and composers were found. The first method is where the choreographer would commission the score, with the composer writing in isolation, then giving the finished score to the choreographer to create dance movement for it. The second method involved the composer and choreographer working in isolation and only uniting both dance and music at the time of performance. The third method required extra skill from the composer as it involved the composer writing the music for the established dance movement, already created by the choreographer. The final method of collaboration involved the choreographer and composer working together during rehearsal time so that movement and music were created at the same time. The most common method was the fourth method, though the first method had been common at the beginning of the period 1960-2000 in Australia. The other two methods of collaboration were not seen widely in the broad survey undertaken of composer and choreographer relationships during this time. The common methods of collaborating both saw the composer writing to choreographer requirements and the case studies demonstrate how these processes affected the music.
Crafting compositions, consistent constructions:
One of the main findings to arise from this study is the extent to which composers have adjusted or written their scores to give context to onstage action, according to the
295 synopses given. This can be analogous to crafting an object for a specific function. Of this, composer Robert Griffin Morgan has said:
..the industry [of composing] is all about; how to be a composer, which is different from writing music, as well as the mechanics of how to craft music and write for instruments.365
This demonstrates that composition has many aspects involved in creating, all aspects having importance. The relationship between music and dance is one of communication, interacting not only with each other, but also between the two mediums and the audience. Many of the composers studied have chosen to not only write music that will enhance the movement presented on stage, but also to write music that places the dance movement within a context whether that be a certain historical period, a place, or a culture. Composers have used methods such as pastiche, quoting excerpts of other music at extended lengths, incorporating instrumentation associated with the dance references, using compositional styles associated with certain music, or even including languages that place the dance in a certain country. These references can be divided into the use of music citations, such as pastiche, and extra musical references, such as ideas of landscape or culture through music style.
Pastiche in music refers to direct referencing of another composer’s well-known music and including it often for irony or for context. Vine chose to include direct but reorchestrated excerpts of Stravinsky’s and Wagner’s music, for example, Stravinsky’s
Rite of Spring, for Murphy’s work Poppy, surrounding the audience with the sounds of
Paris from the early 1900s. In particular, his use of Wagner’s music to accompany the transvestite entertainer ‘Barbette’ was both accurate and ironic. Barbette him/herself
365Griffin Morgan, David Robert. As interviewed by Jill Sykes. Mirror, mirror on the wall, it’s composer’s toughest call. The Sydney Morning Herald. 12th June, 2000, 13.
296 used Wagner to accompany performances, and the obvious contrasts that were apparent in Cocteau’s world are perhaps summarised by a transvestite using music written by a composer who favoured Nazi ideologies.
Burt directly sampled Grainger’s free music instrument for his work For Percy
Grainger and Burnett Cross, paying homage to Grainger’s experimentation while at the same time, constraining the ‘free music’ through its partnership with dance. This was another example of an ironic use of a composer’s work, enabled through the technology of sampling.
Page incorporated traditional Indigenous songs with popular songs, and traditional languages to accompany the Indigenous dances, through the use of recordings of original works by Indigenous people. For non-Indigenous audiences, direct exposure to traditional songs and dances within the more familiar setting of theatre and popular music enabled audiences to relate to and embrace these works. In a similar way,
Williamson included direct quotations of lyrebird calls to place the audience into an
Australian bush setting. These quotations were transcribed and arranged for traditional orchestral instruments.
The practice of referencing known works and sounds is not only restricted to the composers studied in depth for this survey. Other compositions for dance works have directly referenced known music. Koehne has referred to Australian folksongs:
Composer Graeme Koehne has woven together some unmistakably Australian melodies to create an appealing score. He has said the music owes much to Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and in this performance…the same directness and simplicity were apparent.366
366Vasdekis, Barbara. A soul’s journey richly textured. The Australian. 8th July, 1991, page number unknown. 297 One of the main reasons why music for dance does not exist outside of its dance context is because the original importance of the included reference is lost. The idea of placing the audience within a certain environmental context is used by many Australian composers, particularly post-1950. In numerous concert hall works, composers have referenced the Australian environment in an attempt to give music a place-identity (for example, composers such as Peter Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards) so it is expected that a similar concern would be seen by Australian composers in regards to dance-music.
However, the references included are concerned with the dance synopsis environment, rather than the Australian environment.
Ease of audience familiarity of new works is an important consideration in the function of dance-music. Often the observer’s senses are bombarded, sometimes grasping the combinations of the visual, including dance, sets, costumes, lighting, and sometimes film, and the aural, including music, text, and other environmental sounds. As in film music, diegetic music is commonly found in dance-music but used in a different way.
Diegetic music in dance gives a direct context to environment, such as the Rite of Spring scene from Poppy, where Stravinsky’s work is rescored to accompany Nijinsky’s choreography. The source of the music, such as a CD player, can often be seen in diegetic music used in film scores. This is rarely used in dance-music, for example the lyrebird ‘lip-syncing’ the birdcalls featured in the score. Another example of diegetic music in dance is when the dancers themselves are making the sound. Basic examples of this were seen in Ochres, where Indigenous dancers of Bangarra used body slapping, adding to the sound source. However, a complex example of the development of this was demonstrated in the works for the 3DIS system, where Warren Burt, Ros Bandt and
298 Shona Innes blurred the roles of dancers and musicians. In the first two works particularly of this suite, awaywithwords, and For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross, the way the 3DIS system functioned was transparent. A direct link between movement and sound could be viewed, thus demonstrating the origin of the sound source, a composite example of diegetic music in dance. Another example is seen in the use of invented instruments by dancers, creating sound through their dance movement.
The use of film theory cannot be extended into discussion of non-diegetic music in dance. As detailed in the article Film Music non-diegetic music is defined as:
background music amplifying the mood of the scene and/or explicating dramatic developments and aspects of character (….or extrinsic music, or underscoring). 367
Dance-music, as has been shown in this research, is more often than not, foreground, alongside the dance movement. It does not merely underscore or blatantly spell out dramatic action, but rather works alongside dance as a more equal partner than those of film/music relationships. Music has been vital to many choreographers, with some working directly from the score. This is in opposition to film music where the music is composed and attached after the film has been finished. The argument here is whether it is accepted that collaboration process affects the final outcome or not, and after researching methods used in dance and music relationships and processes in Australia, the answer would be that it definitely does.
Influences on music in Australia:
In acknowledging the collaborations made between choreographers and composers from
1960 to 2000, it can be seen that choreographers, and dance in general, have made a
367Cooke, Mervyn. Film music. Grove Music Online.
Choreographers have actively promoted new music and employed composers through their commissions. Choreographers such as Graeme Murphy have listened widely and gained knowledge of Australian composers before employing composers of their choice, who are able to bring their own unique imaginations to a project. These employers have also been brave enough in some circumstances to enlist young and/or emerging composers, often propelling their work into the spotlight and thus ensuring future successes for these composers, such as Carl Vine and Malcolm Williamson.
Working with dance brought some recognition to Australian composers and these collaborations have also greatly influenced their personal compositional language, methodologies and style. For example, Graeme Koehne stated:
I like working with extramusical ideas… That’s why I have always worked a lot on ballet and theatre, and why so much of my concert music has some program behind it.368
Some composers have been shaped by choreographers’ interests. Murphy’s interest in
Cocteau led Vine to study Stravinsky’s work in depth, affecting his musical influences and interest in Stravinsky. This was shown in the discussion of his work in Poppy and further devices used in Piano Sonata.
368Koehne, Graeme. As interviewed by James Mullighan. Beyond the pale. Soundscapes. No 12, April 1995, 21. 300 New opportunities for composers are demonstrated through the establishment of various dance companies commissioning composers in Australia, as well as the trends in instrumentation such as that towards electro-acoustic scores. It was vital for the development of Australian music and composers that support was shown by these companies. This support was given in the dance companies’ artistic policies and choreographers’ choices of opting to work with local artists. Owing to the commercial nature of dance companies, many toured nationally and internationally, and opened up new audiences and areas of exposure for local composers. Employing Australian composers also reflects the searching that occurring during the period 1960-2000, where artists were experimenting with finding a native voice. These included exploration in Jindyworabakism, concerns with environmental scapes, retelling of local stories and reflecting on local issues, placing Australia within the local Pacific and
Asian regions as well as internationally. These questions and artistic solutions did not occur in isolation to each artform.
Robert Helpmann’s, Sidney Nolan’s and Malcolm Williamson’s formidable collaboration is a prime example of artists with similar experiences sharing knowledge, and through their work The Display, affecting audiences and other artists Australia- wide as well as depicting Australian issues to international audiences. These participants were caught between two worlds: they were outsiders in London, with the
Australian ‘brashness’ of character that Williamson aptly described369, having to move overseas to expand (or even continue) their careers; and yet they were outsiders in
Australian society, able to observe peculiar social behaviours that informed the aesthetics of The Display. This collaboration was a prime example of solutions found
301 for issues in Australian arts, and acutely reflected in artistic outcomes such as the sound and qualities of music and dance.
In comparison to this, the work of the Page family in the Bangarra Dance Theatre demonstrated a confidence in using original Indigenous music and dance, a confidence that reflected social conscience development in Australia towards 2000. Australia is still gradually coming to terms with its violent history that continues to discriminate, but this change in attitude is echoed in the developments of Indigenous dance theatres, and the embracing of their works. Meanwhile, Indigenous people such as those involved in Bangarra, have been able to unite the displaced and assimilated people, urban Aboriginals, with the disadvantaged traditional communities, creating strong collaborations between artists of both backgrounds. Stephen Page’s ideal to incorporate contemporary dance, his trained background, with Indigenous dance movement, inventing a new style of dance has had direct implications on the sound of the music, David Page faithfully doing the same in aural terms. In this way, Indigenous culture and issues have been presented to both local and international audiences, using a familiar Western setting for Western audiences. As can be seen from these examples, wider issues that affect both composer and choreographer have had direct impact on the way their work is presented and the aesthetic decisions they have made.
In a large way, working with choreographers has allowed composers to be innovative.
The word ‘innovation’ is not used lightly when referring to composers’ contributions to dance. There have been many clear examples of innovation and originality in the case studies that have been presented. For example, Williamson had access to a large
369Williamson, Malcolm. Conversation with Hazel de Berg. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 8th October,
302 orchestra for The Display, and in this work he included the unusual choice of scoring for a flexatone, an instrument that has not been widely used in Australian or international concert hall music. The actual collaboration he was involved in, that which consisted of well-known international artists who originated from Australia, also was an attracting factor for audiences of The Display as much was expected of this mixture of Helpmann, Nolan and Williamson.
Innovation has also been shown in the methods used for collaborating traditional
Indigenous elements and modern Indigenous elements. Just as John Antill’s
Corroboree, which referenced some Aboriginal sounds into a Western composition, was a forerunner to a trend in Australian music, so is Page’s methods a forerunner to new trends in composition. This method of collaborating respectfully with Indigenous elders was owing to the works being for dance and including traditional dances, yet
Page extended this into the scores that accompanied Bangarra’s works. Since this time, other composers from Western and Indigenous backgrounds have similarly endeavoured to include Indigenous music and references with permission or co- operation from traditional communities. Currently, William Barton, an Indigenous composer and musician is, through his own Indigenous training, collaborating with established composers such as Peter Sculthorpe. This is so that in his own words he can “bridge the gap between the Australian and European cultures”370. Other composers, including international composers such as Robert Bachmann of
Switzerland, have since incorporated Australian Indigenous sounds and recordings into their works with the permission of the traditional communities involved.
1967. ORAL DeB 290, 291, 292, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
370Barton, William. As quoted by Kortals, Sabine in Aboriginal wind blows this way. Denver Post. Wednesday, 30th July, 2003 303 Innovation is also demonstrated to be a concept used widely in experimental dance.
Composers have invented instruments and computer systems so that non-musicians could take part in music making, a practice suitable for dancers. One such innovation was Greg Schiemer’s invention of the Electronic Movement-to-Sound Interface as well as the examples of the use in dance-music of other inventions, such as Sarah Hopkins’
"harmonic whirlies"™ and the 3DIS system, invented by Simon Veitch.
