To celebrate AusMusic Month, the Australian String Quartet will add two new recordings to its burgeoning Australian Anthology digital release platform, making more home-grown music available to listeners across the world.
Coinciding with NAIDOC Week, on Wednesday 11 November the ASQ will release a recording of Stephen Pigram’s ‘Walganyagarra Buru’, a piece which tells the story of the meeting of Pigram’s great-grandparents, sung in Yawuru, Broome Kriol and English. This work was commissioned by the Klein Family Foundation, as part of Quartet & Country, a project by the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival and its 2016-2019 Artistic Director, composer Iain Grandage, UKARIA and the Australian String Quartet, and recorded live from Melbourne Recital Centre in 2019.
Later in November the ASQ will release a recording of the very first manuscript for a string quartet ever written in Australia, Charles Edward Horsley’s ‘String Quartet No 1 in C major’, written in 1862.
These contrasting releases demonstrate the variety and breadth of the string quartet repertoire and reflect the diverse influences on Australian music and culture across time.
“Walganyagarra buru, which translates as “long time ago in country” in our Yawuru language “nganga” is a song in which I hoped would bring elements of storytelling in Traditional, kriol and English; and in the music – Folk, Country and Djabi melody. The powerful and beautiful string arrangement by Iain Grandage and the performance of the ASQ when we play it live takes me back to the late 1890’s early 1900’s when this story is set about the journey of my great grandmother Minybal Esther, moving off her traditional lands into the shanty pearling camps of Broome and meeting Santiago, the father of my grandmother Petronella, mimi, matriarch of a very large family in our buru today.” – composer Stephen Pigram
“Our ASQ AusMusic Month is framed by a story from the 1800s from an ancient culture, and the first string quartet born in Australia during that same time. These releases celebrate the many varied stories that come from this country” – Stephen King, viola, Australian String Quartet
RELEASES
Stephen Pigram Walganyagarra Buru – Wednesday 11 November
Charles Edward Horsley String Quartet no 1 – Friday 27 November
Australian Anthology recordings are available to stream via Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Youtube, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer and more.
For more information on the ASQ visit the website at asq.com.au or phone 1800 040 444 for details.
Featured pic: Australian String Quartet at Ukaria. Pic Sam Jozeps