BY MIRANDA ILCHEF, LEAD WRITER
While looking back at her most recent creative undertakings, Australian composer Katy Abbott acknowledges she has “a penchant for setting text that’s not meant to be set”.
For the first instalment of her Hidden Thoughts series, Katy along with writer-cartoonist Kaz Cooke collected the thoughts of women who responded to an anonymous survey about bravery and hidden feelings. She set the resulting text to music, and the work Hidden Thoughts I: Do I Matter? won the 2019 Paul Lowin Prize for Composition (Song-Cycle).
As Katy was winding up the project and looking for somewhere else to channel her creativity, she came across an intriguing story, which would lay the foundations for the second work in the Hidden Thoughts series — one that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is about to perform.
At the request of human rights advocate and barrister Julian Burnside in 2013, thousands of Australians wrote encouraging letters to asylum seekers in offshore detention. The letters were sent to specific individuals named on the front of each envelope, intended to be opened by the recipient who might glean some comfort and connection from the words.
When Katy heard that in 2015, 2,500 unopened letters had been returned to sender, terminating the recipients’ opportunity for human connection, she felt a sense of outrage that she couldn’t ignore.
She received permission from Julian to access the letters, one box at a time. Reading them was “an incredibly profound experience”.
She began to imagine setting a libretto of text from these letters, and thus Hidden Thoughts II: Return to Sender was born.
Katy received an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship in Music to support the project, which in 2020 saw her work closely with the Flinders Quartet, a mezzo-soprano, and a narrator to bring the 60-minute piece to life.
This year, Katy was made the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, which gave her the opportunity to re-appropriate Hidden Thoughts II for string orchestra.
“The ordinary becomes extraordinary when you are considering the person receiving the letter.”
With access to such a large volume of text when composing the work, Katy first had to select and organise the words into themes, finding snippets that jumped out at her with friend and collaborator, Melbourne writer Maureen Johnson. The styles ranged enormously from letter to letter.
“Some were perfunctory, but some were so eloquent and whimsical. It was fascinating to see the differences,” Katy shares.
“Some people put in photos, and even wanted to include items that they hoped would bring someone joy. I looked for quirky, characterful moments; for the whimsical or humorous. But there was a lot of ordinary.
“The ordinary becomes extraordinary when you are considering the person receiving the letter.”
In some letters, Katy explains, people simply shared moments of their daily lives in Australia, writing about their homes and activities.
“There were recurrent themes of hope, but there was also a lot of shame. The letter writers wanted to make clear their anger and resentment towards the government policy; to reassure the recipients that not all Australians felt this way.”
When it came to the music, Katy didn’t want the piece to simply be an hour of narration or singing with accompaniment. She wanted to make sure the work utilised the whole ensemble, with everyone on the stage having an equally important role that emphasised the character of each instrument.
For an hour-long work, it was also important to maintain interest and not simply “churn through text”. In the movement Tell Me What You Ate For Lunch, the ensemble imitates the rhythm of the speaker in a fashion reminiscent of Steve Reich’s Different Trains. Sometimes, the musicians are even instructed to speak over the top of their instruments.
Katy was also struck by the vast range of greetings the letter writers used. She drew on these to create the text for the third movement, simply titled Hello. Many writers referred to the recipients as their friend, or even pen pal.
Katy noticed many of the letter writers “couldn’t sign off”. They dragged out their farewells in a variety of ways, wishing a “speedy assessment process”, “success”, and “happiness”.
They sent “strength”, “courage”, and “thoughts”.
As in all Katy’s music in her Hidden Thoughts series, the audience becomes involved in the music making. Devices like these, which bring humour and engagement to the work, are what makes Katy so adept as a storyteller.
At the time of the first performance of Hidden Thoughts II, which took place during the Covid lockdowns, many asylum seekers had been brought from offshore detention in Nauru to onshore hotel detention in Melbourne. They were provided with a Melbourne Digital Concert Hall link to watch the performance. She felt that after so many years, having access to the words and messages that may have originally been meant for those very people felt particularly poignant to her and the performers.
“There is an inherent narrative that speaks to the generosity, warmth, and kindness of Australians,” Katy says.
“The insights they have about what home and safety means are quite astounding. That is what I am always struck by.”
Katy has brought this touching story to life through her careful creative mastery, and her skill and storytelling will be amplified when the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performs Hidden Thoughts II.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra presents Metropolis: Hidden Thoughts II at 8.30pm August 1 in Iwaki Auditorium.
Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss will lead the concert as Richard Piper narrates and mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean performs.
Image supplied.
