BY DAVID LEMPRIERE-LAUGHTON
Celebrated Australian pianist David Lempriere-Laughton will launch his album Nu Day 2008 – twelve piano pieces for the Year of the Apology at the Australian National Academy of Music on 27 May. The music was composed by Dindy Vaughan in response to the Australian Government’s Apology to the Aboriginal people. David premiered the work in Melbourne in 2016 and it was nominated for Performance of the Year in the 2017 Australian Art Music Awards.
As someone who comes from a farming family and spent large portions of my childhood in the country, a lot of the musical material in Nu Day 2008 resonated with me instantly.
It was also especially nostalgic, having lived overseas for many years and now returned to Australia for family reasons. So the concepts of homecoming and resolution were ones that I was living through at the very time Dindy Vaughan approached me.
Nature is a constant theme in all of Dindy Vaughan’s compositions, and especially so in Nu Day 2008. This is unsurprising given her cultural heritage and the way in which country is such a central part of Aboriginal spirituality and identity. Each movement represents a month of the year 2008, frequently using nature as a metaphor for the corresponding emotional upheavals.
The work starts with Fiery First Light, where virtuosic piano writing with a thick texture portrays the fierce brilliant sunlight of January and the gathering volume of Aboriginal voices raised in a new wave of protest and self-assertion. The month of February cuts straight to the heart of the matter and the Stolen Generations through the use of the Arnhem Land Lullaby Ngandi Miringu Nai. This lullaby is then repeated in later movements in various unsettled forms before ending the last movement in a major tonality – the first time it appears in a stable key centre, representing the cultural resolution that is now looked for.
There seems to be an attitude amongst the chief artistic patrons and protagonists in this country that Australian music – particularly music that references Aboriginal culture – is inherently inferior to the standard European fare; something to be endured rather than encouraged. In any other important civilised culture, it is unthinkable that events as tumultuous as those of 2008 would pass without some kind of major response in the field of art music.
Yet, in performing Dindy’s work, I have encountered great reluctance to stage it; not because of the quality of the writing but simply because of its source material – several presenters admitted that to me quite openly. Even when sourcing a venue for the launch of the CD, I was stunned to encounter prominent venues who did not want to be seen to be supporting the project because the felt their patrons and subscribers would disapprove of being associated with Aboriginal affairs. Shocking in 2017 and very disappointing for me as an Australian who constantly attempts to promote Australian artistry overseas.
This CD captures elements that speak to all Australians and honours past events in a way that is respectful to all without ever skirting around the major issues. For example, the invading English culture is referred to through the use of the traditional carol Lully, Lulla, Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child – it is originally quoted in the form of a ferocious domineering character, but its last reprisal is meek and apologetic without out losing any of its inherent melodic beauty.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover in live performance that people have been engrossed in the music from start to finish, not only because it is stands alone through its qualities of drama and virtuosity, but also because it tells a story in a very clear and comprehensible way; at approximately an hour in length, it needs to be of a high quality in order to do that.
Music lovers who particularly enjoy program music will revel in this work, where wind and water are portrayed vividly in the tumultuous Lake Condah and bird calls and echo are captured to great effect in Spirit Comes.
Book your tickets to the launch of David’s album at ANAM on 27 May online. CD included.
Image: Kevin Rudd giving his Apology to the Aboriginal people in 2008. Virginia Murdoch via Flickr, CC-BY-SA-2.0.
