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contemporary music for a time of change. Elliott Gyger: From the hungry waiting country Stuart Greenbaum: Easter Island. ideas.unimelb.edu.au. music by Elliott Gyger (2006) performed by Halcyon Alison Morgan soprano Belinda Montgomery soprano Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano
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contemporary music for a time of change Elliott Gyger:From the hungry waiting country Stuart Greenbaum:Easter Island ideas.unimelb.edu.au
music by Elliott Gyger (2006) performed by Halcyon Alison Morgansoprano Belinda Montgomerysoprano Jenny Duck-Chongmezzo-soprano Jo Burtonmezzo-soprano Genevieve Langharp From the hungry waiting country
From the hungry waiting country is a musical response to contemporary Australia’s precarious relationship with water. It sets seven 20th-century Australian poems (in English) and extracts from eight ancient Near Eastern religious texts in a variety of languages. These seemingly disparate strata are linked by the striking use of Biblical imagery in the Australian poetry, and by the common theme of water in the desert, often as an image for divine grace. The various texts, intercut and overlaid in various ways, are grouped in two large parts, the second almost twice as long as the first. Both parts start in more or less the same place – waiting for rain – but in Part I (Wet) the prayer is answered, whereas in Part II (Dry) it is not. Some listeners may find the moral logic of the texts uncomfortable; surely few Australians consider the drought as the handiwork of a vengeful God. Nonetheless there is a profoundly ethical dimension to the emerging ecological crises – an increasing awareness that they are the consequences of our own actions, in more direct ways than could have been imagined 2000 years ago.
Part I (Wet) S2 solo: Thanksgiving Hymn 14Dead Sea Scrolls 1QH [Hebrew] I give thanks, Lord,because you have set meat the source of streamsin a dry land, at the spring of waterin a parched land, in a garden wateredby channels… S1 A2 duet: Ambrosia(William Hart-Smith) He lifted a drop of ambrosiaon a length of brittle straw and let the bead of nectar runback along the straw towards His hand.Lifted the straw and tilted it towards the earth again until where thedroplet gathered
A1 solo: Ishmael(Randolph Stow) Oasis. Discovered homeland. seven colours flashed.With it he touched My eyes drink at your eyes. a creature’s being,the creature of all creatures that he most loved and treasured. Noon by noon, under leaves,my dry lips seek you. One assumes the quantity was not precisely measured. S2 A1 duet: 1 Enoch 48:1[Ethiopic] Furthermore, in that place I sawthe fountain of righteousness,which does not become depletedand is surrounded completelyby numerous fountains of wisdom.All the thirsty ones drank from themand were filled with wisdom,and their dwellings werewith the righteousand the holy and the chosen.
S1 A1 A2 trio: Isaiah 45:8 [Latin] Shower, O heavens, from above,and let the skies rain down righteousness;let the earth be opened, and salvation spring up,and let it cause righteousness to spring up also;I the Lord have created it.
A1 A2 duet: Tch’mala: the Rainbow Serpent(Mark O’Connor) His mass is mountains. Roaris elder brother of the sea’s blood-purr.His rumble from Mission Beach down past Murdering Pointis a palm’s back-sway, taipan’s long hiss. His trails are the endless oncomings of mistlow into the water-choked valleys – his scalesthe mountain slopes shiny with rain; his accompanistthe willful drub of rain that greetsthe giant toad’s rasping heat-cry. S1 S2 duet:3 Enoch 22B:8 [Hebrew] There pour out rivers of joy,streams of rejoicing,rivers of gladness,streams of exultation,rivers of love, streams of friendshipoverflowing from before the throne of glory,and, gathering strength,flow through the gatesof the paths of Arabot, at the melodious soundof his creatures’ harps,at the exultant soundof the drums of his wheels,at the sound of thecymbal music of his cherubim.
The sound swellsand bursts out in a mighty rush:Holy,holy,holy,Lord of hosts, the whole earthis full of his glory. Though he breaks the good trees with the flail of his tail,through him are all hatchlings and fruit. Grass-renewer,his sperm are the eels that fall from Heaven. He restocksthe swamp, fills the rock-hole above falls. Through him,what survives is reborn in water.
S1 S2 A2 trio: Odes of Solomon 30 [Syriac] Fill for yourselves water from the living spring of the Lord,because it has been opened for you.And come all you thirsty and take a drink,and rest beside the spring of the Lord.Because it is pleasing and sparkling,and perpetually pleases the self. For more refreshing is its water than honey,and the honeycomb of bees is not to be compared with it;Because it flowed from the lips of the Lord, His cave of retreatmakes the dry season. His aftersign is the bridge of beautyglimpsed through shifting cloud.
S1 A1 duet: Gospel of Thomas 108 [Coptic] Jesus said, “Whoever drinks from my mouthwill become like me;I, too, will become like that person,” and it was named from the heart of the Lord.And it came boundless and invisible,and until it was set in the middle they knew it not.Blessed are they who have drunk from it, “and to that personthe obscure things will be shown forth.” and have rested by it. Hallelujah. His faithful are buried in hills and reserves.
A1 solo: Ishmael(Randolph Stow) The red earth arches away to gibber and dune.I shall not return to this uncharted spring.
