Terra Australis Land of the Imagination
Australian Chamber Choir
Directed by Douglas Lawrence OAM
Great choral works are linked by year with voyages in search of Terra Australis, the fabled Great Southern Land, and later expeditions charting Australia and Antarctica.
The Australian Chamber Choir rehearses in Melbourne, on the land of the Kulin nation. We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people as the traditional custodians of this land and pay respect to their Elders past and present. We honour the diverse cultures and languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognise their resilience, capacity, and contribution to society.
MELBOURNE
16 June at 3 pm: Our Lady of Mount Carmel 210 Richardson St, Middle Park, Vic, Australia
RIBE
2 July at 11 am: Ribe Cathedral Summer Concerts Torvet 15, 6760 Ribe, Denmark
COPENHAGEN
4 July at 4 pm: Trinitatis, Summer Concerts at Trinity Church Pilestraede 67, 1150 Copenhagen, Denmark
BERLIN
6 July at 6 pm: Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Choral Vespers Breitscheidplatz, 10789, Berlin, Germany
HANNOVER
9 July at 6 pm: Christuskirche, Hannover Conrad-Wilhelm-Hase-Platz 1, Hannover, Germany
BONN
10 July at 8 pm: Remigiuskirche (Beethoven’s Church) Music in St. Remigius Brüdergasse 8, Bonn, Germany 2
KOKSIJDE 12 July at 8 pm: Our Lady of the Dunes, Koksijde International Summer Organ Festival Kerkplein 2, Koksijde, Belgium
PARIS
14 July at 11 am: American Church, 65 Quai d’Orsay, 75007, Paris
LONDON
16 July at 7.30 pm: St Martin in the Fields, Candlelight Series, Trafalgar Square, London, UK
DARMSTADT
17 July at 8 pm: Pauluskirche, International Summer Organ Festival Paulusplatz, Niebergallweg, Darmstadt, Germany
PRIEN
19 July at 7 pm: Pfarrkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt Marktplatz, Prien am Chiemsee, Germany
TÜBINGEN
20 July at 7 pm: Freie Waldorfschule Rotdomweg 30, Tübingen, Germany
STUTTGART
21 July at 7 pm: Nikolauskirche, Stuttgart International Organ Festival Werastrasse 120, Stuttgart, Germany
MACEDON
10 August at 3 pm: Church of the Resurrection, Macedon, Corner of Mt Macedon Rd and Honour Avenue, Macedon, Australia
GEELONG
11 August at 3 pm: Basilica of St Mary of the Angels, Geelong,136 Yarra St, Geelong, Australia
SYDNEY
25 August at 3.30 pm: with Amy Johansen, organ, Organ Concert Series Great Hall, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, 2006
In the following program notes, information about the search for Terra Australis, the history of its people, and early representations of the Australian and Antarctic continents on the world map is shown in black. Information about musical works is shown in red. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people please be advised that this booklet contains images of deceased persons.
PROGRAM
1. Tom Henry (1971–) ‘This Earth’ and ‘Rain’ from Kakadu Man (2015)
Texts by Bill Neidjie OAM
2. Two Secular Songs from Harmonice Musices Odhecaton (Third Edition, Venice, 1504) Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521) ‘Bergerette Savoyenne’ Anonymous ‘Gentil Prince’ Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521) ‘Gloria’ from Missa Pange Lingua
3. John IV, King of Portugal (1604–1656) Crux fidelis
Vicente Lusitano (?–c. 1561) Heu me Domine
4. Claudio Merulo (1533–1604) Salvum fac populum tuum (Published Venice, 1594)
5. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–c.1621) ‘Or soit loué’ from Livre Troisieme des Psaumes de David (1614) Hodie Christus natus est (1619)
6. Alan Holley (1956–) Time Passages (2019) (First performance)
Text by Mark Tredinnick (1962–)
INTERVAL
7. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Two songs for men’s voices ‘Gesang der Mönche’ (1817), ‘Abschiedsgesang’ (1814)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen über dir (1844)
8. Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Trois Chansons de Charles d’Orléans (1898) 4
9. Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) O sacrum convivium (1937)
10. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Lobet den Herrn (Published 1820)
11. Tom Henry (1971–) ‘Sacred’ and ‘Return to Earth’ from Kakadu Man (2015)
PROGRAM NOTES
Indigenous Australians inhabited country for over 50,000 years before Europeans knew of their existence. Legends of Terra australis incognita (unknown southern land) are found in Greco-Roman writings; Aristotle speculated that a large land mass in the southern hemisphere might ‘balance’ the corresponding known land masses in the northern hemisphere. For centuries, this was nothing more than a philosophical speculation. Then, from the sixteenth century, as explorers navigated the globe, the Australian continent gradually became known and represented on the world map. The concept of an unknown continent excited the imagination and several European writers produced fantasy fiction describing gothic monsters, giant birds and mythical animals. Sometimes, these monsters found their way into illustrations on maps, blurring the boundaries between fiction and science. So it was that Europeans imagined life in Australia before setting foot on the continent.