As these examples have shown, dance has provided an opportunity for the use of innovative techniques by composers. There may be a few reasons to explain this occurrence, three of which are stated here. Firstly, artistic innovation may be stronger in collaborative areas such as dance-music, as confidence in attempting new methods may grow according to the number of people involved in a project. It may seem easier to include new ideas when there is more support both in resources and finance.
Secondly, collaborators may have a ‘sense of occasion’ towards developing new dance works. With the structure of funding for dance in Australia during 1960-2000, dance companies have to plan their projects sometimes three years in advance371. Therefore any large scale dance work is given a lot of consideration by those involved, including the composers. As these are long works, the composer has needed to write scores that can maintain audience interest, and one way to do this may be to include a unique compositional device. Thirdly, the music has to be able to match the scale of the combination of dance, lighting, sets, costume and any other technical additions to the performance. Therefore, the incorporation of something unusual or innovative also can
371See Chapter Three, as mentioned by Graeme Murphy. Interview with Graeme Murphy, choreographer and artistic director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 13th August, 1996. ORAL TRC 3478, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
304 aid this requirement. Regardless of the reasons, what remains of interest is that the genre of dance has given composers the opportunity to be innovative.
One of the most significant findings to arise from examining dance-music in Australia from 1960 to 2000 is the finding that all elements of a production influence the style of the final work, including the music. Funding, artistic policies held by both dance companies and government bodies, personalities and cultural considerations have been shown to have a direct impact on the type and sound of the music. This has been demonstrated through examples such as Ochres, in the types of works that were commissioned for the Bicentennial year, as well as in discussion by choreographers and composers. Therefore, if in the future any change or growth is needed in style or originality, then all areas of the process of commissioning need to be targeted, from the government policies that discern the type and requirements of funding, down to the individual collaborators.
Future connections to craft:
This study creates an awareness of the original work for dance being carried out in
Australia to 2000. This awareness needs to be maintained, and extended into local training for composers and choreographers. Contemporary developments in tertiary and industry training (up to 2006) have begun exploring this area, so that composers have the skills to work with choreographers in the various ways described, as well as creating the ability and confidence to trial newer methodologies.
As this research has dealt mainly with composer and choreographer relationships prior to the performance, demonstrating how the collaborative context has affected the
305 music, it would be beneficial to conduct further research to examine how the audience views the performance, and how the actual process affects audience interpretation.
This could be seen to be based on a pre-modern ideal, that the composer and choreographer have authority in interpretation through the decisions they make in creative processes and that this may actually influence audience perceptions. However, it would make interesting research to see if the post-modern ideology of each viewer bringing their own definitive interpretation to a performance rings true with artistic intentions, and whether these may be one and the same.
There are other interesting observations warranting further study that have arisen from this research. The difficulty in discussing electro-acoustic music (for example in
Poppy, Act 2, and in the music for the 3DIS system) demonstrates that a language needs to be developed to assist with the description and analysis of this type of music.
Western music is easily discussed as it has traditional and known boundaries in the areas of pitch, rhythm and instrumental timbre. With electro-acoustic music, so many more possibilities exist in these same areas of pitch, rhythm and instrumental timbre, as these factors are invented and can be unique to individual compositions. For researchers, it can be unsatisfactory to hear only about composers’ philosophies in conceiving each work as this discussion cannot always be extended into a thorough analysis. This is owing to the lack of available and globally understood terminology regarding electro-acoustic styles of music. This is one area that has been identified as warranting further research and experimentation lest this area of music be lost or ignored.
306 One major area that needs additional research is that regarding the dance-music relationships from the very beginning of a work, through to performance and audience perceptions. This type of research would be thorough, involving choreologists as well as musicologists, and would give answers as to how the choreo-musical relationship is determined by the collaborators and how much of this is seen in the end performance by the audience. This would give more information about the relationships that exist between music and dance, in the preparation of a work as well as in its performance.
These areas of further research would enhance discussion of Australian music in a wider context as none of these elements exist in isolation nor are purely held within the dance-music genre.
Conclusion:
This study of dance-music in Australia has encompassed a wide range of music, artforms and personalities. It has demonstrated extrinsic relationships that have affected music development, with direct implications on music written for dance.
Certain devices have been identified, such as the idea of singular motivic development following dramatic structures, and blending of music genres including associated instrumentations within one work. These qualities in music composition are used more abundantly in dance-music and have evolved from the composers’ wishes to create responsible dance scores. In response to Cargher’s observation where he stated that
"composers and choreographers in this country have not had time to establish any kind of tradition..."372, it has been shown that a tradition has been developed within the period 1960-2000. This tradition has usually involved: choreographers commissioning
372As given in Chapter One. Cargher. 1977, 312. 307 composers; composers following choreographers synopses, but sometimes contributing their own ideas also; certain dance companies such as Sydney Dance Company making it part of their practice to commission local composers for new music; the use of composers from any background; composers referencing outside material in their music to place the dance works in a certain environment, aesthetic or time.
Collaboration methodology has been demonstrated to have consequences for the character of the music written to accompany specific dances. Choreographers have relied on these characteristics to create movement, illustrating the significance of the music and the necessity for it to fulfil aesthetic requirements. 1960-2000 has been a period of artistic maturing, and trends found in dance-music have reflected trends found in modern thought, where all styles and types are considered to be of equal significance and equal acceptance. This has led to a proliferation of new styles of dance and music.
The range of choreographers’ tastes, aesthetics and personalities has impacted on the types of composers they have preferred to commission. Therefore the resulting dance- music written for dance works has been wide and inclusive of many styles.
Importantly, it has been shown that 1960 to 2000 produced a vast number of original works by composers and choreographers together, forming a tradition of Australian dance-music that continues to inspire and develop today.