Part II (Dry) S1 A1 duet:Gospel of Thomas 74 [Coptic] He said, “O Lord,” S2 A1 A2 trio: Psalm 63:1 [Latin] O God my strength, you are of the light;I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; “there are many around the drinking trough” my flesh faints for you,in a dry and weary land without water. “but nothing in the well.” A1 solo: Ishmael (Randolph Stow) Antarctic seas work statuary of ice, and sand-toothed wind,in the hungry waiting country, S1 solo: Day with its drypersistence (Vincent Buckley) In day with its dry persistence
In night warm with the first star raises unseen its pale memorials Down the midnight-passagesOr in the small corners of silence to lioness, sphinx and man. Or at the bedside hot with death These blinding imagesI call to mind to mould the mind, inviting desert and sky to take me,wind to shape me, S2 A2 duet: The Memory (Elizabeth Riddell)The memory is of grass like a green pondAnd of the scent of melons between a drought and a rainIt was autumn and the tides were always going outAnd all the moons were yellow.
A restlessness that clings and will notBe rubbed off on paper. strip me likewise of softness, strip me of love,leaving a calm regard, a remembering care. Yet there are some tempos that prefer me,Some twigs that burst with shaking Blossom and dew, some lights that are constant, Some movements of the earth that bring me Whoever loves you, whoever is loved by you, It was a gentle time without rage or anxiety As we waited for the flames to die S2 solo: Thanksgiving Hymn 14Dead Sea Scrolls 1QH [Hebrew] But if I remove my handit will be like the acacia in the desert,its trunk like nettles in salt flats,in its furrows thorns and reeds shoot up;
And for the wax to crust on the altar to brambles and thistles […]of its banks will turn into sour vines; And for the last petals to lieOn the marble and gilt because of the heat its leaves wither,they do not open in the spring water. And for the singing to end And for the prayers to fail, again. speaks from my heart. In constant pilgrimage to Genesis, That said, enough of speaking,A clean break now. My ghost will not come creeping. To the bright shapes and the true names, One night for words, and then my tenure ends. Oh my Lord.
S1 S2 A1 trio:“Suns through a lofty bleakness fall”(Gwen Harwood) Suns through a lofty bleakness fall.Horizon, earth and sky remain.Above the aching wildernessa warmth is kindled, glows with air.Birds of prey with fiery quillsscissor the fabric of the light. Time drips to stone. A child knocks overa dusty god stuck in a case.Doomed to repeat their honeycombBees hum in an empty mask. S1 A1 duet:Gospel of Thomas 10 [Coptic] Jesus said, “I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am watching over it until it blazes.”
A2 solo: Ezekiel 19:10, 12-13, 14c [Latin] Your mother was like a vine in your family planted by the water.Its fruit and leaves flourishedfrom the abundant water. But it was plucked up in furyand cast down to the ground;the scorching wind dried up its fruit,its strong branches withered and were dried up;the fire consumed it. And now it is transplantedinto the wilderness,into a tracklessand thirsty land.This is a lament,and will be usedas a lament. Unbearable, a voice intones: Suffer and love, burn,shine and sing. A1 solo: Ishmael (Randolph Stow) The hawks wheel in the dawn light,the dawn breeze blowsfrom the heart of drought,from the hungry waiting country – and what have I to leave, but this encumberingtenderness, like gear for ever unclaimed.
S1 S2 A1 A2 quartet: Australia (A. D. Hope) A Nation of trees, drab green and desolate greyIn the field uniform of modern wars,Darkens her hills, those endless, outstretched pawsOf Sphinx demolished or stone lion worn away. They call her a young country, but they lie:She is the last of lands, the emptiest,A woman beyond her change of life, a breastStill tender but within the womb is dry. Without songs, architecture, history:The emotions and superstitions of younger lands,Her rivers of water drown among inland sands,The river of her immense stupidity Floods her monotonous tribes from Cairns to Perth.In them at last the ultimate men arriveWhose boast is not: ‘we live’ but ‘we survive’,A type who will inhabit the dying earth.
And her five cities, like five teeming sores,Each drains her: a vast parasite robber-stateWhere second-hand Europeans pullulateTimidly on the edge of alien shores. Yet there are some like me turn gladly homeFrom the lush jungle of modern thought, to findThe Arabian desert of the human mind,Hoping, if still from the deserts the prophets come, Such savage and scarlet as no green hills dareSprings in that waste, some spirit which escapes The learned doubt, the chatter of cultured apes Which is called civilization over there.
Easter Island Stuart Greenbaum for instrumental septet 2007
Mardi McSulleasolo flute Grania Burkebass clarinet Jennifer McNamarapiano Silo String Quartet Aaron Barndenviolin Andrea Keebleviolin Ceridwen Daviesviola Caerwen Martincello Elliott Gyger conductor
Easter Island (remotely located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean) is thought to have been settled by Polynesians around AD800. Its society rose and fell (without outside intervention) due to deforestation and the resultant strain on food supply. By the early 18th century the society was in a state of collapse and cannibalism, the population having dwindled to around 20% of its estimated peak. Giant stone statues still line the coast, elongated heads mostly facing inward and these too provide a fascinating artefact, adding to the intrigue of a unique society. Evolutionary biologist, Jared Diamond speculates that the collapse of Easter Island serves as a metaphor for Planet Earth and the probable result for our own environment if we follow the same path.
This piece was commissioned by the Australia Ensemble, resident at the University of New South Wales and is dedicated to my children, Aksel and Hanna, who I hope will inherit a peaceful and sustaining planet.
