An Opal Hearted Country
Saturday 5 April 2014
St Andrew's Anglican Church, Indooroopilly
Our program explored a variety of music, much of which was by Australian composers. Among them were some established names – Nigel Westlake, Paul Stanhope, Clare Maclean – but also some younger emerging composers like Daniel Brimsmead and Megan Nelson, who will become part of the next generation of musical voices. Their work reflects a uniquely Australian landscape and culture, while also drawing on quintessentially Australian poetry and imagery. The words of Dorothea Mackellar (“the hot, gold hush of noon”) or Michael Leunig (“we are loved by the sun”) immediately conjure up sensations of the Australian summer heat, which has a quality distinct from anything experienced in the rest of the world. There was also music which reflected intensely personal stories of sadness for the loss of Australian lives, such as Nigel Westlake's Nascia la Gioia Mia, written after the tragic death of his 19 year old son, and Paul Stanhope's Lux Aeterna, which was commissioned in memory of a young student from St Peters Lutheran College.
St Andrew's Anglican Church, Indooroopilly
Our program explored a variety of music, much of which was by Australian composers. Among them were some established names – Nigel Westlake, Paul Stanhope, Clare Maclean – but also some younger emerging composers like Daniel Brimsmead and Megan Nelson, who will become part of the next generation of musical voices. Their work reflects a uniquely Australian landscape and culture, while also drawing on quintessentially Australian poetry and imagery. The words of Dorothea Mackellar (“the hot, gold hush of noon”) or Michael Leunig (“we are loved by the sun”) immediately conjure up sensations of the Australian summer heat, which has a quality distinct from anything experienced in the rest of the world. There was also music which reflected intensely personal stories of sadness for the loss of Australian lives, such as Nigel Westlake's Nascia la Gioia Mia, written after the tragic death of his 19 year old son, and Paul Stanhope's Lux Aeterna, which was commissioned in memory of a young student from St Peters Lutheran College.