308 Appendix A:
Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000373
Information given in this catalogue includes:
Composer’s name and dates Work title Choreographer’s name Dance company that premiered the work Date work was created Seasons (where possible) of the work’s performance Duration in time (where possible) of the work Other collaborators (where known) such as: dancers; musicians; other composers; authors; and lighting, costume and set designers. Instrumentation (where possible) Other notes of interest including: the structure of the dance-music; historical significance of the work; and origin of the synopsis. Recording details, including videos, films and audio (where possible) Source of information for the database
373 The Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000 that is held on the CD Rom attached to this thesis as Special Enclosure iv contains more information than could be included as printed material. In addition to the data fields given above, the CD Rom gives details (where possible) about: funding; other titles of the works; publications available of the scores; and any further significant facts about the work. 309 Guide to sources for the Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia 1960-2000
Code Source type Details A1 Archive Australian Music Centre. Biographical information and ephemera held at The Rocks, Sydney, NSW Australia. A2 Archive National Library, Australia. Information and ephemera held at Canberra, ACT, Australia. A3 Archive State Library of New South Wales. Information and ephemera held at Sydney, NSW, Australia. CC Composer Correspondence to Rachel Hocking from the composer. Correspondence ChC Choreographer Correspondence to Rachel Hocking from the Correspondence choreographer. CW Composer Website Information from composers’ websites. The specific websites used will be given. DC Dance Company Correspondence to Rachel Hocking from the dance Correspondence company. DW Dance Company Information from dance companies websites. The Website specific websites used will be given. NA Newspaper Article Information found in newspaper articles and reviews. The specific articles and reviews will be given. OD1 Online Database AusStage:
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The Australian Ballet. Melbourne: Australian Ballet Foundation, 1969.
The Australian Ballet: a discussion. Melbourne: Australian Ballet Foundation, 1979.
The Australian Ballet: a gala season, State Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre. Flemington, Victoria: Australian Ballet Foundation, 1986.
The Australian Ballet Foundation Community Access Programme. Edited by Suzanne Davidson. Chippendale, New South Wales: Step Typesetting, 19--.
The Australian Ballet 71. Edited by Noel Pelly, c1971.
The Australian Ballet, 25 years. Sydney: Australian Consolidated Press, 1987.
The Australian Dance Theatre, the Modern Dance Company of Australia. Adelaide: Australian Dance Theatre, 1978.
446 The Composer Speaks: composers and their colleagues discuss Australian music. Edited by Graeme Skinner. Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1991.
The Composer Speaks III: proceedings of the New Music Australia Conference 1992. Edited by Sally Macarthur. Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1998.
The Courier Mail. Brisbane, 24th July, 1964, page number unknown.
The Courier Mail. Brisbane, Monday 18th July, 2005, 13.
The Dance Handbook. Details unknown, 1988.
The Virtual Embodied: presence/practice/technology. Edited by John Wood. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Thompson, Anne. Fair Exchanges: 3DIS Computer/Dance/Music Project. Writings on Dance. Melbourne, 1990, 40-49.
Throsby, David. Platform Papers: does Australia need a cultural policy? No 7, January 06, Sydney: Currency House, 2006.
Tidemann, Harold. The Advertiser. Adelaide, 15th March, 1964.
Tindale, Norman B. Aboriginal Tribes of Australia. Berkley: University of California Press, 1974.
Trotter, Hilary. - Moving Forward: the agenda for the decade (report of the National Dance Summit). Australia Council, Easter 1991. - Too long between visits. Canberra Times. Canberra, 5th October, 1988, 30.
447 Turner, Margery J. New Dance: approaches to nonliteral choreography. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971.
Tweedie, Valrene. Programme: 1961 season. Sydney: Ballet Australia, 1961. Records of Ballet Australia. National Library of Australia, MS 9171. - Programme: 1960 season. Sydney: Ballet Australia, 17th December, 1960. Records of Ballet Australia. National Library of Australia, MS 9171
Ungvary, Tamas. Waters, Simon. and Rajka, Peter. NUNTIUS: a computer system for the interactive composition and analysis of music and dance. Leonardo. Volume 25, No 1, 1992, 59-68.
Ungvary, Tamas. and Rajka, Peter. Interfacing computer music and computer choreography. Neue Musiktechnologie. Mainz, Germany: Schott, 1993, 148- 161.
Van Praagh, Peggy and Brinson, Peter. The Choreographic Art: an outline of its principles and craft. London: A. & C. Black 1963.
Vasdekis, Barbara. A soul’s journey richly textured. The Australian. 8th July, 1991, page number unknown.
Villaume, John. Off the beaten track. The Courier Mail. Brisbane, 18th October 1982
Vine, Carl - Vine’s contribution to An emotional geography of Australian composition. Edited by Ian Shanahan and Chris Dench. Sounds Australian, 34, 1992, 25-6. - Art for whose sake? 24 Hours. August 1993, 44-50. (Transcript of lecture given by Vine, 2nd June 1993, Sydney Opera House.) - Email discussion to Rachel Hocking, 24th and 25th January, 2005. - Letters to Amanda Meale re her thesis. 10th May 1993, 2nd July 1993, 24th August 1993, 7th September 1993, 6th October 1993. Also interviewed by Amanda
448 Meale, Sydney 28th March, 1993 and interview by Richard Toop, Sydney, 5th December, 1984. - Musical truisms and beer at the beach. Times on Sunday. 28th March, 1987. - Program notes for Everyman’s Troth concert suite. (Program for performance by the Australian Contermporary Players, 22nd June 1985, Recording Hall, Sydney Opera House). - Program notes for Suite from “Hate” (1982-84). (Program for performance by The Seymour Group, Belvoir St Theatre, 9th December 1991). - Program Notes for Poppy.
Walsh, S. Williamson the Many-Sided. Music and Musicians, xiii/11, 1964–1965, 26–9, 55.
Webster, Belinda. - Carl Vine: art and mind. Soundscapes. Volume 4, Issue 6, December 1997- January 1998, 10-12. - Towards a New Romanticism. APRA. October 1989, 13.
Whittall, Arnold. Schoenberg Chamber Music. London: BBC, 1979.
Whittington, Stephen. - Curro brings out youth’s best. The Advertiser. Adelaide, 22nd July, 1991. - Standing on the outside looking in. The Advertiser. Adelaide, 15th April, 1989 , 8.