De Jode Map (1593) showing fantasy illustrations
Indigenous Australians arrived on the continent between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago. As Europeans speculated about the peoples, animals, and landscape of what they called Terra Australis, Indigenous Australians cared for and thrived on its land. The major expression of their spirituality, known in English as the Dreaming, is an all-encompassing, timeless lived experience. Dreaming Narratives are associated with Ancestral Beings, and can take the form of rituals, visual art, stories, dances, places, ceremonies, and songs. They contain deep knowledge of country and are a means of transmitting knowledge between generations.
Framed by settings of the timeless poetry of Bill Neidjie OAM, this program embarks upon parallel journeys: European voyages of discovery are mapped alongside choral works from the same years. Bill Neidjie, a Gagudju elder and member of the Bunitj clan, was the last surviving speaker of the Gagudju language. He was keen to ensure that the rich history of his people would not be forgotten, and broke taboos by publishing some of their Dreaming Narratives in two books of poetry. The poems speak of a place where the spiritual world meets the physical.
Bill Neidjie with grandson Ricky
Tom Henry (1971–) ‘This Earth’ and ‘Rain’ from Kakadu Man (2015)
Poems by Bill Neidjie OAM (Alawanydajawany, Alligator River c.1920– Cannon Hill, 23 May 2002)
Text set to music and printed with permission from the Djabulukgu Assoc. Inc., in particular from John and Natasha Nadji
This earth
I never damage.
I look after.
This ground and this earth,
like brother and mother.
Earth.
Like your father or brother or mother,
because you born from earth.
You (got to) come back to earth.
We come from earth, bones.
We go to earth, ashes.
Rain
Each billabong can be dry…
no fish, [no] turtle, nothing.
New rain coming up,
That rain make everything [new] again.
Rain give us everything new.
Plenty fish, turtle, lily.
Yam, creeper, all plants new.
…fruit [and] honey (and) things to live.
Rain for us, for everybody [everyone].
He come along wet season
(and go dry season).
Rain give us everything new.
Italian Exploration and Cartography
1504: Francesco Rosselli, a Florentine engraver moved to Venice with a view to selling his maps. He produced the first world map to include the New World and, in 1508, the first world map drawn on an oval projection. The maps drew on information recorded by Rosselli’s fellow Italians, Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo. Marco Polo gave extensive descriptions of Asian lands and also mentioned Terra Australis.
Harmonice Musices Odhecaton – One Hundred Songs of Harmonic Music, was published by Petrucci in Venice in 1501. It was the first book of polyphony to be printed using moveable type. The collection included songs in three and four voice parts, mostly in Franco-Flemish style, by some of the most famous composers of the time, including Ockeghem and Josquin des Prez. Reprinted in 1502 and 1504, the distribution of this edition throughout Europe contributed to making the Franco Flemish style the dominant musical language of Europe for the next century. King Henry VIII claimed to have composed one of the book’s anonymous songs, Gentil Prince de Renom. However, King Henry was born in 1491; although he later composed Past Time with Good Company and other works, he is not known to have been a child prodigy. It seems unlikely that he could have composed Gentil Prince before his tenth birthday.
Two Secular Songs from Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, Third Edition (Venice, 1504)
Josquin des Prez (c.1450–1521)
IL: Bergerette savoyenne, Qui gardez moutons aux praz: Dy moy si vieulx estre myenne: Je te donray uns soulas, Et ung petit chapperon; Dy moy se tu m aymeras, Ou par la merande ou non.
