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The Music

Sculthorpe has written for the full range of musical genres, including works for orchestra, string quartet, solo instrument, voice and choir, film, ballet, theatre and opera. His music is flexible and versatile; he often rearranges a piece for different instrumental combinations. He views his compositional output as a whole and, as a result, there are many inter-connections between works and each piece builds upon those that precede it.

Australia

Sculthorpe has a very strong sense of his Australian identity. For him it is ‘a natural choice’ to write in his music ‘of the country and of our history’. He says, ‘It’s who I am, what I’m about.’ Works such as Earth Cry (1986) and Kakadu (1988) reflect the breadth, vastness and loneliness of the Australian landscape and the sounds of its wildlife.Click to listen to audio Other works, like Port Essington (1977) and Burke and Wills (1985), deal with the history of European settlement. Sculthorpe also has a strong appreciation of the heritage of Indigenous Australians and their experience of the land. Many of his works draw on Aboriginal history, language or melody. In particular, the Aboriginal melody, Djilili, has become something of a leitmotiv in his music. Sculthorpe writes in his autobiography, ‘It’s always seemed foolish not to take heed of a music that has been shaped by this land over many thousands of years.’

Dualism and complexity: Port Essington

Port Essington (1977) is one of Sculthorpe’s best-known works. It tells of the attempted British settlement in 1838 of Port Essington in northern Australia. The settlers showed tenacity in withstanding a devastating cyclone in 1839, but ultimately failed to adapt to the conditions of the land. After 11 years of hardship and isolation, the settlement was abandoned in 1849. 

In the music, a string orchestra represents the bush and a string trio the settlement. The two groups are pitted against each other. Against the background of the orchestra, the trio makes several statements in a style imitating nineteenth-century drawing-room music. Gradually the string orchestra dominates, until at the end only the music of the bush remains. Just before the trio bids farewell, however, the two groups play briefly in unison, suggesting that a coexistence may have been possible. Both groups of music are based on the Aboriginal melody, Djilili, but it is only in the part representing the bush that it is easily recognised. This suggests a common spiritual undercurrent of which the settlers were unaware.Click to listen to audio

Sculthorpe writes that ‘Port Essington is really an allegory about Australia.’ It also speaks of his own coming to terms with his European heritage and illustrates the way in which, for him, personal and national issues are intertwined.

Port Essington is also a good example of the way in which the notion of dualism—a clashing of opposites until a synthesis is found—has been a driving force in both his musical technique and aesthetic. His music engages the complexity inherent in the issue of Australian identity. ‘What is Australian music?’ he asks. ‘If this could be answered, I’d probably stop writing music and answer questions.’

Asia and the sun: Sun Music III

Reacting against the European musical tradition, Sculthorpe firmly locates Australia in Asia and has been strongly influenced by Japanese and Indonesian music and philosophy. Sun Music III (1967) was his first piece exploring his Asian interest. In this work, there is direct quotation of Balinese melody and sounds. In later works, the reference to Asia becomes subtler as Sculthorpe draws upon the techniques and textures of Balinese music rather than melodies. The third stage Sculthorpe sees is when he absorbs something of the essence of the music to the point where it becomes part of his own music. Sculthorpe also sees this process occurring with the Japanese and Aboriginal influences in his music.

Four orchestral works make up the Sun Music series. Sun Music III stands in contrast to the other three works in the series for its strong melodic elements. The other three are more like sound-scapes. The impetus for these works came from Bernard Heinze, who, perhaps jokingly, challenged Sculthorpe to write a work without rhythm, harmony or melody. Sun Music I (1965) was the result. About this work Sculthorpe writes, ‘The sun of D.H. Lawrence, the Mexican sun, the Japanese, Asian and Australian—and my own sun—are ever present.’

After hearing Sun Music I, Robert Helpmann approached Sculthorpe about collaborating on a ballet version of Sun Music. The work was completed for the Australian Ballet in 1968, with Robert Helpmann as choreographer and Kenneth Rowell as designer. The five sections of the ballet are titled Soil, Mirage, Growth, Energy and Destruction. This is a good example of the way in which the sun has been an important symbol for Sculthorpe, as both a giver of life and a source of death. Sculthorpe has tenaciously chosen life and his music is imbued with optimism. Many times he has expressed the view that Australia is the only place where one can still write joyful music; he sees Australia as a youthful nation whose golden age is yet to come, whose history is largely unwritten.

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