Wilkins, Michael. 1914 a bit of a shot in the dark. Sunday Telegraph. Sydney,12th April, 1998, 146.
Williams, Lynne. Emerging Australian composers. Musical Times. London, November/December 1988, 591.
Williamson, Malcolm. Biographical Archives. Australian Music Centre: Sydney, 2002.
449 Woolliams, Anne. Ballet Studio: an inside view. Sydney: Ure Smith, 1978.
450 Discography: music recordings
An Australian Collection. Glebe, New South Wales: Tall Poppies Records, c 1997.
Appassionata: music for dance. Melbourne: Australian Ballet School, 1998.
Armiger, Martin. Fornicon. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000.
Bolleter, Ross. With Nowhere To Turn. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994.
Burt, Warren. War is a Dumb Idea. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994.
Chesworth, David. Choral. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994.
Conyngham, Barry. - Silent Night. Christmas Under Capricorn. Played by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP016, 1992. - Vast. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000. - Vast Sydney?: ABC, 1990.
Davies, Iva. - Berlin. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000. - Berlin. Personal recording made by Iva Davies for Rachel Hocking, 2001. - Boxes. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000. - Boxes. Personal recording made by Iva Davies for Rachel Hocking, 20001.
451 de Jong, Sarah. - A Child’s Waltz. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - In the Wind. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994.
Franklin, James (Jim). Rolling. Wattever. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP074, 1996.
From Australia. John Williams. CD Australia: Sony, 1994.
Greenwell, Andrée. A Lovely Time. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994.
Henderson, Moya. I Wonder as I Wander. Christmas Under Capricorn. Played by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP016, 1992.
Inspired 20th Century Piano Music. Performed by Michael Kieran Harvey. CD Brookvale, New South Wales: Program Promotions, 1992.
Kats Chernin, Elena. - Four Rags for Ian Munro. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - Russian Rag. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - Schubert Blues. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999.
Koehne, Graeme.
452 - 1914 - ballet in one act. Played by the State Orchestra of Victoria, conducted by Mark Summerbell. Australia: ABC Classics, 465 209-2, 1999. - Once Around the Sun. Glebe, New South Wales: Tall Poppies Records, 1998. - Nearly Beloved. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000. - The Selfish Giant. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000.
Kretschmer, Robert. Boxes. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000.
Lambert, Max. Berlin. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000.
Leek, Stephen. - As You Like It. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994. - Ngana. Ngana. Performed by the Australian Voices, conducted by Stephen Leek. Brisbane: Arts NOW Australia, voicesCD004, 1997. - Once on a Mountain. Ngana. Performed by the Australian Voices, conducted by Stephen Leek. Brisbane: Arts NOW Australia, voicesCD004, 1997. - South Australia. Ngana. Performed by the Australian Voices, conducted by Stephen Leek. Brisbane: Arts NOW Australia, voicesCD004, 1997.
Lewis, Tony. Passage: music by Tony Lewis for the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre. Carlton South, Victoria: Move Records, MD 3103, 1990.
Lloyd, Robert. Nullabor. Carlton South, Vic.: Move Records, c1995.
Masques: music of Colin Brumby and other Australian composers. CD Australia: Jade Records, 1993.
453 Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre. Songs with Mara. Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre. Sydney, New South Wales: Tall Poppies, 1996.
Mills, Richard. - Carol of the Drum. Christmas Under Capricorn. Played by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP016, 1992. - Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Played by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Werner Andreas Albert. Brisbane: ABC Classics, 422 933-2, 1999.
Page, David. Ochres. Mascot, New South Wales: Larrikin, 1995.
Refining the Art. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1996.
Schiemer, Greg. - Iconophony. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994. - Polyphonic Variations. Wattever. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP074, 1996.
Sculthorpe, Peter. - Advance Australia Fair. The Best of Peter Sculthorpe. Australia: ABC Classics, 465 270-2, 1999. - Awake, Glad Heart. The Best of Peter Sculthorpe. Australia: ABC Classics, 465 270-2, 1999. - Callabonna. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - Child of Australia. The Best of Peter Sculthorpe. Australia: ABC Classics, 465 270-2, 1999. - Djilile. The Fifth Continent. Played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Hobart: ABC Classics, 456 363-2, 1997. - Earth Cry. Earth Cry. Played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stuart Challender. Sydney: ABC Classics, 426 481-2, 1990.
454 - Four duets for piano. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth and Phillida Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - From Uluru. Sun Music. Played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Adelaide: ABC Classics, 454 505-2, 1997. - Irkanda IV. Earth Cry. Played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stuart Challender. Sydney: ABC Classics, 426 481-2, 1990. - Kakadu. Earth Cry. Played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stuart Challender. Sydney: ABC Classics, 426 481-2, 1990. - Lament. The Fifth Continent. Played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Hobart: ABC Classics, 456 363-2, 1997. - Left Bank Waltz. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - Little Serenade. The Best of Peter Sculthorpe. Australia: ABC Classics, 465 270-2, 1999. - Little Suite. The Fifth Continent. Played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Hobart: ABC Classics, 456 363-2, 1997. - Mangrove. Earth Cry. Played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stuart Challender. Sydney: ABC Classics, 426 481-2, 1990. - Memento mori. Sun Music. Played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Adelaide: ABC Classics, 454 505-2, 1997. - Night Pieces. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - Night Song. The Fifth Continent. Played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Hobart: ABC Classics, 456 363-2, 1997. - Piano Concerto. Australian Piano Concertos. Australia: ABC Classics, 426 483-2, 2000. - Port Arthur: In Memoriam (versions for trumpet and oboe). The Fifth Continent. Played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Hobart: ABC Classics, 456 363-2, 1997.