ELLE: Je suis la proche voisine De monsieur le cura, Et pour chose qu on me die, Mon vouloir ne changera, Pour François ne Bourgoignon. Par le cor Dé, si fera, Ou par la merande ou non.
HE: Shepherdess of Savoy, Who guards the sheep in the fields, Tell me if you will be mine: I will give you some entertainment, And a little bonnet; Tell me if you will love me, Whether it is deserved or not.
SHE: I am the nearest neighbour Of the curate, And, whatever I am told, My desires will not change For Frenchman nor Burgundian. By the power of God, it will be so, Whether it is deserved or not.
Anonymous
Gentil Prince
Gentil duc de Lorainne,
Prince de grand renom,
Tu as la renommé e jusques delà les mons.
Et toy et tes gens d’armes et tous tes compaignons
Du premier coup qu’il frappe abatit les danjons;
Tirez, bonbardes, serpentines, canons.
‘Nous suymes gentilzhommes:
Prenez nous à rançon’.
‘Vous mentés par la gorge,
Vous n’estes que larons.
Et violeurs de femmes,
Et bruleurs de maisons:
Vous en aurez la corde
Par dessoubz le manton,
Et sy orrez matines au chant des oysoillons,
Et sy orrez la messe que les corbins diront’.
Noble Prince
Noble Duke of Lorainne,
Prince of great renown,
Thy fame has spread even beyond the mountains.
And thou and thy men-at-arms and companions
Have with the first stroke brought down the foe;
Shoot, good soldiers, culverins, cannon.
‘We are gentlemen:
Take us as hostages
‘You lie in your throats,
You are nothing but thieves
And violaters of women
And burners of houses
For that a cord will be drawn
Around your neck
And you will hear the morning bells
To the song of the birds
When the Mass is said by the black ravens’.
Josquin des Prez: ‘Gloria’ from Missa Pange Lingua
Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te, gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis; qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
Glory be to God on high And in earth peace, goodwill towards men, We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee, for thy great glory O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesu Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us. For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord; thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Portuguese Exploration German and French Documentation
1531: French scholar Oronce Finé published the first description of Terra Australis in his Atlas. An article in an Augsburg newspaper of 1514 described a journey by two Portuguese merchants, Nuno Manuel and Cristóvãu de Haro, who sailed between the Southern tip of America (Brazil) and another continent. Inspired by this report, in 1523, the German cartographer, Johannes Schöner produced the first globe on which a landmass to the South of Brazil was labelled Terra Australis.
Using the same scraps of information, Finé demonstrated uncanny prescience in the1531 Atlas, with the following description of Terra Australis:
this is an immense region toward Antarcticum, newly discovered but not yet fully surveyed … The inhabitants of this region lead good, honest lives and are not Anthropophagi [cannibals] like other barbarian nations; they have no letters, nor do they have kings, but they venerate their elders and offer them obedience.
In the Treatise on Organ Song, ascribed to Portuguese theorist and composer, Vicente Lusitano, three genres of music are defined: diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic. Heu me Domine serves as an astounding example of chromatic polyphony. When his first treatise was published in Rome in 1553, Lusitano, who was of African heritage, became the first published black composer.
John IV, King of Portugal (1604–1656): Crux fidelis
Crux fidelis inter omnes,
Arbor una nobilis,
nulla silva talem profert fronde,
Flore, germine.
Dulce lignum,
Dulces clavaos,
Dulce pondus sustinet.
Faithful cross Above all other,
One and only noble tree,
None in leaf, none in flower,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood,
Sweetest iron
Sweetest weight is hung on thee!
Vicente Lusitano (?– c.1561): Heu me Domine
Heu me Domine
Quia pecavi nimis
In vita mea,
Quid faciam miser,
Ubi fugiam nisi ad te Deus meus.
Libera me Domine
De morte aeterna
In die illa tremenda
Quando caeli movendi sunt et terra
Alas Lord
For I have sinned so much
In my life,
Miserable as I am
You are my only refuge.
