MCO’s Homeland can be heard on Saturday 5 April 1:00pm at 75 Reid Street and Sunday 6 April 7:30pm at Riverlinks Westside.
Perth-raised and Melbourne-based, First Nations conductor, composer, and violist Aaron Wyatt is dismantling conventional notions of the Australian landscape with his lush new work Under the Canopy.
Commissioned by Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and here receiving its world premiere, the 10-minute work for string quartet strives to reframe the view through which his homeland is depicted. More pressingly, Aaron wants to craft in sound a portrait of the landscapes which informed so much of his own artistic and personal development.
Aaron’s perspective is appropriately romanticised. “So often when we think of the Australian landscape, we think of this harsh environment,” he says. “But where I’m from, in the southwest of the country — but also here, where I find myself in the southeast — it’s a lot more foresty. There’s a lot more trees, more growth, more shade.”
As such, Under the Canopy projects a dazzling quantity of light and space across its brief runtime. A striking point of reference, alluded to by the work’s title, is the mighty Jarrah forests of his home state. It is these ancient giants, towering overhead, which form the sonic canopy under which the piece thrives and flourishes.
His goal remains, when exploring the delicate balance of textures within the new piece, that we be reminded of “the fragility of this world and its impermanence, particularly in the face of human impact.”
While Under the Canopy does not bear the thumbprint of any specific composer, Aaron shares that his own musical identity has been formed by many other composers. He cites a healthy dose of inspiration from Romantic-era pieces, as well as modern works and minimalist pieces. “It’s all kind of blended together to create the style behind a lot of what I do,” he says.
The commission of today’s new piece marks an inaugural partnership between Aaron and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. It’s an exciting transition for the composer, derived from more traditional orchestral fabric than the pieces he has written in years prior.
Aaron’s first work as a composer to be recorded and published was a commission from new music ensemble Decibel, for their 2 Minutes from Home project. Devised for the ScorePlayer, the group’s iPad score reader for graphic notations, the series brought together composers from all over the world during COVID lockdowns between July and December 2020.
Aaron’s contribution saw a vibrant mix of acoustic instruments and electronic augmentations, informing what he says are the two very distinct sides of his compositional practice, “the more traditional notation, and that animated graphic side of things.”
It is the traditional side which drives the most inspiration for Under the Canopy, as well as the work committed to the Ngurra-Burria First Peoples program and his pieces for Ensemble Offspring. Aaron’s varied body of music, and the creative vibrancy of the environments in which he has worked and lived, are sure to make themselves seen and heard in his new piece for the MCO.
By Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier