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Work

Milerum's basket : string orchestra and oboe obligato

by Becky Llewellyn (1993)

Score Sample

View a sample of the score of this work

Audio Sample

Performance by Adelaide Chamber Orchestra, Antony Walker, Alison Stewart-Klein from the CD Milerum's basket

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Milerum's basket

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CD

Milerum's basket / Becky Llewellyn.

Library shelf no. CD 956 [Available for loan]

Milerum's basket

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Score

Milerum's basket : for string orchestra and oboe obligato / Becky Llewellyn.

Library shelf no. 785.4419/LLE 1 [Available for loan]

Display all products featuring this work (2 more)  

Work Overview

This string orchestra with oboe soloist composition takes it's name from a basket coffin woven by Ngarrindjeri elder Milerum (Clarence Long) found in the South Australian Museum collection. It includes my musical transcriptions of four songs he sang onto Norman Tindale's wax cyclinders in 1932 Bar 39: Song of Njengari, Bar 85: Storm Song (Belinjum), Bar 121: Song about Death and Bar 158 Whale Song. When I wrote this in 1993, Milerum's homeland, the Coorong was a fertile home of fish, bird and wildlife which I enjoyed as a camper. The musical tradition of the Ngarrindjeri reflected the abundance of food in the Coorong which gave people time and energy to develop a rich musical lexicon. I shaped his tunes with my memories of the beautiful Coorong in one long non-repeating narrative like the 100km long Coorong itself.

However as the River Murray has increasingly lost the ability to take water to its mouth, the Coorong has been depleted of its ability to sustain many plants, birds and wildlife. Song of Death seems to foreshadow now, not just the loss of the Ngarrindjeri's traditional living but of the Coorong itself. With its plaintive oboe sounding over strings, this tone poem is indeed a funeral basket of musical bones of what the Coorong used to be and what we have lost since settlement.

Work Details

Year: 1993

Instrumentation: String orchestra with oboe soloist.

Duration: 10 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Commission note: Commissioned by Adelaide Chamber Orchestra.

First performance: by Australian Chamber Orchestra, Antony Walker, Alison Stewart-Klein — 15 Oct 93. Adelaide Chamber Orchestra New Perspectives Series, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide.

Subjects

Performances of this work

30 May 95: Music Auditorium, Performing Arts Centre, Monash, Victoria. Featuring Andre de Quadros, Monash Sinfonia.

15 Oct 93: Adelaide Chamber Orchestra New Perspectives Series, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide.. Featuring Alison Stewart-Klein, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Antony Walker.

15 Oct 93: Elder Hall, University of Adelaide. Featuring Adelaide Chamber Orchestra, Antony Walker, Alison Stewart-Klein.

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