CD Review: From The Hungry Waiting Country / Halcyon / Elliot Gyger
From the Hungry Waiting Country is a new release by Halcyon, performing the music of contemporary Australian composer, Elliot Gyger. Released on the Tall Poppies label, it contains three works by Gyger, Giving Voice (2012), Petit Testament (2008) and the cycle from which the disc takes its title, From the Hungry Waiting Country (2006).
Halcyon’s core voices, soprano Alison Morgan and mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong are joined by regular collaborators, conductors Roland Peelman and Matthew Coorey, pianist Sally Whitwell, harpist Genevieve Lang, soprano Belinda Montgomery, mezzo-soprano Jo Burton, Sally Walker playing alto flute and piccolo, cellist Geoffrey Gartner, Alexandre Oguey playing oboe and cor anglais, violist Ewan Foster, and guitarist Vladimir Gorbach.
Giving Voice (2012) is an eight-movement song cycle for mezzo-soprano and instrumental ensemble comprising alto flute and piccolo, oboe and cor anglais, cello, viola and guitar. It sets the words of Australian poets, Alison Croggon, Elizabeth Riddell, A. Frances Johnson, Sophia Gyger, Morgan Yasbincek, Gine Mercer and Judith Beveridge. Themed around early childhood and parenting, it was written for Jenny Duck-Chong and Halcyon and won the Paul Lowin song cycle prize in 2013.
Giving Voice is a personal reaction to the relentless joys and responsibilities, doubts and uncertainties of parenthood. It reflects real life, rather than the fantasy, mythology or stories that are often the topics of Art Song. Where Art Song uses highly developed language in its story-telling, Giving Voice takes us back to infancy and childhood, whilst also delving into the very origins of speech.
The first song, Dawn, opens with an attention-grabbing squeal from voice and oboe. The two are almost indistinguishable and presage Gyger’s athletic writing for the voice. Large leaps are met with laser like accuracy of pitch and consistency of tone by Jenny Duck-Chong. There is little tonal support offered by the instruments which join in for News of a Baby, engaging in a variety of cross rhythms and counter-melodies. Fontanelle and Unfractured Light, an intimate dialogue on motherhood, both celebrate the lower register with alto flute, viola and cello.
Word list is an inventive piece that turns the babble of a toddler into song. Jenny Duck-Chong makes music from the syllabic sounds of the pre-verbal infant. The recording misses out on the visual aspects of the song (described in the liner notes), but the concept is interesting, as it again eschews the traditionally sophisticated language of Art Song and turns instead to the building blocks of speech. Hurdy Gurdy, named after the medieval stringed instrument that is played by turning a hand-cranked wheel, is in a similar vein. A gritty depiction of the day-to-day interaction between parent and child, like the hurdy gurdy, the song evokes images of frenzied, circular repetition – a monotonously recurring daily routine. Yet, it is a reminder in song of how the precious qualities of the parent- child relationship can be compromised by the “daily grind.”
Jenny Duck-Chong creates a gentle lyricism in the remaining two songs of this collection, the stars (no. 6) and Girl Swinging (no. 8), both onomatopoeic pieces, the latter sounding intensely modal with extended vocal lines.
Petit Testament is witty duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano with piano. Derived from Australian literary history, with text by the fictitious Ern Malley and influenced by the Gamelan, the piece contains musical ciphers and is structured to mirror the story of Malley. The unison between the two voices in the opening bars couldn’t be more perfect. The voices then diverge pursuing each other in canon, cross rhythms and other devices, exploring the limits of their range and a spectrum of colours. Sally Whitwell plays a crisp third voice sometimes in monophony and at others, a rich combination of chords and rhythms.
From the hungry waiting country speaks a new musical language. Written in two parts, (Part 1: Wet, Part 2: Dry), for two sopranos, two altos and harp, words, music and voice create music that ventures into new territory. Gyger observes that he wrote this piece as an expatriate Australian in response to the 2004 water crisis in Sydney.
His strategy has been to set 15 different texts derived from 20th-century Australian poems and ancient Near Eastern religions. The languages include English, Hebrew, Syrian, Coptic and Latin, unified by the common theme of water in the desert. Here too, the text is more than a mere hook on which to hang a melody. Its purpose is to also draw attention to what Gyger describes as “the emerging ecological crises – an increasing awareness that they are the consequences of our own actions, in more direct ways than could have been imagined 2000 years ago.” The performance of From the hungry waiting country by Halcyon was a finalist in the 2011 Art Music Awards Performance of the Year. The piece was Highly Commended in the 2006 Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize.
As a recording, From the hungry waiting country makes Gyger’s music accessible beyond the concert setting. As a collection of contemporary compositions, it is a testament to the substantial history of collaborative performances by Halcyon and their colleagues. The voices blend beautifully, with a purity of tone and little vibrato, well matched in timbre and style. The vocal writing is adventurous; the complex rhythms with explorations of tonality and harmony are formidable and are ably achieved by the performers who make up an experienced and tightly knit ensemble, exploring 21st century music, its ability to engage and the power of its messages.
Shamistha de Soysa for SoundsLikeSydney©
