Login

Enter your username and password

Forgotten your username or password?

Your Shopping Cart

There are no items in your shopping cart.

  • Home
  • Score: Song of the Yarra
Song of the Yarra

Sheet Music: Score

Song of the Yarra : for soprano solo, violin obligato, SATB chorus and chamber ensemble / Peter Sculthorpe.

by Peter Sculthorpe (2008)

  • Sales Availability: This item is not available to customers outside Australia and New Zealand.
    Please contact Faber Music for all sales enquiries.
  • Library Availability: 782.554/SCU 2 — Available for loan
  • Instrumentation: Soprano voice, violin obligato, cello, 2 contrabass, percussion (4 players), SATB choir.

N/A

This item is not available to customers outside Australia and New Zealand.
Please contact Faber Music for all sales enquiries.

Product details

Song of the Yarra is in three inter-related parts: 'Morning Star', 'Healing Waters' and 'Rainbow's End'. It follows the passage of time from night to the arrival of the morning star, and from dawn to the fullness of the sun and day itself. This is a metaphor for the plight of Indigenous Australians and their subsequent joy, shared by all Australians, when in 2008 the Federal Government finally apologized for past wrongs.

I had hoped to set Indigenous words from tribes around the river Yarra but, sadly, the languages are now almost completely lost. I decided to write a text myself. The text is chant-like and repetitive, in the way that most Indigenous poetry is, and because much of it is sung by a young girl it has a sense of innocence. It dictated the nature of the work.

While the solo violinist plays bird-calls in several parts of the work, most of the violin obligato mirrors the thoughts and dreams expressed in the text. A liberal use of tuned and untuned percussion introduces and accompanies the vocal music, often underlining its subject-matter. Cellos and double-basses complement the percussion, mostly adding ostinati and long-held pedal notes.

Published by: Australian Music Centre (under licence from Faber Music) — 1 score (55p. -- A4 (portrait))

Difficulty: Advanced

Duration: 15 mins, 30 sec.

Dedication note: In memory of Clifford Hocking
Commission info: Written especially for first performance at the opening of the centre in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on February, 2009, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s one-hundredth birthday

First performance at Song of the Yarra (Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall) on 8 Feb 2009

Includes performance notes and programme notes.

Text by the composer.

Typeset edition.

Related products

- Browse other works published by Australian Music Centre (under licence from Faber Music)

- Browse other works for SATB choir with soloists and chamber ensemble

- Browse other works by Peter Sculthorpe

User reviews

Be the first to share your thoughts, opinions and insights about this item.

To post a comment please login