Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

This work is inspired by my Hungarian ancestry. Since my father's passing in October 2022, I have slowly been seeking out connections with his birthplace and developing an understanding of his relationship to Hungary, as well as pursuing ways to establish my own place in relation to this part of my heritage. As such, this piece is a kind of manifestation of this searching and features a thematic juxtaposition of the authentic to the mythological.

Hun is a reference to the history of Hungary (Magyarország) and the mistaken connection early scholars made to the Huns as ancestors of the Magyar (Hungarians). This confusion felt like a mirror to my own blended ancestry, and of the universal experience that we can't really know our ancestors, receding back into history.

Tur is a reference to the Turul Bird, a creature central to Magyar identity. Although the Turul bird is a political icon, as a composer I imagine it differently. I have an affinity for mythological birds (such as Stravinsky's Firebird) and we can easily trace the mythological symbolism of birds all the way back to ancient Egypt (a time and place that I have explored often in my music). Birds and their songs are potent inspiration for composers and in this composition the Turul Bird is an ancient mythological figure, not a modern political one.

This was originally intended to be a two-movement work, but the two concepts Hun and Turul became inseparable during the composition process. In the music, each source of inspiration is united by what I call Hamis Népdal, an original folk song I composed for this piece, using rhythmic and harmonic devices common in many Hungarian folksongs. I have included this song in the introduction materials to this score, and like a genetic code for the music, it is manifest throughout the composition in diverse aspects of its character and behavior.