Paul Stanhope: String Quartet No.3, From the Kimberley

PROGRAM NOTES

My third string quartet was written with many thoughts still spinning about the Kimberley region in the north-west of Australia, where I travelled a number of times in preparation for the large dramatic cantata Jandamarra: Sing for the Country, premiered by the Sydney Symphony in 2014. This string quartet reflects on aspects of the story of Jandamarra who lived in the late 1880s and 90s and its impact on the Kimberley region. Jandamarra, a Bunuba man who initially works as a tracker for white troopers, participates in the hunting down of his own people, before switching sides and becoming a resistance fighter. Although a flawed hero who pays for his heroism with his own life, he is revered by his people as a Jalgangurru – a figure of great cultural spiritual power.

The first movement Tracks and Traces is marked ‘With a relentless sense of pursuit’ and is, at times, claustrophobic, sinister and edgy. Having previously tracked and imprisoned many of his own, Jandamarra becomes Western Australia’s most wanted man. A fast, repeated descending figure heard in the opening of the movement represents musical footprints which are pursued and tracked through various sonic landscapes, at times with close-knit polyphony, patterns twisting and whirling. Related figures are superimposed, drawn out and developed. A slower, middle section brings a quieter intensity as soaring figures in the first violin introduce material that is developed further in the return to the original tempo, where various duos are explored. The spiralling figures of the opening return and the musical hunt is complete.

The melody of Dirrari Lament was composed by a Bunuba woman, Molly Jalakbiya. Her song is a lament about a mother black cockatoo who grieves at the death of her baby. This song was used as a symbol in the Jandamarra cantata as a lament for the passing of the young hero. The movement is essentially a threnody for the departed and was written around the time of my teacher, Peter Sculthorpe’s passing. Given Peter’s tremendous contribution to the string quartet literature, this movement represents a tribute to this great Australian composer.

River-run represents a more optimistic outlook which was inspired by the waterways of the Kimberley. Earlier in 2014, during a rehearsal day on a riverbank not far from Fitzroy Crossing, some of the local kids spent the morning jumping from a tree into the swirling, fast water of the mighty Fitzroy River, known as Martuwarra to peoples of the Kimberley. To my eyes, the water looked dangerous, yet the grannies and aunties guided the kids to a safe spot where they were spun gently back to the beach. This harmonious relationship with landscape may well be an unoriginal observation on my part, but was still impressive! The image of a river that has flowed non-stop for thousands of years was the inspiration for the bubbling energetic music found in this movement. Energetic, rippling musical motifs in this movement also suggest the flowing of time as well as the continuity of culture despite traumatic times. In my mind, this imagined musical river flows over crags of dreadful conflict and searing lament toward a brighter future that is somehow still over the horizon; not quite present, yet also possible. To this end, the piece ends quietly with something of a sense of an unanswered question.

Paul Stanhope © 2015
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