Deliver me O Lord
from eternal death
On that fearful day
When the heavens and the earth quake
Flemish and Dutch Exploration
1594: Gerardus Mercator, an important Flemish cartographer, died. He was renowned for his 1569 world map, based on a new projection, which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines, an innovation still used by mariners today. Rhumold Ghim, mayor of Duisburg, wrote a preface to Mercator’s Atlas (1595), in which he commented on the depiction of the hypothetical Terra Australis. He stated that although this continent still lay hidden and unknown, he believed that it must exist for reasons of balance:
demonstrated and proved by solid reasons and arguments to yield in its geometric proportions, size and weight, and importance to neither of the other two, nor possibly to be lesser or smaller, otherwise the constitution of the world could not hold together at its centre.
Claudio Merulo (1533–1604): Salvum fac populum tuum
(Published Venice, 1594)
Salvum fac populum tuum,
Domine,et benedic hereditati tuae.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies benedicimus te;
Et laudamus nomen tuum
in saeculum,
Et in saeculum saeculi.
O Lord, save thy people,
And bless thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up for ever.
Day by day we magnify thee:
And we worship thy Name,
For ever
And ever
Translation Choral Wiki
1619: Dutchman, Frederik de Houtman landed on the west coast of Australia. The place at which he had arrived, Eendrachtsland, was named by Dirk den Hartog after he landed there three years earlier, in 1616. Den Hartog had named Eendrachtsland after his own ship, leaving an inscribed pewter plate as a record of his visit. After de Houtman’s visit, it was confirmed that the location of Eendrachtsland corresponded with Marco Polo’s description of a continent in that same place.
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621): Hodie Christus natus est (1619)
Hodie Christus natus est:
Hodie Salvator apparuit:
Hodie in terra canunt Angeli,
laetantur Archangeli
Hodie exsultant justi, dicentes
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Alleluia.
Today Christ is born:
Today the Saviour appeared:
Today the angels sing on earth,
Archangels rejoice.
Today the righteous rejoice, saying
Glory to God in the highest.
Alleluia.
Translation by Allen H. Simon
Other Flemish or Dutch explorers included Abel Tasman and Cornelius and Willem de Vlamingh. De Vlamingh replaced den Hartog’s plate in 1697 with a new plate, on which details of his own visit were appended to Hartog’s details. He removed the original plate, which is now held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: ‘Or soit loué’ (Psalm 150), from Third Book of Psalms of David (1614)
Text versified by Clément Marot (1496–1544)
Or soit loué l’Eternel
De son sainct lieu supernel:
Soit dije, tout hautement,
Loué de ce firmament
Plein de sa magnificence.
Louezle, tous ses grands faicts
Soit loué de tant d’effects,
Tesmoins de son excellence.
King James Bible
Praise ye the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary:
praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts:
praise him according to his excellent greatness.
British Exploration
1769: On 3 June 1769, Captain James Cook and his party completed an observation of the Transit of Venus undertaken in Tahiti on behalf of The Royal Society of London. Following the observation, Cook broke the seal on an envelope bearing the inscription ’Secret Instructions to Captain Cook from the Lord High Admiral of Great Britain, Sir Philip Stephens’. In it were his instructions as to where to search for Terra Australis and what to do should he discover such a continent:
SECRET. Whereas there is reason to imagine that a Continent or Land of great extent, may be found to the Southward of the Tract lately made by Captn Wallis … You are … to observe the Genius, Temper, Disposition and Number of the Natives, if there be any and endeavour by all proper means to cultivate a Friendship and Alliance with them … inviting them to Traffick, and Shewing them every kind of Civility and Regard; taking Care however not to suffer yourself to be surprized by them, but to be always upon your guard against any Accidents. With the Consent of the Natives to take Possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain: Or: if you find the Country uninhabited take Possession for his Majesty by setting up Proper Marks and Inscriptions, as first discoverers and possessors.
He reached the eastern coast of Australia, then known as New Holland, on 19 April 1770, noting a sighting of Indigenous people near the shore in his journal a few days later. He made landfall at Botany Bay, and became the first recorded European to set foot on the continent’s east coast. Dr. Shayne Williams, a descendent of the people Cook met at Botany Bay, has written an excellent Indigenous Australian perspective on Cook’s arrival that can be found at the following link:
bl.uk/the-voyages-of-captain-james-cook/articles/an-indigenous-australianperspective-on-cooks-arrival
While Cook had landed on what would later be called ‘Australia’, this was not the fabled Terra Australis, which was believed to be a much larger landmass.
