Music is vitally embedded in the Indigenous cultural history of Australia.
In the classical music world, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander composers have been active for many years, often incorporating cultural, political and social history into their music, embedding Indigenous language, songs, rhythms into what was once a Western artform.
Here are just five of the many Indigenous composers breaking new ground in the classical world.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains reference to and video of people who have died.
Eric Avery
Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bandjalang and Gumbangirr artist, Eric Avery, is a violinist, dancer and composer. He works with his family’s custodial songs and seeks to revive and continue the tradition of singing in his tribe. Avery is an Associate Artist with the Indigenous, intercultural dance theatre company Marrugeku, and has composed for the Black Arm Band, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and artists including Lou Bennett and Jon Rose.
His compositions often feature him singing while playing violin, predominantly in the Ngiyampaa language. In an interview with NITV, Avery said his compositions often revolve around the timing and particular rhythms within the songs. His music explores themes including taking care of the land.
“I want to gift this music to the world. I think that the world has so much to learn from Aboriginal music.”
William Barton
William Barton is a Kalkadunga man, didjeridu player, electric guitarist, and classically trained composer. His didjeridu virtuosity and knowledge of classical music has made him the favoured didjeridu soloist around the world.
Barton’s compositions create relationships between his didjeridu, singing in language and diverse classical ensembles. Compositional highlights include the beautiful Birdsong at Dusk for didjeridu, voice and string quartet, and Kalkadungu, his large-scale orchestral collaboration with composer Matthew Hindson. Kalkadungu won the 2012 ARIA for Best Classical Album.
William Barton has said of his music:
“I’m doing what I love. I want to take the oldest culture in the world and blend it with Europe’s rich musical legacy."
Deborah Cheetham
Yorta Yorta woman, Deborah Cheetham, was taken from her family when she not yet one year old, and raised in a white family. She studied music education at Sydney Conservatorium and opera singing at the Metropolitan Opera and Julliard School in New York. She is also known for her work supporting the development of young Indigenous artists.
Cheetham composed the first Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer, and a recurring theme in her music is around working towards reconciliation and the creation of Indigenous cultural opportunities. The use of Indigenous language is also a feature. Her latest work, Eumeralla: A War Requiem for Peace, is sung entirely in the Gunditjmara language.
Cheetham has spoken about the importance of language in the work, and non-Indigenous choirs singing in language: “Because I think the only way we can really truly come to an understanding, the kind of understanding that I long for in Australia, is to physically have an experience of Aboriginal culture, certainly, but what better way to access that than the language…”
Listen to Pecan Summer in full on Classic Australia.
David Page
David Page is perhaps best known for his work as resident composer and Music Director for leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island performing arts company, Bangarra, for which he wrote music for 27 works. He also contributed music to the Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, composed for The Australian Ballet, and created numerous television and short film scores.
A descendant of the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh tribe from south-eastern Queensland, his music fused traditional language, song and instruments with genres ranging from classical to electronica and hip hop.
Page talked about the process of composing for dance in an interview on The Music Show in 2014: “...you've got to be very careful not to overproduce it so you're not overpowering the choreography.
"You're there to give it to something to lie on. Because the body, the dancers, and the movement, are the lyric of the song."
"So even though there's a language and a vocal and a melody, it has to really, really blend beautifully with the dance.”
Page’s work has won numerous awards, including two Helpmann Awards for Best Original Score. He died in 2016 at the age of 55.
Christopher Sainsbury
Christopher Sainsbury has worked as a composer across professional and community music-making over many years. He is of mixed Dharug and European background.
Sainsbury’s music often draws on his feeling for the New South Wales Central Coast landscape, seasons, flora and fauna. His work Scar Tree, commissioned by Primal Dance Company is a musical exploration of the traditional scar trees in the area which had ceremonial and functional uses. It evokes the natural sounds of the local crickets and Koels, as well as the damage caused by loggers in the 1800s.
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Christopher Sainsbury: Scar Tree (Audio supplied: Christopher Sainsbury)