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CALVIN BOWMAN : C_C_C Composer Diary
Calvin Bowman's Composer Progress Diary
The events in italics occurred before the official start of the project, but are listed here in order to indicate that planning, discussions and ‘connections’ began well before November.
2005
March 16 DRMC meeting rehearsal, with Rhonda Bruce - a local soprano, of my Murraguldrie Pastorals to be performed as part of a DRMC concert.
May 2 DRMC meeting during which I submitted a sample recording and score of my work.
July 18 Composers_Connecting_Community program introduced to the Hills Music Teachers’ Network.
July 22 My first rehearsal with the Ranges Young Strings, a delightful group of young players who are conducted by the equally delightful Rosie Burns. This was an informal opportunity to simply listen and have a chat with the kids and their parents. One parent in particular was intrigued by the fact that I wrote music. Upon engaging him in conversation, I realised that he was a woodworker. It turned out that our respective philosophies had much in common, and made for a stimulating discussion.
August 22 DRMC meeting during which choice of texts was discussed for the Hillsongs massed choir. Aeneas Gunn, Nettie Palmer, and Anne Williams were all discussed as possible authors. Bev McAllister then suggested C.J. Dennis, and went on to relate the fact that he had been a local of sorts some ninety years ago. Being intrigued by this, I went away to research some of his poetry, and discovered A Book for Kids for the first time. The brief for the piece was that it would be engaging and simple enough for a massed choir to sing. Other ensemble combinations were also discussed for further commissions.
September 6 An email from Bev McAllister indicated that ideas for Hillsongs were progressing, but that she now wanted some ideas for the Ranges Young Strings piece. At this point in time, I was still thoroughly bereft of such ideas!
October 16 I attended a concert at Selby Anglican Church where the Ranges Young Strings were performing, so that I could get a better idea of their capabilities in live performance. I also heard Singularity, an a cappella choir based in the Dandenongs, which was originally set up by the DRMC. They put on an excellent performance, and I resolved to write something for them as part of the project.
October 17 DRMC meeting and Ranges Young Strings rehearsal. After the performance the day before, I had a better idea as to what I might write for the string group.
October 18 I attended my first Singularity rehearsal. For all intents and purposes it was merely going to be a session during which I was an auditor; but by the end of the evening my services had been employed as both tenor and accompanist! The compliments from the choir flowed very liberally and kindly.
November 22 Today I undertook visits to Gembrook and Ferny Creek Public School. At Gembrook, Grades 2-6 sang three completed songs of mine with portable keyboard after singing an opening song with CD backing. The kids were extremely enthusiastic. They demonstrated a keen interest in the arts during a question and answer session, with a number of young composers in the mix. Impromptu performances of various songs by the kids also took place – one sang ‘opera’, another sang ‘pop’, with absolutely no shyness whatsoever! Appalling facilities however; the children rehearse in a shed in which mice have been seen on more than one occasion. What a terrible indictment on our society to realise that these kids, and many others throughout the ‘lucky country’, only have the opportunity to study music through the perseverance of an individual teacher. That evening I went home and penned The Song of the Sulky Stockman in response to the choirs heard throughout the day. A simple melody and good rhythm are the order of the day in this song.
November 23 Visits to Mt. Dandenong and Heany Park Public School.
November 29 Today an email arrived from Allan Stomann, the legendary Australian children’s illustrator. I had long admired his work in the ABC ‘Sing’ books, and asked if he might be interested in doing some drawings for a published version of the C.J. Dennis songs. Not only was his response positive, but he also offered to do them for free. Upon receiving this generous communication, I resolved to dedicate the cycle to Allan.
2006
January 27 Interview with Leader newspaper regarding the DRMC project.
February 16 First rehearsal with the Upwey High School band. After hearing the ensemble, I had a lengthy chat with their director, Sarah Gill, as to appropriate ideas for a composition. She outlined certain peculiarities in terms of available instruments, and loaned me some scores of works which the kids had enjoyed playing in the past.
February 18 DRMC session – Meeting the Composer. I found this to be a very rewarding experience. This evening, I met with four local composers, all of whom were completely different in terms of age, background and ability. The first, Lore Burns, is the daughter of the Ranges Young Strings conductor. She is a cellist, and also loves to write music. After perusing some of her scores, I suggested that she might like to look at some works by Graeme Koehne, Benjamin Britten and Philip Glass in order to find further inspiration. Helen Holliday, the acting conductor of Singularity, brought me a setting of T.S. Eliot, for which I made some suggestions about word painting and text setting. Stax the didjeridu player was a character. I had an engaging chat to him about the role of indigenous music in mainstream music education. He was particularly interested in discussing notational techniques for the didjeridu, for which I drew on my experiences in premiering Voices by Philip Glass, a work for organ, didjeridu and narrator. The fourth composer, Elizabeth Middleton, has written a lot of music for recorder, much of which has a strong rhythmic drive. I mentioned to her that she may find further inspiration in a work for organ and percussion by Lou Harrison.
March 8 Fairhills Public School rehearsal. I attended this rehearsal to gauge the standard of the ensemble in preparation for Hillsongs.
March 31 Introduction of C.J. Dennis songs to teachers for Hillsongs at DRMC. I played and sang through the songs, and talked about interpretation in some detail. A fascinating surprise awaited me. It became evident that some of the teachers involved had little or no formal music training to the point where some of them couldn’t read a melody line. The CD recordings became an indispensable tool for most teachers involved as they were not capable of playing an instrument or singing themselves.
