Spectrum (2020)
Music by Sally Whitwell (she/her), Text by Sally Whitwell and Monique Duval (she/her)
As a composer, I feel I always need to be working. I like to work on my skills, on my composing craft, on keeping the creative ideas flowing. So occasionally I set myself assignments, which is how this song cycle Spectrum came to be. The first song I composed, Yellow, was originally commissioned by Annie Kwok for her students at Brighton Secondary School, Adelaide. I loved the way their chosen text by Monique Duval actually sounded like the colour yellow. I’m synaesthetic and D major sounds yellow to me, so I set the text in that key. It then occurred to me that setting myself a composing assignment of interpreting the colours of the rainbow flag might be a nice idea. Because, I am so gay. The cycle is not actually LGBTQ+ themed in subject matter, the flag was just a kind of framework for my creativity.
The first movement, Red was inspired by an animated video of red blood-cells coursing down an Artery. Orange (Torch Song) was loosely inspired by my love of TV screenwriter Denis Potter’s magic realism, and heralds the sudden arrival of a 1930’s redhead femme fatale. It’s since been reworked for my second stage musical Fairytale Derail. Yellow is a setting of a joyous poem by Monique Duval about getting caught in a sun shower on the beach. Green was inspired by a beautiful day spent with my partner Glennda and our excellent friend, and composer Stephen Leek. He took us to see the centuries old trees in the rainforest of Liffey Falls, Tasmania. Blue was inspired by an early summer walk around the cliffs surrounding Sydney’s Coogee Beach. Purple (The Aubergine Queen) was loosely inspired by the pageantry and downright lies of the USA presidential campaigns. I get the feeling that many Americans secretly love the idea of monarchy, so they attempt to recreate the grandeur of those traditions and kind of, well, fail.
– Sally Whitwell
1. Red
Text and music by Sally Whitwell
Red river of life
Red runs in the veins
Red turns the mill that pumps the heart
Red river it flows
Red beneath the skin
Red turns the mill that pumps the heart
And the fire and the spark
And the fire and the zip zap zoom!
Red liquid energy
Red runs in the veins
Red pulse is powered through the limbs
Red liquid energy
Red feeding the core
Red pulse is powered through the limbs
And the fire and the spark
And the fire and the zip zap zoom!
You know the one
The one with the Xray vision
Sees straight through your position
Despite all your protestation
They know you.
2. Orange (torch song)
Text and music by Sally Whitwell
Down the twisting staircase
Cascading auburn curls
Fire in the eyes
Penetrates your disguise
Russet fur unfurled.
Ochre road to burning sun
Does not lead where you think.
Are you thirsting for the new,
A sour, acidic drink,
So piquant you salivate
For it’s acrid ginger bite?
This glowing sphere absorbed the sun.
Go on, sip that burning light!
I’m fast falling into flames
Can’t you hear me scream?
Scorching, blistering
I didn’t know it was her scheme
To send me to this purgatory
My very soul combusts
For one delicious moment
Of lewd luxurious lust.
But don’t think her self destructive
For the Phoenix legend’s true
She’ll be kindled in the ashes
A spirit thus renewed.
3. Yellow Rain
Text by Monique Duval, Music by Sally Whitwell
That’s when the rain came down
And we ran, laughing hard, sides hurting
And there was no shelter for miles
So we just sat down on the sand
And watched the ocean swallow the sky.
4. Green
Text and music by Sally Whitwell
Fingers stretching out, unfurling into air
Curls from a head of shining emerald hair
Electric jade neon throbs against the sky
Reaching for the sun although she cannot fly
From under the crust through thickening air
Navigating currents where breathing is rare
Shield of protection, crisp slow flaking skin
Falls silent to earth, reveals soft flesh within.
5. Blue
Text and music by Sally Whitwell
What could pierce this azure dome?
Dare it interrupt this perfection?
Not a cloud upon the endless blue
Above a sapphire sea
It’s the gentlest ebb and flow
Fingers of foam caress the shoreline
The haze on the horizon
Speaks of mystery unknown
One lone swimmer negotiates undulations
In turquoise blue
6. Purple (The Aubergine Queen)
Text and music by Sally Whitwell
All hail the aubergine queen
Bow down as she advances
Do you see her smile so benevolent?
Her Imperial Highness so resplendent.
Plush deep purple velvet o’er a shimmering lilac gown.
Sharply glints an amethyst atop her golden crown.
All hail!
Rise up and follow, don’t be left behind
By the procession so majestic down the boulevardes so fine.
Loyal subjects, left and right, violet flags they wave
Proud palominos pull the golden carriages of fools and knaves
Do you blithely believe she cares for how you live?
You brainwashed Pollyannas! She has so much to give
But she’ll not share a penny with the vast plebeian throng.
Perhaps it’s time to recognise that you were always wrong?
All hail!
Are You The New Person Drawn Towards Me? (2021)
Music by Ariel Bonnell (she/her), Text by Walt Whitman and Ariel Bonnell
“Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?” considers stereotypical expectations of how queer people should present their identity – ideas held by both queer and non-queer people. These physical markers can be useful within the LGBTQ+ community as concise indicators of someone’s sexuality, but may also conflict with one’s unique self-expression. These ideas must be challenged in order to freely experience one’s own identity, and to connect with others beyond superficial traits.
“Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?” (1860) – Walt Whitman with additional text by Ariel Bonnell
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you support you will find me in your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade, this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?
