Wominjeka Elements 2

Richard Powers

Architect:

AL_A

Original performance:

5 October 2015

The MPavilion

Amanda Levete of AL_A created a confluence of the ancient and the futuristic in her forest canopy for MPavilion 2015. Employing materials and technology developed for the aerospace industry, she created graceful clusters of four metre-high columns, with delicate petals blooming from the top of each. They gently responded to the climate using LED lights which activated at sunset and offered an extraordinary light performance synchronised with music.

Amanda Levete said “Our pavilion is a celebration of those natural shelters where we come together. We have achieved an exceptionally light, open structure that sits gently on the land and allows the light, the wind, and sometimes the rain, to form part of the show. It is designed to provide a contemplative, personal experience as well as a place to congregate.”

The pavilion used “completely human-made technology, human-made materials, and invested it with something that feels natural, poetic.” In fusing together the natural and the technological, the pavilion paid accidental homage to the intimate knowledge and connection between the Boon Wurrung and their Country.

The Composition

This atmospheric piece—featuring flautist Tamara Kohler, dancer Rheannan Port and the captivating voices of the Dhungala Children’s Choir, with soprano soloist Shauntai Batzke—was a first-time collaboration between composers Deborah Cheetham and James Henry, both of Yorta Yorta descent. Guided again by Aunty Carolyn, their composition was translated into Boon Wurrung language.

Inspired by reflections and shadows in AL_A’s design, Elements 2 created an aural dimension in which to abandon all sense of time, and reconnect with the nonlinear cycles of Country. The Birrarung flowing just beyond the Queen Victoria Gardens is a reminder that this area was not always the built up, grid system that Melbourne’s CBD has been for most of our lifetimes. Flowing through this area was the cyclical knowledge from, and held within, Country, its plants, animals and people, and held in song.

Words by Susie Anderson

Compositional response

By 2015, I realised that the launch event needed a sonic scope that would envelop the audience and so I invited my cousin and fellow Yorta Yorta composer James Henry Little, to collaborate with me. James and I could not be more different in our approach to composition, and that is precisely what was needed for Womindjeka Elements 2.

James works exclusively with synthesized sounds and wields his software powerfully, creating richly dense sound worlds. To his harmonic structure I added vocal melodies for soloist Shauntai Batzke and the virtuosic flute solo, played at the premiere by my daughter and VCA graduate, Tamara Kohler. To this, we added another essential element of First Nations’ ceremony—dance. Rearranging this work for orchestra was a real challenge due to that trademark density, but when you have the finest orchestral players in Melbourne, to write for it makes the challenge an exciting journey of possibility.