AUSTRALIAN CHORAL MUSIC

You’d expect the Australian Boys Choir to sing a lot of Australian music, wouldn’t you? But that was not how it was in the beginning. The ABC’s song list consisted of British folksongs, classical songs and ‘traditional’ pieces – but almost nothing from our own country.

Programs from the 40s indicate a mere handful of pieces that could in any way be considered our own. Even Waltzing Matilda was only performed in two of the ten years. The 50s were much the same. However, with the publication of a tiny collection of tunes gathered from our indigenous people, Warrego Lament, Maranoa Lullaby and Jabbin Jabbin made cautious appearances. Australian composers WG James (The Stockrider’s Song), Percy Grainger (Country Gardens) and May Brahe (Bless this House) also crept in. The big innovation was the introduction of genuine Australian folksongs, such as Click go the Shears and By the Eumeralla Shore. In the 60s, the Choir’s ‘Australian’ repertoire grew. Folksongs such as Moreton Bay, My Old Black Billy and The Old Bullock Dray were much more evident, as was Waltzing Matilda.

The 70s saw major changes in the Choir. After the death of founding Director VJ Kelly more ambitious repertoire was chosen. Composers such as Stravinsky, Kodály and Britten began to appear alongside Palestrina, Byrd and the classical composers but, apart from a flurry of Click go the Shears, a steady drip of WG James and, for the first time, Peter Sculthorpe’s Sea Chant, Australian music came a bad last after the usual crop of British and other exotic folksongs.

Structural and leadership changes resulted in even fewer Australian works performed in the 80s. Artistic Policy adopted in 1984 mandated a more ‘serious’ approach to repertoire and performance of larger-scale works. There just weren’t many of these available amongst the home-grown product!

One solution was to commission new pieces but this was slow - funding was tight. Beginning with Colin Jenkins in the 70s, then Peter Butler, Trevor Jones and Noel Ancell, ‘in house’ arrangements and new works began to be produced. Several composers fulfilled formal commissions: Calvin Bowman, Michael Easton, Christopher Gordon, Paul Jarman, Douglas Kneehans, Vaughan McAlley, Harley Mead, Eric Austin Phillips, Paul Sarcich, Paul Stanhope and Martin Wesley-Smith.

Thanks to the work of publishers such as Allans and, more recently, Morton Music, many choral works by Australian composers have now been published. The rise of self-publishing has also increased the availability of such repertoire, with the result that the Australian Boys Choir is now proud to present whole programs of Australian works at home and abroad. Composers whose pieces regularly appear in our concerts include Colin Brumby, Iain Grandage, Sarah Hopkins, Stephen Leek, Matthew Orlovich and Joseph Twist. Two CDs, Sons of the South (2000) and Calls & Cries (2009) are devoted to Australian music. Waltzing Matilda, a great favourite with overseas audiences once its strange language and bizarre story has been explained to them, is now frequently performed in one of several sophisticated arrangements.

At last we can confidently call ourselves the Australian Boys Choir.