16/2/24 - Re-gathering

It’s the Friday before uni goes back “proper” and over the last few days I’ve been attempting to reassemble my PhD brain. Even though I’ve been doing bits and pieces here and there, having the odd conversation, and working on a few compositions, life has been a little chaotic lately. I feel like I need to re-identify where I was, and where I need to go next. I do have a big milestone coming up: my Thesis Proposal Review. This entails doing a presentation for my supervisors and anyone else who wants to attend, and answering questions. I also have to submit it in written form. But that’s not until late March so I should be back on track well before then.

This semester I’m auditing a subject through the Fenner Environment School, called Indigenous Cultural and Natural Resource Management.  For those not in the know, auditing in this case means I’m sitting in on the subject but not being assessed. This is because subjects need to be of a certain level for postgrad students to do them, and this is an undergrad class. I’m doing it because it was recommended highly and because it’s going to be (hopefully) really relevant to my research. The subject I am doing for credit (I have to do 24 units of study as part of my PhD – I can choose the classes, they just have to be postgrad-level and relevant to my research) is called Readings in Indigenous Studies. For this course, my primary supervisor and I will decide on a list of readings for me to study for the semester, and I’ll write an essay about the research too. I plan on making the readings from the Indigenous Cultural and Natural Resource Management class the bulk of the reading list. Fortunately, since the lectures for that class will be online, I won’t have to travel down to Canberra as much as I was in sem 2 last year (which was most weeks!)

I’ve been working on some new pieces. The piece I’ve been writing about the levels of the Cudgegong River at Ganguddy, past and present, is probably about 75% done. I mentioned the idea for this piece in the last blog post, but basically it’s about the fact that the Cudgegong’s water level is a lot higher now than it was when the colonisers showed up, because of the weir that was put in. So, as I sat at in the water on a rock shelf, at a spot called Platypus Point, at a curve in the river, I thought about what was below the surface, what the river looked like before. I’m really liking how the piece is turning out. It’s gentle and rhythmic, has some simple little melodies, and includes a recurring section which is the initial idea that I came up with while I was sitting in the water. In this section there’s no tempo. The rhythm section shimmers like the water, and on trumpet I have some high notes that are a little birdlike, and a short cascading line. After a few repetitions this cascade is taken up by the rhythm section. Each time this section happens, the cascade falls down further. This is for the different levels of the river. There’s the present level, the pre-weir level, and then the very bottom. It’s a bit hard to describe in words but I plan to have this and the other PhD-related pieces I’ve written for Underwards recorded, so the explanation won’t be needed eventually! Basically this piece is about imagining and remembering, acknowledging the past, seeing how the land has been altered since 1788, and thinking of the old people (I’ve heard lots of Aboriginal folks refer to their ancestors in pre-colonial ages, as the “old people”) and how they lived. Also, like so many pieces I’ve written now, the idea for the piece, including the shimmering and cascading section, and the general structure, came to me on Country, so I think of Dabee Country as a co-composer.

The other piece I’m working on is for jazz orchestra. This is convenient because I currently direct two jazz orchestras, however this one is going to be for Spectra Jazz Orchestra (one of the two) to play. And who knows, maybe down the track many more will play it. I do have trouble sometimes, writing music that’s not overly involved and difficult, and therefore playable by more groups. This one will be doable by many student bands I reckon, including fairly advanced high school stage bands. I’m thinking of this because Chris Sainsbury, one of my supervisors and a prolific composer, is encouraging me to think of the longevity of my pieces – their playability by ensembles and soloists into the future. As a performer-composer, the majority of pieces I write are for myself to play with bands I lead, as well as the originals and arrangements I write for jazz orchestras I direct.

Anyway, the working title for this one, which could well stick, is “A Place, A Day, A Summer.” The place is my spot overlooking the Grose Valley, in Dharug Country. The day was hot and kind of hazy, heat-shimmery, and there were thousands upon thousands of black flying bugs with yellow abdomens, wafting around in the air. Through a bit of Googling I learned these were caleld plague soldier beetles. And yes, it was Summer. The title (if I keep it) is sort of about the fact that this is just one teeny tiny snapshot of time for this place. One day in the vast life of earth, one Summer out of millions. As I continue my occasional visits to this place, which seem to average once every 2 months (I’m overdue for a visit right now) I’m trying to get a sense of its character over time. But this piece is about a specific day, how it felt to be there, the sound of the insects, the slowness, the majestic scenes, the wonder, the dreaminess.

I’m hoping to be finished these two pieces in the next couple of weeks. Spectra starts rehearsing again in a week and a half and I’ll take “A Place, A Day, A Summer” for a spin with them, making a few tweaks if needed. Underwards’ next gig isn’t until May, and the piece (no name yet except “PPP” which stands for “Platypus Point Piece” but also ppp means really soft in volume, in music… so that’s… interesting) may need a little experimenting and creative input from the band before it settles into what it’s going to be. That’s often the case – a bit of evolution over time. I also made some graphic scores using the Decibel Score Player; 2 little experiments on ideas that came out of my beachball adventure on Wangal Country and the Ganguddy trip. More on those another time but I suspect they will both be played in some form at the next Alloy gig, in April.