Dreamtime

Commissioned by Philip Harper for the Cory Band’s 2013 tour to Australia, Dreamtime draws inspiration from Australian Aboriginal mythology.

The Dreamtime is a sacred era in which the Aborigines believe ancestral totemic (symbolic) spirits created the world.  It was believed that before plants, animals and humans came into being their souls already existed and that they knew that they would become physical but they didn’t know when or what they would become.  Some souls became the animals and vegetation that enlivened the landscape, whilst others became the rivers, seas, hills, plains and valleys that shape the world’s surface.  One soul became human, acting as the guardian to the natural world.

The work begins with narration and the traditional sound of the didgeridoo, created by the use of multi-phonics in the euphoniums and tubas, accompanying a narrator who gives a brief outline of the Aboriginal belief. Traditional Aboriginal music is primarily percussive and so the work relies heavily on percussive effects and complexity.  Above the percussive backdrop there is a simple chorale beginning in the tubas and euphoniums which forms the basis of the work. 

As the music progresses the narrator is reintroduced and relays the Dreamtime story; “The Waking of the Sun”.

Difficulty: Difficult

Duration: 00:07:30

 Available from Yewden Music