Flannel
Hot shorts
Undercuts
Rainbow hair
Right ear piercing
Lisp
Loose wrists
Vests
Button ups
Here Is A Safe Place (2021)
Music by Lore Burns (they/them), Text by Lore Burns
Here is a Safe Place began as a desire to write something gentle and enveloping for the queer community – a bespoke choral piece speaking of love and safety in a world that is often absent of either. The melody is therefore mostly a simple journey with some suspensions and bittersweet moments alluding to where the listener may have come from before entering the piece. The tone chimes and 3/4 time signature are intended to soothe the audience and create the impression of safety, with the bell-like sound also contributing to an ethereal atmosphere reinforced with breath and a warm singing tone.
Come all you weary warriors
Here is a safe place
Rest with both eyes closed
Without judgement, without fear
You broken-hearted, aching souls
Put down your heavy burdens
Here is a safe place
Syrup and Silicone (2021)
Music by Robert McIntyre (he/him), Text by Savanna Wegman (she/her)
Syrup And Silicone is centred on the narrative of internal standards within the queer community – reflecting on past experiences of being told “you’re not gay enough”, “you’re not really gay” and so on.
The queer community is a beautiful, vibrant one with so much diversity – like a rich, sweet syrup. Yet, what can also foster an internal marginalisation, and a certain adhesive, plastic fakeness – like silicone. The work is highly personal, questioning the irony of such an accepting community creating such a need to conform to a set of criteria, instead of thriving in our individuality. For me, my sexuality as a gay man is a part of my identity, but by no means my whole identity and I believe it is paramount to let anyone within the queer community freely determine that themselves.
The work sets a commissioned poem by Naarm (Melbourne, Aus) based artist, writer and theatre practitioner Savanna Wegman, a close colleague and friend.
My Hands are wide open
They read soft perfumed palms, primed for an encounter.
Searchlights that look too closely, (for) too long
Smooth me into marble, a figure I can’t recognise
I wait for calm and comfort in the dawn,
Suspended in syrup and silicone
(i)dentity (2021)
Music by Meta Cohen (she/they), Text by Gertrude Stein
What makes you you?
I’m Meta. You can call me Meta or M. You can call me she/her or they/them. You can callme Austrian or Australian. You can call me a composer, or a theatre-maker, or something in between.
I’m not very often just one thing – I’m not sure many of us are. So I wrote this piece as a wayof unpacking my own queer hybridity. And for me there is no better writer to choose for this than Gertrude Stein, a lesbian modernist writing in the 30s who exploded everything. For this piece, I have chosen a text that is another hybrid thing – somewhere in between a poem and a play.
(i)dentity explores some of my questions about rigid identities and labels, and above all, the language we use to talk about other people. On the one hand, defining identity is very important strategically for us as queer people for civil rights, and a sense of self, in a world that rendered us invisible for a long time (and still punishes a failure to conform). But on the other hand, I wanted to explore my own resistance to rigid categories that simplify the complexities of my particular queerness.
(i)dentity questions the set of assumptions we bring into any interaction, as soon as someone walks into a room. It acknowledges the seriousness and difficulty of (not) knowing who you are, but also, ultimately, the joy and playfulness in subverting expectations and thinking about the vast spectrum of identities that might be available to us.
I am I because my little dog knows me.
I am I yes sir I am I.
I am I yes madame am I I.
When I am I am I I.
And my little dog is not the same thing as I am I.
Chorus: Oh is it.
With tears in my eyes oh is it.
Yes madame or am I I.
I am I because my little dog knows me.
Which one is there I am I or another one.
Who is one and one or one is one.
I am I because my little dog knows me, but perhaps he does not and if he did I would not be
I.
And here we have the whole thing
Am I I.
Yes sir am I I.
I am I yes sir I am I.
I am I yes madame am I I.
But not I.
Without tears but not I.
I Am Who I Am (2021)
Music by Caerwen Martin (she/her), Text by Yvonne Sillett
(Arr. Alex Gorbatov)
Commissioned by Miranda Hill for Homophonic!, and reorchestrated by Alexander Gorbatov for Divisi Chamber Singers, is based on conversations with career soldier, Yvonne Sillett, about her profound experience of discrimination in the Australian Army. Yvonne was demoted and vilified in her profession specifically because she was gay. This discrimination impacted Yvonne’s career outcomes, her mental health, her relationships, and the course of her life but, by telling her story publicly, Yvonne has helped and empowered countless other people in the LGBTIQ+ community to deal with their own experiences of discrimination and oppression. I am who I am focuses on our self-respect, and the decisions we make under duress that uphold the value we have for ourselves and who we are, even in the face of adversity. The lyrics, written by Gail, speak to my own discovery of self-respect.
I am what I am,
I love who I love.
Oh, I want me,
I’ll have my life thank you!
I am what I am,
I’ll feel what I have to.
Oh, I choose love,
I’ll take passion.
“Where have you been?”
“Who have you been with?”
“Where have you hidden?”
“Who did you lie with?”
I choose love.
Or I’ll take my life.
I choose love.
Let me be with who I want to.
Who I want to.
Who I care for.
Who I dream of.
Let me be who I always was,
I choose love!
I am who I am,
I love who I love.
Oh, I want me,
I’ll have my life, thank you!
I am who I am,
I’ll feel what I have to.
I want love.
I’ll take passion.
I am who I am,
I am love.
I live.
Take back what I need to live my life,
Thank you!