455 - Simori. Biodiversity Volume 2. Played by Elizabeth Green. University of Western Sydney, Kingswood: Australian Music Centre, BD02 and BD03, 1999. - Simori. Mere Bagatelles. Played by Ian Munro. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP080, 1996. - Small Town. Earth Cry. Played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stuart Challender. Sydney: ABC Classics, 426 481-2, 1990. - Sonata for Strings No. 3 The Best of Peter Sculthorpe. Australia: ABC Classics, 465 270-2, 1999. - Sun Music 1. Sun Music. Played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Adelaide: ABC Classics, 454 505-2, 1997. - Sun Music II. Sun Music. Played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Adelaide: ABC Classics, 454 505-2, 1997. - Sun Music III. Sun Music. Played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Adelaide: ABC Classics, 454 505-2, 1997. - Sun Music IV. Sun Music. Played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Adelaide: ABC Classics, 454 505-2, 1997. - Sun Song. Sun Music. Played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn. Adelaide: ABC Classics, 454 505-2, 1997. - The Fifth Continent. The Fifth Continent. Played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn, speaker Peter Sculthorpe (1963). Hobart: ABC Classics, 456 363-2, 1997.
Sitsky, Larry. - At the Gate - Collage. Christmas Under Capricorn. Played by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP016, 1992. - Foucault’s Pendulum. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994.
Travers, Cathie. Patient Zero. Spin. Played by Jeanell Carrigan. Sydney: Vox Australis, VAST029-2, 2001.
456 Vella, Richard. A Piano Reminisces. Australian Piano Miniatures. Played by Michael Kieran Harvey. Melbourne: Red House Editions, RED 9401, 1994.
Vine, Carl. - 3 BBC Exercises. Wattever. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP074, 1996. - Aria. Carl Vine. Sydney: AMC. - Array. Wattever. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP074, 1996. - Café Concertino. Café Concertino. Played by the Australia Ensemble. Newcastle: Tall Poppies, TP002, 1991. - Canzona. The Tempest. Performed the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ola Rudner. Australia: ABC Classics, 476 226-7, 2004. - Chamber Music, Volume One. Carl Vine. CD Glebe, New South Wales: Tall Poppies Records, 1992. - Curios. Carl Vine: selected works. Sydney: AMC. - Everyman’s Troth. Carl Vine: selected works. Sydney: AMC. - Five Bagatelles. Mere Bagatelles. Played by Ian Munro. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP080, 1996. - God rest ye merry gentlemen. Christmas Under Capricorn. Played by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP016, 1992. - Golden Section - Return. Carl Vine. Sydney: AMC. - Images. Carl Vine. Sydney: AMC. - Inner World. Played by David Pereira. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP101, 1996. - Knips Suite movements 1-3. Carl Vine: selected works. Sydney: AMC. - Knips Suite movements 4-5. Carl Vine: selected works. Sydney: AMC. - Legend. Played by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Gill. Sydney: AMC. - Miniature IV. Samsara. Played by the Australia Ensemble. Sydney: Vox Australis, VAST020-2, 1995. - Mythologia. Performed by the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP149, 2000.
457 - Oboe Concerto. The Tempest. Performed by Diana Doherty, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ola Rudner. Australia: ABC Classics, 476 226-7, 2004. - Piano Sonata. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000. - Piano Sonata. Performed by Michael Kieran Harvey, live with the dance. Recording taken with permission from Carl Vine, from the videorecording of the dancework, made available by Screensound. - Piano Sonata No. 1. Storm Sight. Performed by Michael Kieran Harvey. Newcastle: ABC Classics, 461 723-2, 2001. - Poppy. Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work: a retrospective. Glebe: Tall Poppies, TP146, 2000. - Poppy. Recording taken with permission from the videorecording of the dancework, made available by Screensound. SBS, 1998. - Red Blues. Spin. Played by Jeanell Carrigan. Sydney: Vox Australis, VAST029-2, 2001. - Sinfonia. Carl Vine. Sydney: AMC. - Smith’s Alchemy. The Tempest. Performed the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ola Rudner. Australia: ABC Classics, 476 226-7, 2004. - Suite from the Tempest. The Tempest. Performed the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ola Rudner. Australia: ABC Classics, 476 226-7, 2004.
Whitehead, Gillian. Qui Natus est. Christmas Under Capricorn. Played by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott. Sydney: Tall Poppies, TP016, 1992.
Williamson, Malcolm. The Display Orchestral Suite. - The Display. Videorecording of televised film. ABC studios, Played by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Rosen. Date unknown, between 1966-68. Recording held with the Australian Ballet.
458 Discography: oral histories
Carroll, Jacqui. Interview with Jacqui Carroll, Dancer, Teacher and Choreographer. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 2-6 November, 1990. ORAL TRC 2646, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Davidson, Suzanne. Interview with Suzanne Davidson, New South Wales Manager, the Australian Ballet. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 6th November, 1997. ORAL TRC 3636, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Gielgud, Maina. - Interview with Maina Gielgud. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 1994-1995. ORAL TRC 3165, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. - Address Delivered by Maina Geilgud, Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet at the National Press Club, Canberra, July 13, 1989. National Press Club luncheon address, 1989. ORAL TRC 4117, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Helpmann, Robert. Conversation with Robert Helpmann. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 13th March, 1964. ORAL DeB 47, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Ingram, Geoffrey. Interview with Geoffrey Ingram. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 12th to 14th December, 1988. ORAL TRC 2372, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Lawrence, Bryan. Interview with Bryan Lawrence, Australian Ballet Dancer and Ballet Instructor. Interviewed by Bill Stephens, 1986. ORAL TRC 2118, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Mercurio, Paul. Interview with Paul Mercurio, Actor, Dancer, Choreographer, Manager of Australian Choreographic Ensemble. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 30th
459 January, 1996. ORAL TRC 3395, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Murphy, Graeme. - Conversation with Graeme Murphy, Dancer and Choreographer. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 1981. ORAL DeB 1222-1223, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. - Interview with Graeme Murphy, Choreographer and Artistic Director. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 16th to 17th May, 1990. ORAL TRC 2680, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. - Interview with Graeme Murphy, Choreographer and Artistic Director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 13th August, 1996. ORAL TRC 3478, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Page, Stephen. Interview with Stephen Page, Dancer, Choreographer and Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 30th January, 1996. ORAL TRC 3397, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Pask, Edward H. - Interview with Edward Pask, Ballet Historian and Archivist Interviewed by Bill Stephens, 26th July, 1994. ORAL TRC 3092, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. - Interview with Edward Pask, Australian Ballet Archivist Interviewed by Bill Stephens, 6th October,1993. ORAL TRC 2185/64, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Peasley, Colin. Discussions with Rachel Hocking, Melbourne: Australian Ballet Centre, 16th January, 2006.
