Sculthorpe: Earth Cry / Piano Concerto / Kakadu

Description

Peter SCULTHORPE (b. 1929)Orchestral WorksThe present recording contains works that, in one wayor another, are related to the Pacific region, includingAustralia. They were written during the last thirty yearsof my compositional life.In many ways, Australia is the one of the few placeson Earth where one can honestly write quick and joyousmusic. All the same it would be dishonest of me to writemusic that is wholly optimistic. The lack of a commoncause and the self-interest of many have drainedAustralian society of much of its energy. A bogusnational identity and its commercialisation haveobscured the true breadth of our culture. Most of thejubilation, I feel, awaits us in the future. We now needto attune ourselves to the continent, to listen to the cryof the earth as the Aborigines have done for manythousands of years. Earth Cry (1986) is astraightforward and melodious work. Its four parts aremade up of a quick ritualistic music framed by slowermusic of a supplicatory nature, and an extended coda.While the work is very much in my own personal idiom,the treatment of the orchestra represents a newdeparture. This is particularly noticeable in the way thatinstruments are doubled. First and second violins, forinstance, sing in unison for most of the work, and lowerstrings often sing with the lower brass. Furthermore, inorder to summon up broader feelings and a broaderlandscape I have added a part for didgeridoo.It seems that on Easter Island, at the beginning ofthe seventeenth century, there was a populationexplosion. The inhabitants stripped the islands of trees,causing soil erosion and depriving themselves ofbuilding materials for boats and housing. Retreating tocaves, clans fought each other, and finally there wasenslavement and cannibalisation. By the time the firstEuropeans arrived, in 1722, the survivors had evenforgotten the significance of the great stone heads thatstill stand there. Easter Island is a memento mori(literally 'remember to die') for this planet. The concernof this work, therefore, is not with what happened to theinhabitants of Easter Island, but with what could happento all of us, with what could happen to the human race.Much of the music, then, is dominated by the oscillationof the pitches G and A flat, which the astronomerKepler, a contemporary of Shakespeare, believed to bethe sound of planet earth. I have also used part of theplainchant Dies irae, from the Latin Requiem Mass.Memento Mori (1993) is a straightforward work, in onemovement. Following an introduction, two statementsof the plainchant lead into music of lamentation, musicwhich is based on the Kepler premise. Two furtherstatements of the plainchant lead to the climax. This isfollowed by music of regret, which also suggests thepossibility of salvation.During the period that my Piano Concerto (1983)was written, three of my closest friends died.Furthermore I was involved in an almost-fatal accident.The work, however, is more concerned with lifeaffirmationthan with death,