 |
Sheet Music: ScoreSongs for the shadowland : for soprano, wind quartet and piano / Paul Stanhope ; text by Oodgeroo Noonuccal.by Paul Stanhope (1999)
|
Product details
In Songs for the Shadowland I have set three mourning poems by indigenous Australian poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal: Tree Grave, Song and Dawn Wail for the Dead. These mourning poems are both deeply moving and also full of other resonances to do with the poet's Aboriginality. The poems give us an insight into the extraordinary importance placed by Aboriginal cultures on ancestry and respect for the dead. The allusions to a funeral ceremony in Tree Grave is a reminder of the profound cultural expression inherent in traditional indigenous mortuary rites.
In all three texts the poet manages to express with remarkable subtlety and understatement of emotion the devastation at the loss of loved ones, suggesting also the deep hurt caused by the onslaught of European colonisation. Despite the sombre quality of the deeply felt word images, the poet finds moments of optimism which seem triumphant against the backdrop of sadness. The poet's restraint of language and use of simple forms makes these statements all the more powerful.
A wailing horn interlude between the 2nd and 3rd songs functions
as pond of reflection and musical commentary. It also plants
seeds for musical ideas that follow in the third song. In this
horn solo, natural harmonics and weeping glissandi act as a kind
of ritual wailing which suggest the subject of the final poem.
Although the echo of the wailing horn reminds us of past sorrow,
it seems to me that Oodgeroo's own optimism for the "new day
calling" has extra resonance now that, finally, a new Federal
Government has started the healing process through the apology to
the Stolen Generations.
Published by: Australian Music Centre — 1 facsimile score (28p. -- A4 (portrait))
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 15 mins
1. Tree grave -- 2. Song -- Interlude -- 3. Dawn wail for the dead.
Commissioned by Queensland Biennial Festival.
First performance by Southern Cross Soloists — 18 Jul 99. Queensland Art Gallery
Includes program note and full text.
Permission to be gained from Jacaranda Wiley Press before performing this work.
The second movement “Song” was added in 2001.
Typeset edition.
This edition produced Jan 15.
ISMN: 979-0-720130-35-4
Related products
This work is also available in the following products:
CD: Songs for the shadowland : vocal music / by Paul Stanhope.
CD: Australia / Southern Cross Soloists.
CD: Songs for the Shadowland / Paul Stanhope.
- Browse other works for Soprano with chamber ensemble
- Browse other works by Paul Stanhope
User reviews
Be the first to share your thoughts, opinions and insights about this item.
To post a comment please login