Ray, Robert. Interview with Robert Ray, Dancer and Choreographer, and Teacher at the Australian Ballet School. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 18th and 19th
460 September, 1990. ORAL TRC 2636, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Stock, Cheryl. Interview with Cheryl Stock, Dancer and Performing Artist. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 6th and 7 th May, 1990. ORAL TRC 2578, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Tankard, Meryl. - Interview with Meryl Tankard, Choreographer, Artistic Director. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 9th to 10th July, 1990. ORAL TRC 3477, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. - Interview with Meryl Tankard, Choreographer, Artistic Director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 31st July, 1996. ORAL TRC 3748, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia. - Interview with Meryl Tankard, Choreographer, Artistic Director. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 11th November, 1999. ORAL TRC 3939, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Van Praagh, Peggy. Conversation with Dame Peggy Van Praagh. Interviewed by Hazel De Berg, 12th July, 1973. ORAL DeB 681, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Warren, Leigh. Interview with Leigh Warren, Artistic Director of the Australian Dance Theatre. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 6th to 9th September, 1990. ORAL TRC 2631, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Welch, Stanton. Interview with Stanton Welch, Dancer, Choreographer. Interviewed by Michelle Potter, 28th August 1995. ORAL TRC 3321, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Williamson, Malcolm. Conversation with Hazel de Berg. Interviewed by Hazel de Berg, 8th October, 1967. ORAL DeB 290, 291, 292, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
461 Woolliams, Anne. Interview with Anne Woolliams, Dancer and Former Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet. Interviewed by Shirley McKechnie, 21st August, 1987. ORAL TRC 2198, Oral History Collection, National Library of Australia.
Yunupingu, Mandawuy. Interview with Aaron Corn. Musicological Society of Australia National Conference, Sydney, September 2005.
462 Scores
Adams, David. Strangers: a ballet in three scenes for chamber ensemble. 1981.
Broadstock, Brenton. Expedition: for strings. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1985.
Brumby, Colin. - Alice: ballet suite no. 1. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1987. - Alice in Wonderland. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1987. - Ballet Music for Masques. Facsimile score, 1977. - Cinderella: ballet in two acts.
Colborne-Veel, John. The Last Butterfly: a ballet in two acts, scenario and music. Facsimile score for piano. - Overture Based on Themes from the Ballet ‘Tiger Jim’. Facsimile score, 1981.
Davidson, Robert. Bushwalk Dance. Facsimile score.
Dreyfus, George. The Illusionist: mime-drama for solo dancer and orchestra. Facsimile score, 1965.
Glanville-Hicks, Peggy. Tragic Celebration: ballet after the tragedy of Jeptha’s daughter. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1964.
Hames, Richard David. Ku: for solo recorder, dancer and multiple tape-delay system. Facsimile score and version for shakuhachi, flute or alto flute, or oboe, 1979.
Howard, Brian. The Celestial Mirror. Facsimile score, 1987.
Joseph, David. - Pelleas and Melisande: a ballet after M. Maeterlinck. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1994.
463 - The Golden Slave: a choreographic poem. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1987. - The Dream Choreographic Episodes for Small Orchestra.
Koehne, Graeme. 1914: ballet in one act. - Gallery. Facsimile score, 1987. - Once Around the Sun. Facsimile score, 1988. - Rhythmic Birds of the Antipodes. Facsimile score, 1988. - The Selfish Giant: ballet. Facsimile score, 1982.
Linden Jones, Anthony. Mandala: for violin and tape. Sydney: Lindensong, 1995.
Lloyd, Robert. Bold New Buildings: for four digital programmed keyboards. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1986.
Mageau, Mary. Soliloquy: dance piece 1. Facsimile score, 1984.
Mills, Richard. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie: ballet in one act after May Gibbs. Facsimile score, 1988.
Paull, James. Buzzard. Facsimile score
Penicka, Miloslav. Once Upon a Time. Facsimile score, 1995.
Satie, Erik. Twenty Short Pieces for Piano. Dover: New York, 1982.
Schoenberg, Arnold. Kammersymphonie. Opus 9. Univeral: USA, 1950.
Schuman, William. Night Journey. Choreographic poem for 15 instruments.
Sitsky, Larry. Sinfonia for 10 Players. Performance parts, facsimile score, 1964.
Sluik, Peter. Collection of Piano Music. Sydney: Australia Music Centre, 199-.
464 Smalley, Roger. Chimera. Facsimile score, 1994.
Stravinsky, Igor. The Rite of Spring. Re-engraved edition 1967. Boosey & Hawkes, London, 1967.
Tahourdin, Peter. Ballet Illyria. Facsimile score and performance parts, 1966.
Vine, Carl. A Christmas Carol. 2 facsimile scores and performance parts, 1983. . - Daisy Bates: the world within: in 3 acts. Facsimile score, 1982. - Everyman’s Troth. Facsimile score, 1979. - Knips Suite. Facsimile score and performance parts, 1990 - Legend Suite. Facsimile score, 1988. - Poppy: Act 1. Facsimile score, 1978. - Scene Shift. Facsimile score, 1979. - Slaughterhouse. Facsimile score, 1976. - Suite from Hate. Facsimile score and performance parts., 1990. - The Tempest: ballet music for orchestra and electronic tape. Performance parts and facsimile score, 1991.
Weber, Carl Maria von. Aufforderung zum tanz. Opus 65. Orchestrated by Hector Berlioz. Ernst: London, 1945.
Werder, Felix. - La belle dame sans merci. Opus 130. Facsimile score, 1973. - Quantum. Facsimile score, 1973.
Williamson, Malcolm. - The Display. Orchestral score. Josef Weinberger, 1964. - The Display. Piano reduction. Australian Ballet, 1964.