Alan Holley (1956–) Time Passages (2019) (First performance)
Text from the poem by Mark Tredinnick (1962–)
Commissioned by the Australian Chamber Choir to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s voyage of 1769.
The full text of Tredinnick’s poem, along with notes by the poet and the composer can be found at AusChoir.org/Time-Passages.
Alan Holley writes: ‘For some people this journey of Cook was of immense importance, with the subsequent settling of British peoples and their complete takeover of ‘the southern continent’ creating untold wealth for the British Empire. For others it led to an invasion of a land that had been inhabited for [over] 50,000 years by people of many Indigenous nations. Present-day Australia now has to straddle these two truths.’
Mark Tredinnick writes: ‘I came to think of that theme, the beaching of time on eternity’s shore, as an ecotone where two orders of existence, two aspects of every life— ‘one like an ocean; the other, a shore’—crash and coalesce but never cohere. That littoral zone is what Time Passages is; what it tries to sing is what eternity will not stop saying to time.
Moments last, but years do not. This is one thing the dreaming and poetry and music understand and want us to know—before time runs out.’
Time Passages
Once, a while before time began to count,
I stood on shore with a girl and saw a petrel
Fly its colours—tropic green, volcanic
Grey—above the azure of a bay.
We’re long done, she and I, but still
I stand, glad in the sun, married to the moment
We shared with a bird while earth spun and spooled
Its breezes, unspooled reprises of every day
Yet sung. Time does not pass in the country of
The mind; the heart is not a race time runs,
For time is tidal there. But in the flesh—
Where one turn’s all we seem to get—time wins.
What if we live two lives at once: one like
An ocean; the other, a shore? What if who
We are did not begin with us—each fish,
A river; each bird, a sky? The petrel lives
A circuit, neither here nor there: her home
A way she fares, a round she wings. Once,
Coming counterclockwise, like the bird,
Time landed in the bay and stayed. Time found
A world, which, until then, contained, like each
Of us, the world enough; which spoke five hundred
Tongues—keeping, each, the kind of time
That rivers keep. And seeds. For, once, this was
A world that had no time for time, no space
For haste. What counted here were mind and matter—
Places and their lyrics, caught and released,
Sown and reaped, kept wild in mouths and ways,
The nomadic canticle days, of people who told
Their names in care for kin and made their homes
In circles.
INTERVAL
Australia
1814: In the year of his death, Matthew Flinders’ A Voyage to Terra Australis was published. The book provided the first complete map of the coastline of the Australian continent, only possible following his circumnavigation of 1801 and with the assistance of an Indigenous man, Bungaree, who saved his life on many occasions. In the book, he stated his preference for naming the continent ’Australia’.
Matthew Flinders, General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia
There is no probability, that any other detached body of land, of nearly equal extent, will ever be found in a more southern latitude; the name Terra Australis (as cited by Ptolemy and Aristotle) will, therefore, remain descriptive of the geographical importance of this country, and of its situation on the globe: it has antiquity to recommend it; and, having no reference to either of the two claiming nations, appears to be less objectionable than any other which could have been selected. 1817: A copy of Flinders’ book was delivered to the Governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie, at Flinders’ request. Macquarie immediately started to use the name ’Australia’ and by the 1820s, it had been adopted into common parlance.
1817: A copy of Flinders’ book was delivered to the Governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie, at Flinders’ request. Macquarie immediately started to use the name ’Australia’ and by the 1820s, it had been adopted into common parlance.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): Two Songs for Men’s Voices
Gesang der Mönche (1817)
Rasch tritt der Tod
den Menschen an,
Es ist ihm keine Frist gegeben;
Es stürzt ihn mitten in der Bahn,
Es reißt ihn fort vom vollen Leben.
Bereitet oder nicht zu gehen!
Er muß vor seinem Richter stehen!
Monks’ Song (1817)
Quickly comes
Man’s death,
He is given no reprieve.
It strikes him mid-course,
It rips him from the prime of life.
Whether ready to go or not!
He must stand before his judge!
Translation, John Sigerson (Schiller Institute)
Abschiedsgesang (1814)
Die Stunde schlägt,
wir müssen scheiden,
bald sucht vergebens dich mein Blick;
am Busen ländlich stiller Freuden
erringst du dir ein neues Glück.
