BY LEAH BLANKENDAAL
Content warning: This story contains mention of suicide, and historical violence against Indigenous populations.
Beaumont House composer-in-residence Gabriella Smart will present two recitals this week and next. In all, she will perform for seven hours; during which time she will reveal musically the unsettling narrative of Australia’s early pianos.
The first piece, Of Broken Trees and Elephant Ivories – solo works for piano and electronics inspired by the narrative of the colonial piano in Australia – forms part of the Soundstream 2018 Blue Touch program. The second, Alvin Curran’s Inner Cities, is a free recital featuring a mammoth five-hour piano cycle.
Gabriella, tell us about Of Broken Trees and Elephant Ivories.
Of Broken Trees and Elephant Ivories involves the curation and performance of 12 new works inspired by narratives, real or imagined, of seven extant pianos from the Australian colonial era, manufactured between 1827 and 1880.
The selected pianos capture the breadth and depth of Australian colonial society, both culturally and geographically. As the primary source of music-making and thus at its cultural nerve, the piano permeated all classes of 19th Century Australian society. It also bore silent witness to the intimacies of colonial life. Hence, the narratives around these pianos contain as much cultural lore as they do personal fiction, reflecting the layered meanings referred to by M. Norton Wise and Elaine M. Wise:
…[It] becomes an eloquent thing when it is seen to carry multiple layers of meanings, meanings that have been built into it and that can still speak to those who reflect on its history.
The history of colonial Australia is fraught and contested, and has competing voices. In this project, the colonial piano is a symbol that is used as a muse to distil these multiple layers and voices through musical narrative. Hailing from five states and the Northern Territory in Australia, several of the pianos belonged to artists, and one reputedly arrived in Alice Springs on the back of a camel from Oodnadatta. Another piano is in a ruined state, nurtured for its sonic qualities by composer Ross Bolleter.
While the composers of the new works are from Australia, and Germany, where many of the pianos originated, the performances collectively present a musical journey inspired by the neglected cultural legacy of the piano in colonial Australia. They provide a vibrant, kaleidoscopic interpretation of Australia’s past, from famous artists and Afghan cameleers to Aboriginal incarceration and Morse code.
What have been some of the most interesting cultural narratives you’ve uncovered through your work with these pianos?
I’m intrigued by all of the pianos, but in particular the Allison model that was the first piano to arrive in Alice Springs at the Telegraph Station on the back of a camel from Oodnadatta (the nearest railway siding). Five composers chose this piano case study: Elena Kats-Chernin, David Harris, Jon Rose, James Rushford, and Erkki Veltheim. The narratives they chose differ vastly.
Jon focused on the historical event that involved Afghan cameleers on New Year’s Day in Broken Hill in 1915, where two Afghans opened fire on a picnic train full of miners and their families. They were protesting the invasion by Australia of a fellow Muslim country, Turkey. Knowing they would be killed, they both wrote suicide texts.
Erkki Veltheim focused on the telegraph line that was built between Port Augusta and Port Darwin, an international, innovative development at the time. As a comment on social media being used to fill our minds (and time) with trivial information, he took the world’s most tweeted tweet of the time and transmorphed it to Morse code – which the pianist plays for an hour against an increasingly dense electronic backdrop.
David Harris focused on Aboriginal genocide and incarceration, as the Telegraph Station was later converted into an Aboriginal orphanage to house the Stolen Generation.
You’ve been in residence at Beaumont House as a part of the Bundanon Trust Prelude Residency series. How has that experience shaped these concerts?
The Prelude Residency has been an enormous (and timely) privilege, one that has given me time to develop the project and exploit further performance and recording opportunities.
You’re also presenting Alvin Curran’s mammoth five-hour piano cycle. What attracts you to presenting a work of that length?
As an interpreter, I’m passionate about entering the psyche and personality of a composer through their music. Alvin’s cycle is unique because it slowly unfolds; its is like a vast landscape, sometimes undulating hills, sometimes desert, sometimes a tumultuous storm.
How do you prepare for something like that? There must be some element that’s similar to that of an endurance athlete.
It was very scary the first time. Thankfully, I have performed it many times, so I know when to take breaks, when to hold back, when to give all. Psychologically, it is very much like preparing for a marathon. The practise builds up over time, and is then sustained so that there is plenty of energy left on the day of performance.
Where to after these concerts? I understand you’ll be heading to Europe?
I’m taking up a second residency in Katowice, Poland, for three months, where I will be performing concerts with my Trio (Blue Touch Trio with Derek Pascoe and Johannes Sistermanns), as well as solo concerts in Europe.
See Of Broken Trees and Elephant Ivories at 5pm July 15; and the five-hour piano cycle Inner Cities at 2pm July 22 (bring a beanbag and stay for as long as you like!). Both events take place at Beaumont House, 631 Glynburn Road, Beaumont.
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Image supplied: Gabriella Smart performs Alvin Curran’s five-hour cycle Inner Cities in 2013 at Bonython Hall. Historical images in the public domain.
