Sarah Hopkins
Sarah Hopkins writes Reclaiming the Spirit as pure sonority: didgeridoo colour under the cello, open harmonic space, and a sound-piece that hums, drones and breathes rather than argues. The music answers landscape and ceremony with atmosphere first.
The same score also lives in chamber form for clarinet, viola, piano and cello, written into programmes of new Australian work. Hopkins trusts colour and resonance over busy argument. Wide intervals, an almost improvised calm, and the cello made to speak like country itself give the music its pull. It is less about display than about letting the instrument hold air and ground at once.
Performing as Victorian Time Machine
More about Victorian Time Machine
Victorian Time Machine
The Victorian Time Machine, directed by Richard David Hames, grew out of the Victorian College of the Arts as an instrumental and vocal ensemble for new music. This 1979 programme pairs Guillaume Dufay with works by Hames, Barry Conyngham and James Fulkerson.