Teachers’ Notes by Paul Rissmann I love Australia. Every time I visit (for work or for pleasure) I am invigorated by its landscape, stunning coastline and of course, the glorious Aussie sunshine. So what an honour it was to be asked to create new music inspired by this ‘Great Southern Land’. But what a challenge too. I mean, what would music by a Scotsman about Australia actually sound like? And more importantly, where to start? In November 2014 I toured to Sydney with the London Symphony Orchestra. Whilst there, I sought inspiration in the Art Gallery of New South Wales for my new, and as of yet, untitled work. One exhibition that caught my imagination was entitled ‘Our spirit lies in water’. The quote is by the Kuninjku artist Ivan Namirrkki and refers to the inherent relationship Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to country and to water. As I wandered round the gallery, I was particularly struck by the painting Waipu Rockhole by Tommy Watson. I loved the energy that radiated from his vivid dot painting. The bright colours and snake-like forms immediately suggested music to me. I stood entranced, wondering what this painting might sound like. At that moment I knew my new piece would be about water. Quickly, I started to research Australian art works and poetry about water, and naturally, I was soon overwhelmed by thousands of fabulous pieces. Over the ensuing months, I started to map out a visual storyboard for my music using a series of Australian paintings. Given the time constraints of the commission, I eventually settled on just four images to focus my writing. They are: 1. An Aboriginal rock painting of the Rainbow Serpent 2. Waipu Rockhole, 2004, by Tommy Watson 3. Walls of China, 1945, by Russell Drysdale 4. Australian Beach Pattern, 1940 by Charles Meere 1 These four works span an extraordinary journey, beginning in a parched land devoid of water (and therefore human life) and ending up, many millennia later with a celebration of Australia’s world-famous beach culture. I apologise in advance for omitting your favourite Aussie seascape, or failing to even mention the Great Barrier Reef – but the reality is, the commission was for six minutes of music and not an entire symphony! So here is a brief outline of the musical structure I created and a little information to the inspiration behind each section. 1. The Rainbow Serpent When I stumbled upon an Aboriginal rock painting of the rainbow serpent on Wikipedia, I quickly became fascinated by the Dreamtime legend of the colourful snake a creator spirit that brought water and life to Australia. The opening of my music aims to depict a vast and thirsty desert landscape. 2. The Rockhole The music suddenly explodes into a highly rhythmic section inspired by Tommy Watson’s Waipu Rockhole. I loved the colour, shape and pattern in his work so my music is also full of cyclical patterns. This painting depicts the story or map of country it informs the peoples of were water is the oldest maps known to man beyond the maps of Columbus a story that connects in song a rhythm of survival on country. In this section, the children sing ‘Our spirit lies in water’ which is a quote from the Aboriginal artist Ivan Namirrkki and a reference to the exhibition in which I first discovered Tommy’s painting. 3. Australian Rivers Waipu Rockhole also features several snake-like shapes, so I decided to explore how a river, when seen from above, looks very similar to a snake – and I questioned, is it possible to replicate those shapes in a musical score and to place it with feeling the rhythm of country and the oldest journey of survival spiritually connected to place The music I ended up writing is fast and furious and zips through the orchestra at high speed. Here the children sing a tongue-twisting song, which was created after an inspirational conversation I had with the virtuoso didgeridoo player Shane Charles. 4. Drought The river music suddenly grinds to a halt and we enter a barren landscape inspired by Russell Drysdale’s painting Walls of China. 5. My Country What follows is a setting I made of the second verse of Dorothea Mackellar’s famous poem My Country. I liked the idea of her vivid words coming after the music for drought. 6. Australian Beach Patterns I tried to capture the confidence and spirit of Charles Meere’s picture Australian Beach Pattern. This section quickly becomes complex and rhythmical but my secret 2 is - all of the rhythms in the music were actually made out of the names of Australian beaches! At the climax of this section the children sing once more ‘Our spirit lies in water’. 7. Coda H2Oz ends with a sudden rush of water created by the audience. This sea of sound is played throughout the final bars of music. Here the orchestra return to the vast soundscape of the opening, but now with the melody I set to the Mackellar text. The music crescendos to a bright major chord but then suddenly stops - leaving just the audience making their water sound effect. Slowly the water disappears to nothing. Preparing to Perform H2OZ H2Oz was written especially for young people to perform with the full-forces of a professional symphony orchestra. The participation music that your class will learn is an integral part of the score. Over the course of 6 minutes, the children will sing, perform body percussion, rap and create a soundscape of rushing water. As you can see from the notes above, the music divides into clearly defiend sections so the easiest way to teach the piece in class is to simply tackle one or two parts at a time. It is of course possible to learn the entire piece in an hour, but I imagine that it will be much more fun to approach the music in bite-sized chunks. All the lyrics you sing will be projected on a big screen above the orchestra in the hall, so there is absolutely no pressure to memorise anything (although from past experience, young people absorb and remember text with the greatest of ease). Digital Resources In addition to this pack, I have also created a series of resources to use in class. There are audio practice tracks (of the entire piece and also of each individual section) a PowerPoint of the lyrics and video of the body percussion section and an interactive Prezi. Musical Manuscript A fully notated participation part can be found at the very back of this pack. If you are music specialist you may find this more useful than my section-by-section teaching guide. However please note, the children need never to worry about counting bars rest in the piece, as I will always cue them at the start of each section. Artwork All the pictures that inspired my music are easily located with a quick search on Google. It would be great if you could have a look at them with the class as you learn the music. Acknowledgments I’d like to say a special thank you to Shane Charles for guidance and inspiration as I was creating this work. I am also grateful to the estate of Dorothea Mackellar for granting permission to include her poem in my music. 3 I hope you have as much fun learning H2Oz as I had writing it. I look forward to performing it with you very soon. Paul Rissmann, April 2015 4 H2Oz - TEACHING GUIDE Section 1 – The Rainbow Serpent Here is the song we sing at the beginning of the music. I tried to make the melody look as much like a snake as possible! The only tricky part of this simple song is the cross-rhythm at the very of the second line, when you sing ‘water rushed through this land’. Listen carefully to audio extract of this music and try and match the rhythm as closely as possible. Section 2 – The Rockhole In this section, you perform a body percussion sequence that relates directly to the music played by the percussion section of the orchestra. The rhythmic shape of this music looks like this: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 In the first line, you simply count a steady 1 – 2 – 3 – 4. In the second line, you count to 3, but twice as fast as the first line. The third line is exactly the same speed as the first. Try counting through this sequence. If the chart above looks really complicated, make sure you watch the video I made about this body percussion section. It will explain everything! 5 Now that you can count through the sequence, perform the following actions on each beat. 1 2 3 4 RIGHT 2 very fast THIGH CHEST FOOT SLAP CLAP SLAPS (with right hand) STAMP Right-Left CHEST CHEST THIGH SLAP SLAP SLAP RIGHT LEFT RIGHT 2 very fast LEFT THIGH CHEST FOOT CLAP SLAPS SLAP STAMP Left-Right (with left hand) Don’t worry too much about the instructions to perform left and right, it doesn’t really matter if you do the actions a different way round. TOP TIPS practice performing the thigh slaps as quickly as possible (without hurting yourself of course) – they are fast. the 2nd line of the chart flows directly into the 3rd, so it may be useful just to practice the sequence CHEST SLAP, CHEST SLAP, THIGH SLAP, FOOT STAMP as few times on its own.