Arts & Letters: Music
CULTURE
That Blockhead Thing: Aztec Music’s Archaelogical Dig
Richard Guilliatt
The ’60s, so the saying goes, didn’t start in Australia until the ’70s. Richard Nixon was well into his first term in the White House by...
More ...Spin It: 30 Albums
Robert Forster
Some years ago I was in the cluttered study of a friend who works as a music journalist and radio broadcaster in Munich. The walls were...
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CULTURE
Right Composition: Meeting Composer Carl Vine
Anna Goldsworthy
Many years ago in Sydney, moments before I was due on stage, the stage manager breezily mentioned that the composer might be in the...
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CULTURE
What Happens Next: Meeting Mary Finsterer
Andrew Ford
Mary Finsterer says she wants to write a Mass. As one of Australia’s finest composers, she’s entitled; composers have been making new...
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Out of the Bay: Girls’s 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost'
Robert Forster
Girls are a two-piece band out of San Francisco who write and sing songs about loneliness, heartbreak, the fuzzy disconnect around rock’n’...
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CULTURE
To the Heart: Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu’s 'Rrakala'
Robert Forster
Elcho Island is 560 kilometres from Darwin, off the north-east Arnhem Land coast. A strong musical community there has produced members of...
More ...Too Much Heaven on their Minds: The New Castrati
Paul Kelly
Ever since the world began, I suspect, men have been showing off to women and to other men by singing high. Sure, the manly stuff – hunting...
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SOCIETY
Scream: The Glory and the Madness of being a ‘60s and ‘70s Australian Pop Singer
Robert Forster
It begins in Brisbane in the late ’60s, when I was 11 and 12 years old. The Saturday afternoons were never-ending and on some of them,...
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SOCIETY
Too Smart to Run Back: Allo Darlin’s Debut Album
Robert Forster
The history of the ukulele in rock music is as short and quirky as the instrument itself. Before pop music there was cheeky Englishman...
More ...SOCIETY
Barnsey's Blues: Jimmy Barnes's 'Rage and Ruin'
Robert Forster
What do Sarah Blasko, Silverchair, The Grates and Jimmy Barnes all have in common? Their latest albums were all made outside Australia...
More ...SOCIETY
Out on the Weekend: Vampire Weekend at Brisbane’s Tivoli
Robert Forster
The big discussion has been about Ezra’s hair. Recent photos have had it fluffy and a little out of control. No problems tonight, though;...
More ...SOCIETY
The Odd Couple: The White Stripes’ 'Under Great White Northern Lights'
Robert Forster
The last White Stripes’ album, Icky Thump, came out in 2007. For a group operating under the normal touring and recording schedule, the...
More ...SOCIETY
Classical Complex: The Sydney Symphony's Mahler Cycle
Anna Goldsworthy
In the summer of 1910, Gustav Mahler consulted Sigmund Freud, seeking advice on his troubled marriage. “Mahler gave me the impression of...
More ...SOCIETY
Distant Sounds: 'Community: A Compilation of Hobart Music'
Robert Forster
When is Tasmania going to produce some great bands? It must be soon, if only through the converging of cultural forces, time and the fact...
More ...CULTURE
From Mop Tops To Moustaches: The Beatles Remastered
Robert Forster
The Beatles were formed in 1957 when John Lennon invited Paul McCartney to join The Quarrymen. Soon after, McCartney got his mate George...
More ...SOCIETY
Obscured by Clouds: Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'
Waleed Aly
In the mid-1960s, a young underground band played a gig at a Catholic youth club. The promoter refused to pay the band, which decided to...
More ...CULTURE
Curtain Call: Joan Sutherland
Peter Conrad
With the connivance of an airline official, her husband Richard Bonynge had caught the first flight out to London; the diva was left behind...
More ...Prepared: The ANAM Piano Festival
Anna Goldsworthy
Last year, when Peter Garrett announced the withdrawal of funding from the Australian National Academy of Music, he must have been startled...
More ...SOCIETY
Setting Herself Apart: Sarah Blasko's 'As Day Follows Night'
Robert Forster
She’s a restless soul, Sarah Blasko, three albums in her recording career done: one in Los Angeles, one in Auckland, and now her latest...
More ...SOCIETY
The Pretendies: The art of the spoken interlude
Paul Kelly
The spoken interlude has a long history in popular song. And takes a fair bit of nerve to pull off. The singer must step out from behind...
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