Geliebter Freund!
du bleibst uns theuer,
ging auch die Reise nach dem Belt;
doch ist zum guten Glück Stadt Steyer,
noch nicht am Ende dieser Welt.
Und kommen die Freunde
um dich zu besuchen,
so sei nur hübsch freundlich
und back’ ihnen Kuchen,
auch werden, so wie sich’s für
Deutsche gehört, auf’s Wohlsein
der Gäste die Humpen geleert.
Dann bringen wir froh
im gezuckerten Weine
ein Gläschen dem ewigen
Freundschaftsvereine,
dein Töchterlein mache den Ganymed,
ich weiss, dass sie gerne dazu sich versteht,
Die Stunde schlägt, …
Geliebter Bruder! Lebe wohl!
Farewell Song (1814)
The hour has come,
and we must part,
Soon will my gaze seek thee in vain;
In the bosom of rural, tranquil bliss
Is where thy new happiness lies.
Beloved friend!
Thou shalt remain dear to us,
E’en should the journey bear thee to
far distant straits;
Thankfully, the city of Steyr
Is hardly the ends of the Earth.
And when friends
come to visit,
Prepare but a hearty welcome:
bake a cake,
And in true German fashion,
Let the tankards be drained in thy guests’ honour.
Then shall we cheerfully drink a toast of sweet wine
To the eternal brotherhood of friendship,
And let thy young daughter be the cup-bearer,
As she is well-known to so gladly oblige.
The hour has come …
O dearest brother! Fare thee well!
Translation, Brent Annable
Inland Exploration
1844: Prussian explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt arrived in Australia in 1842 with the aim of exploring inland. On 1 October 1844, he embarked on his most ambitious expedition, departing from Australia’s northernmost settlement on Queensland’s Darling Downs. Having long been given up for dead, his party arrived in Port Essington on the far North coast fourteen months later. They had covered a distance of 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometres). Returning to Sydney by boat, they were given a hero’s welcome.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847): Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen (1844)
Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen über dir,
daß sie dich behüten auf allen deinen Wegen,
daß sie dich auf den
Händen tragen und du deinen Fuß nicht an einen
Stein stoßest.
For he gave his angels charge over thee,
to keep thee in all thy ways,
that they bear thee up in their hands,
lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
1898: Frank Hann (1846–1921) migrated with his parents from Wiltshire. In his many exploratory journeys through Western Australia, he was accompanied by his partner, Talbot (pictured) and other Indigenous men. In 1898, at the age of fifty-two, while recovering from a broken thigh, he climbed the Leopold Ranges, which had until then been regarded as impenetrable. He named the Charnley and Isdell Rivers and located some fine tracts of pastoral country. In his final years he corresponded with activist Daisy Bates, appealing for more government attention to the welfare of Indigenous Australians. Each of his diaries is prefaced with the motto ‘Do not yield to Despair.
Claude Debussy (1862–1918): Three Songs of Charles d’Orléans (1898)
1. Dieu qu’il la fait bon regarder La gracieuse bon et belle!
Pour les grands bien que sont en elle. Chascun est prest de la loüer.
Qui se pourroit d’elle lasser? Tousjours sa beauté renouvelle.
Dieu qu’l la fait bon regarder. La gracieuse bonne et belle!
Par de ça, ne de là, la mer.
Ne scay dame ne damoiselle Qui soit en tous bien parfais telle.
C’est ung songe que d’i penser: Dieu qu’il la fait bon regarder!
2. Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin Sonner, pour s’en aller au may
En mon lit n’en ay fait affray Ne levé mon chief du coissin
En disant: il est trop matin Ung peu je me rendormirai:
Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin Sonner pour s’en aller au may.
Jeunes gens partent leur butin: De non cha loir m’accointeray
A lui je m’a butineray Trouvé l’ay plus prouchain voisin;
Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin Sonner pour s’en aller au may.
En mon lit n’en ay fait affray Ne levé mon chief du coissin.
3. Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain; Esté est plaisant et gentil
En témoing de may et dávril
Qui l’accompaignent soir et main.
Esté revet champs, bois et fleurs
De sa livrée de verdure Et de maintes autres couleurs
Par l’ordonnance de nature. Mais vous Yver, trop estes plein
De nège, de nège, vert, pluye et grézil.