Wilson, Andrew. In This Fragile Moment: music for ballet. Facsimile score 1981.
465 Videorecordings/Films
Aboriginal Australia: the National Aboriginal Video Magazine. Volume 18. Produced for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Canberra: NRS Group, c1991.
Astonish Me! Directed by Malcolm McDonald, produced by Don Featherstone. Australia: Don Featherstone Productions, c1989.
Australia Dances. National Library, Canberra, 1990.
Australian Dance Theatre Presents. Adelaide, South Australia: Polycom Productions and the Australian Dance Theatre, 1984.
Bangarra Dance Company. Aboriginal Australia: the National Aboriginal Video Magazine. Volume 15. Produced for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Canberra: NRS Group, c1991.
Betty Pounder. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch. North Sydney: Australia Council, 1988.
Black river. Hindmarsh, South Australia: Tape Services, Department of Education and Children's Services, c1994.
Boxes. Directed for television by Geoffrey Nottage and produced by Sydney Dance Company. Sydney: Festival Video, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, c1985.
Café. Directed for television by Geoffrey Nottage and produced by Sydney Dance Company. Sydney: Festival Video, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, c1985.
Dancing in the Moonlight. Produced by Trevor Graham, Sharon Connolly and directed by Trevor Graham. Assisted by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Melbourne: produced by Yarra Bank Films in association with Townsville
466 Aboriginal & Islander Media Association, Australian Film Institute distributor, 1988.
Dreamtime to Dance. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2001.
Fish: an unborn soul. Produced by Aanya Whitehead and Paul Hinfress. West Brunswick, Victoria: FrontRow Video Distribution, c1998.
Innovations. Sydney: National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association, 1988.
Ka-wayawayama: aeroplane dance. Produced and directed by Trevor Graham. Lindfield, New South Wales: Film Australia, c1994.
Kelvin Coe. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch and produced by Peter Campbell. Redfern, New South Wales: Australia Council, c1990.
Land, Kinship and Culture. Written, produced and directed by Anne O'Casey. Bendigo, Victoria: Video Education Australasia, 1999.
Laurel Martyn. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch. North Sydney: Australia Council, 1984.
Margaret Barr. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch. North Sydney: Australia Council, 1986.
Margaret Evelyn Walker. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch and produced by Peter Campbell. South Melbourne: Australia Council, AFI Distribution Limited, c1988.
Margaret Scott. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch. Australia Council, c1990.
467 Mimi: an evening with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre. Produced and directed by Andee Reese and Margaret Anne Smith. Milsons Point, New South Wales: SBS Marketing, c1988.
Notes on a Landscape: Australian composers. Sydney: Fitzwater Productions for the Australian Music Centre Ltd, c 1980.
Ochres. Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia. Recorded at the Festival of Perth, Western Australia. Sydney: Stella Motion Pictures, c 1995.
Open Weave. Nanette Hassell, 1987.
Pask, Edward. Another Beginning. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Ray Powell. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch and produced by Peter Campbell. Sydney, New South Wales: Australia Council, c1990.
Resonance. Australia: Resonance Productions: Australian Film Commission, 1991.
Shirley McKechnie. Researched and interviewed by James Murdoch. North Sydney: Australia Council, 1988.
Sir Robert Helpmann. Australia Council, Keisal Films production, 1975.
Take a Seat: Passage. Sydney: Tony Lewis? c1990.
The Awakenings: an Aboriginal/indigenous triumph at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Bendigo, Victoria: Video Education Australasia distributor, c2001
The Journey. Australian Dance Theatre. Sydney, 1983.
468 The Right Ingredients. Produced and directed by George Cass and Chris O'Rourke. Melbourne, Victoria: Ministry of Education, 1988.
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Bauld, Alison.
470 Beilharz, Kirsty.
Blades, James. and Holland, James. Flexatone. Grove music online. Edited by L. Macy. Accessed 21st January, 2006.
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474 DVD 1
Poppy
Sydney Dance Company Choreography by Graeme Murphy/Music by Carl Vine
Chapters One and Two: Titles Chapter Three: Act 1, Scene 1 In a Field of Poppies Chapter Four: Act 1, Scene 2 The Schoolroom Chapters Five and Six: Act 1, Scene 3 The Cabaret Chapter Seven: Act 1, Scene 4 Backstage at Ballet Russes Chapters Eight and Nine: Act 1, Scene 5 Radiguet’s Death Chapter Ten: Act 2, Caption 1 Chapters Eleven to Thirteen: Act 2, Caption 2 Chapter Fourteen: Act 2, Caption 3, end titles
Copyright permission obtained from the National Film and Sound Archive, for study purposes only, in accompaniment to the thesis Crafting Connections: original music for the dance in Australia, 1960-2000 by Rachel Hocking. 475
DVD 2
Ochres
Bangarra Dance Theatre Choreography by Stephen Page/Music by David Page
Chapters One to Three: Titles Chapter Four: Spirit of the Ochres Chapter Five: Yellow Chapter Six: Black Chapters Seven: Red Chapter Eight: White
For study purposes only, in accompaniment to the thesis Crafting Connections: original music for the dance in Australia, 1960-2000 by Rachel Hocking.
475 a DVD 3
Fair Exchanges: hear the dance, see the music
Filmed 14th March 1989 in Melbourne, Australia. Choreography by Shona Innes/Music by Warren Burt and Ros Bandt
Chapter One: Titles Chapter Two: awaywithwords Chapter Three: For Percy Grainger and Burnett Cross Chapter Four: Inside Out (For Graham) Chapters Five: Free Trade Zones Chapter Six: Mungo Chapter Seven: Random
Copyright permission obtained from Warren Burt, for study purposes only, in accompaniment to the thesis Crafting Connections: original music for the dance in Australia, 1960-2000 by Rachel Hocking.
476
CD 1
Catalogue of Original Music for the Dance in Australia, 1960-2000
Created by Rachel Hocking for the thesis Crafting Connections: original music for the dance in Australia, 1960-2000.
Software needed to operate this database: Microsoft Access 2002.
476 a