April 22 First rehearsal with Paul Hughes for May 2 recording of C.J. Dennis songs
April 23 Second rehearsal with Paul Hughes for May 2 recording of C.J. Dennis songs
May 2 Rehearsal and recording of C.J. Dennis songs with Paul Hughes at St Michael’s Uniting Church Melbourne. Not all went entirely smoothly – traffic noise and the fact that Paul had been unwell didn’t serve to make the session particularly easy – such is the nature of recording sessions!
May 28 Rehearsal for June 4 concert. It had been decided that I would be a direct participant in the concert by conducting Singularity, accompanying the C.J. Dennis songs, and acting as an informal M.C. for the afternoon.
May 29 Visit to Belgrave house (connection via Bev McAllister)
June 4 A Conversation with Composer Calvin Bowman - Premieres of Prelude for an Occasion, Six Herrick Songs, Suite for String Orchestra and The Music of your Voice. An exciting day indeed. All composers love to attend premieres of their own work. On this day, I was blessed not only with four premieres, but also to conduct and play for two of them. I was very interested to also hear and discuss compositions by three local composers; Mark Buys, Ron Davey, and Elizabeth Middleton. The public conversations revealed three composers with different backgrounds and approaches to their art. All of them had compositions worthy of performance, and indeed, I felt that they would show up some so-called ‘professional’ composers if given the chance! More opportunities must be created as the grass-roots level for people like this – true ‘amateurs’ who write for the love of it. The audience also seemed to enjoy the interaction with a ‘live’ composer.
June 7 Today we used Ferny Creek Public School choir as a rehearsal choir for the C.J. Dennis songs, with teachers from various Hillsongs schools in attendance. At this stage, much of the discussion was about fine-tuning the pieces and discussion of logistics in stage managing the performance.
July 2 Recording with Singularity and Ranges Young Strings of commissioned pieces. We employed the services of an outstanding technician, Peter Nicholls, to record the two ensembles. It became clear as the afternoon progressed that the process was very much a learning exercise for the Ranges Young Strings. It taught them that recording can be an arduous process, and that certain passages might have to be repeated a dozen times for the permanent record. Some of the ensemble members found the concentration levels required to be a challenge. Singularity should be very proud of their efforts. Throughout rehearsals, I saw a definite improvement in standard and a keen desire to do better always. This resulted in a recording of which they should be justly proud.
July 10 First rehearsal with Hillsongs choir at Upwey South Public School. Prior to this session I had been sent a recording of local Mac Craig reading the C.J. Dennis poems, and it had been decided that we would incorporate Mac into the Hillsongs performance as C.J. Dennis himself. Mac is a very talented reader, and on the day of rehearsal engaged the kids beautifully with his renditions. Another ad hoc venue – a basketball court with an electric keyboard brought in for Kenji Fujimura to play, but all taken in very good humour, and no mice that I could see! The children clearly enjoyed singing the songs, but there was no greater hit than Bessie and the Bunyip. If they could have sung that song seven times rather than singing the cycle as a whole I’m sure they would have done so! It became apparent at this session that not all of the children were given the benefit of solid rehearsal on the pieces, but with a choir of four hundred children there was very little opportunity to go over finer points in detail.
July 11 Today I attended Karoo Public School to assist in rehearsing the kids for Hillsongs. This came about as a direct invitation from the choir leader. He admitted that he had taught music for twenty years with no musical background, and that he was somewhat daunted by being involved in Hillsongs – he just wanted to ‘get it right’. No poor reflection on this teacher, as he had obviously given his heart and soul to giving children musical experiences for many years, but he clearly needed assistance. It’s become apparent to me that many rehearsals in our schools consist of pressing ‘play’ and ‘repeat’ on a CD player, with the kids singing along. Not good enough. During rehearsal with Karoo P.S. I played what I would consider to be some fairly basic accompaniments on the piano to fill out my guitar chords. The children were in awe. A wonderful thing to be able to do, but it should be a normal experience for them. I concluded the afternoon by chatting to the teacher about his passion for collecting toy robots!
July 19 Visit to Fairhills Public School I offered to accompany individual choirs at Hillsongs, and Fairhills and Upwey South Public School took me up on my offer. Again, the session became a workshop on the pieces in question rather than a simple accompanying job.
July 24 Hillsongs rehearsal and performance. A fun day was had by all!
Summary:
What a pleasure this project has been. Looking through the record of my activities I am reminded of wonderful times with wonderful people. Our communities harbour many unsung heroes (and I don’t use this word in the AFL sense) who give entire lives to creating worthwhile musical experiences. However, if there is one point I wish to re-iterate as a lesson I’ve learned by through the Composers_Connecting_Community project, it is that music education in our schools is not valued. This is reflected in the general standard of musical competency attained by the teachers, and the appalling lack of even the most basic music facilities for the kids. Until Australia wakes up and realises that the health of our society as a whole is dependent on a vibrant arts culture, we will continue to stumble along the same well-worn path of mediocrity and hopelessness.
On the positive side, I have been deeply moved by some of the relationships I’ve formed as part of the project, and have been re-invigorated by working with some lovely kids. In particular, Rosie Burns has become an excellent tennis partner who helps me to do much needed exercise!
Many thanks to Maggie Duncan for her inner light and quiet efficiency, Karen Noonan for her sense of humour and willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ for me, and Bev McAllister, perhaps most importantly of all, as I know that none of these excellent community music experiences would ever have occurred without her indefatigable input.