On vous deust banir en évil. Sans point flater je parle plein, Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain
1. God! But she is fair, graceful, good and beautiful.
All are ready to praise her excellent qualities. Who could tire of her?
Her beauty is ever new. God! but she is fair, graceful, good and beautiful!
Nowhere does the sea look on so fair and perfect a lady or maiden.
Thinking on her is but a dream. God! but she is fair!
2. When I heard the tambourine call us to go a-Maying,
I did not let it frighten me in my bed or lift my head from my pillow, saying, ‘It is too early,
I will go back to sleep.’
When I heard the tambourine call us to go a-Maying, young folks dividing their spoils,
I cloaked myself in nonchalance, clinging to it and finding the nearest neighbour.
When I heard the tambourine call us to go a-Maying,
I did not let it frighten me in my bed or lift my head from my pillow.
3. Winter, you’re naught but a rogue.
Summer is pleasant and kind, as we see from May and April, which accompany it evening and morn.
Summer clothes fields, woods and flowers with its livery of green and many other hues by nature’s order.
But you, Winter, are too full of snow, wind, rain and sleet.
We must send you into exile. I’m no flatterer I speak my mind.
Winter, you’re naught but a rogue.
1936: Ted Colson (1881–1950) was the first person of European descent to cross the Simpson Desert on foot. Born at Richmans Creek, South Australia, to a Swedish father and English mother, he understood the rites, customs and dialects of several Aboriginal clans and always undertook his expeditions with assistance from Aboriginal people.
In 1937, Colson was assisted by Peter Eringa of the Antakirinja people. In 1936, Olivier Messiaen (1908– 1992) and three young composers established the group known as Jeune France (Young France). Jeune France aimed to write music which countered the frivolity predominant in Parisian music of the time. Messiaen’s piece O sacrum convivium (1937) was a product of this movement.
Messiaen’s 1988 visit to the ACC’s home town of Melbourne is worth noting. A devout Catholic, Messiaen regarded birdsong as the purest form of musical worship and sought to replicate it as exactly as possible in his compositions.
At the age of 80, when he visited Australia, Messiaen was particularly eager to hear the elusive lyrebird, nature’s most gifted mimic. For four days he walked among the trees in Sherbrooke Forest, near Melbourne. On the fifth day, there was the sound! Messiaen stood in the middle of the path, scribbling down notes. In his last masterpiece, Illuminations of the Beyond, Messiaen awarded the lyrebird an entire movement. As far as we can tell, there is no bird song in O sacrum convivium.
O sacrum convivium!
In quo Christus sumitur:
Recolitur memoria passionis eius:
Mens impletur gratia:
Et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.
Alleluia.
O sacred banquet!
In which Christ is received,
The memory of his Passion is renewed,
The mind is filled with grace,
And pledge of future glory to us is given.
Alleluia.
Antarctica
1820: With sightings of the continent of Antarctica by Russian and British expeditions, the extent of the land masses in the Terra Australis area was confirmed. It was now clear that contrary to Aristotle’s theory, the total area of landmass in the southern hemisphere was much less than in the northern hemisphere.
JS Bach (1685–1750): Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden
BWV 230 (Published 1820)
Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden,
und preiset ihn, alle Völker!
Denn seine Gnade und Wahrheit waltet über uns in Ewigkeit.
Alleluja!
Praise the Lord, all ye nations,
and praise Him, all ye peoples!
For His grace and truth rule over us for eternity.
Alleluja!
Tom Henry ‘Sacred’ and ‘Return to Earth’ from Kakadu Man
Poems by Bill Neidjie
Sacred
Our story is in the land. It is written in those sacred places.
Dreaming place… We can’t break law. No-one can walk close to those sacred places.
Dreaming place… …sacred places. …secret place (not small. Secret place is biggest one.) Everywhere.
Powerful. …something underneath, (under) the ground.
If you touch, you might get cyclone, [or] heavy rain, [or] flood. …[or] you might kill someone (in another place).
You cannot [can’t] touch him.
We walk on earth, we look after, like rainbow sitting on top.
We like this earth to stay, because he was staying for ever (and ever).
We don’t want to lose him. [This earth…] We say ‘Sacred, leave him.’
Return to Earth
This Earth
This ground and this earth, like brother and mother.
Like your father or brother or mother, because you born from earth.
You got to come back to earth.
When I die I become earth [again].
I’ll be buried here.
I’ll be with my brother, my mother.
My spirit has gone back to my country, my mother.
Biographical Notes
The Australian Chamber Choir was established by its current Artistic Director, Douglas Lawrence in 2007. Up to 2019, the choir has undertaken seven concert tours of Europe, and given more than 250 performances, many of which were recorded for national radio broadcast. Wherever they perform, the ACC is met with accolades from audiences and critics alike. The choir has released several commercial CDs, available for sale at today’s performance.
Tom Henry began his musical career as a flautist, in which discipline he graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne and later studied with the French virtuoso Patrick Gallois. During recent years he has become increasingly active as a composer. He completed his studies in harmony, counterpoint and composition with Lawrence Whiffin before undertaking further studies with Julian Yu, Elliott Gyger and Stuart Greenbaum, finishing a Master of Music in Composition at the University of Melbourne in 2012. His works include pieces for piano trio, piano solo, and full orchestra.
In recent years Sydney born composer Alan Holley (b.1954) has been a featured composer at numerous music festivals and received composer profile concerts in Croatia, Serbia, Albania and Australia. Since 2005, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra has commissioned him to write four new works and performed them in the Sydney Opera House. In 2018, the Australian Chamber Choir performed his And the rain in four Australian concerts. His works are published by Kookaburra Music and recorded on Hammerings Records.
Program concept, design and notes by Elizabeth Anderson
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Douglas Lawrence OAM
SINGERS
Soprano
Sarah Amos
Elspeth Bawden
Ellen Brown
Alex Hedt*
Amelia Jones*
Elizabeth Lieschke*
Alto
Elizabeth Anderson*
Hannah Spracklan-Holl*
Isobel Todd
Jennifer Wilson-Richter
Tenor
Joshua Lucena
Samuel Rowe*
Tanum Shipp*
Leighton Triplow
Bass
Lucien Fischer*
Kieran Macfarlane
Alexander Owens
Lucas Wilson-Richter*
*denotes soloist
Committee Of Management
Chairman: Prof. Robin Batterham Ao
Vice Chairman: Stuart Hamilton Ao
Secretary: Dr. Geoffrey Scollary
Treasurer: Vacant
Committee Member: Joan Roberts
Patrons
Prof. The Hon Barry Jones AC
Prof. John Griffiths, AM, Oficial De La Orden De Isabel La Católica
Administration
Manager: Elizabeth Anderson
Administrator: Trudi Paton
Bookkeeper: Anna Price
Images
Page 4: Cornelius and Gerard de Jode, Novae Guineae forma, & situs. (1593), Australian National Library, Canberra, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj231244136.
Page 5: Mark Lang, Portrait of Bill Neidjie with grandson Ricky.
Page 7: Franceso Rosselli, Oval World Map (1508), National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, http://www.gramma.it/sussidiario/lezioni/04_dce/04-dce_esempi/04-05.html.
Page 10: Oronce Finé, World map in the form of a heart showing Terra Australis (1536), Bibliotèque Nationale de France, Paris, Cartes et Plans, Rés. Ge DD 2987 (63), http://expositions.bnf.fr/lamer/grand/054.htm
Page 13: Johannes and Nicholaas Verkolje, Portrait of Willem de Vlamingh (1690-1700), Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney.
Page 17: Matthew Flinders, General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia, showing the parts explored between 1798 and 1803 by M. Flinders Commr. Of HMS Investigator, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-232588549, National Library of Australia, Canberra.
Page 20: CM Nixon, Portrait of Frank Hann and Talbot, PRG 197/7/1, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide.
Page 22: Ted Colson, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Ted_Colson_SLSA_B8496.jpg.
ACC Partners
We would like to thank all our partners, including those listed below, for their generous support:
Emma & Toms
Musica Viva
Move
Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak
Delatite
Four Seasons Fine Music Festival
QT Melbourne
NGV
Limelight
Mini Maestros
The Robert Salzer Foundation
The Langham Melbourne
Stewart Organs
Scots Church Melbourne
Australian Chamber Choir Inc. ARBN 632884569