Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

After reading Danielle Carey’s interview with Andrew Ford in a past issue of Sounds Australian (No.67, 2006), I initially felt surprised by the boldness of Ford’s comments towards Australian musicologists.

My initial reaction to Ford’s comment that ‘Australian musicologists are negligent of their own culture’ was: How can you say that? If it wasn’t for the passion for music so evident in many of my former lecturers who are, in fact, musicologists, I would never have been so inspired to return to Australia to pursue a career in music.

Nevertheless, it appears that maybe my reaction to Ford’s comments is what he may have hoped to elicit from his readers and I would like to discuss two statements he made regarding the ‘negligence’ of Australian musicology and the issue of ‘cultural cringe’.

Negligence

an appreciation of the practical ramifications of our research will ensure...outcomes will have a significant relevance to Australian culture...Trying to establish an international reputation may be difficult when pursuing the study of ‘Australian music’ – perhaps this is why many musicologists are not sure whether they should ‘go down the path’ of Australian ‘concert’ music. This may be due to several reasons, including the lack of journal publications, limited understanding of Australian culture overseas, and a lack of relevant conferences.

However, I believe an appreciation of the practical ramifications of our research will ensure that any outcomes will have a significant relevance to Australian culture and stimulate further discussion. This is not entirely straightforward, but it is in this way that we can effectively pursue research in Australian music.

An excellent example of interrelated research is evident in Larry Sitsky’s important book Australian Piano Music of the 20th Century (Sitksy, 2005). Sitsky and his team of researchers at the Australian National University have endeavoured to perform and analyse the music sourced, offering us a clearer understanding of the importance of these works in our culture. Anyone is able to hear the music researched through performance and eventual publication, thus helping to establish a culture of appreciation and discussion of Australian music.

Another possible reason for the so-called negligence of the study of Australian music is the lack of suitable specialist journals for the dissemination of Australian music research. It will be interesting to see how musicologists and composers make use of the opportunity to discuss the intricacies of Australian music in this publication.

In addition, composers should bear some responsibility for ensuring quality and access to manuscripts. The music of our older generation of composers is not always in good condition, unpublished and in some cases inaccessible, and this often deters the research process.

Cultural Cringe

...If anything, it was my time spent overseas that instilled a curiosity to learn more about my musical culture...The study of Australian music seems to me to have global ramifications. Why not? Now that more Australian music is being performed overseas, many musicians wish to know more about Australian music and its evolution in the culture. When I attended a performance of Peter Sculthorpe’s Earth Cry and Mangrove at the Colorado Music Festival in 2003, for example, the audience responded positively to the music and were eager to ask conductor Michael Christie questions about the composer and the works themselves during the interval.

If anything, it was my time spent overseas that instilled a curiosity to learn more about my musical culture. During my time of study in the USA, I learnt much about the development of American music, but it raised some interesting questions. Did I study the development of 20th century music through an Australian perspective? It had been many years since I had been an undergraduate in Australia, and – although I felt I had a reasonable knowledge of Australian music – I felt that there were some serious gaps in my education. In any case, it was time to rectify the situation.

On my return to Australia I decided to enrol in a PhD and, although initially taking time to focus my topic, I was adamant that I wanted to know more about Australian orchestral music. My research over the last two years has involved reading a large number of books on Australian music, conductors, composers and institutions, and it has been a privilege to renew contact with former lecturers and meet a number of Australia’s distinguished musicians. After being absent, I wanted to get to know the music of my country again and find out how our culture has developed. The current aim of my research is to resurrect a selected number of compositions from the mid-20th century and bring these works back into the public domain.

So, in reference to Ford’s comment on the ‘cultural cringe’, may I be so bold as to suggest that it was time away from Australia that has brought me back. Is this something that all Australian musicians should experience?

I would like to think that there is less of a ‘cultural cringe’ in the Australian psyche than there was in the past, mainly due to the world getting smaller. On another level though, many Australian musicians feel that the Australian music of the past is not at the same level of importance as European musical voices of the 20th century such as Prokofiev and Bartok. Why is it that we are always on the search for undiscovered works by European composers and not necessarily those from Australian composers?

Maybe the risks involved in the study of Australian music are due to it being difficult to determine what constitutes a ‘good’ work? To date, I have studied composers who, although apparently isolated (due to living in Australia), have tried all kinds of compositional ideas in order to find their own voice. Surely this exemplifies the idea that Australians like to pride themselves on, which is to ‘have a go!’.

It is not until we truly investigate the repertoire of the past that there is a chance of creating a good musical foundation for the future. This type of research will help to continue the process of establishing a culture that will help the cause of the Australian composer of today and in years to come.

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