Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction and Historiography of Music in Australia
- Part I Continuities
- Part II Encounters
- Part III Diversities
- 11 Exclusion and Inclusion in Australian Metal
- 12 New Directions in Australian Art Music: The Curatorial, Creative and Conceptual
- 13 Artists’ Perspectives Experimental and Electronic Music in Australia
- 14 ArtistPerspective Australian EDM in the 1990s – Finding the Magic between the Art and Commerce of the Dance Floor
- 15 Artists’ PerspectivesJazz in Australia – The State of Play
- 16 Diverse Musics: Shaping Music through Cultural Difference
- 17 Chinese Music Performance in Australia
- 18 African Musics in Australia
- 19 Artists’ Perspectives Ngarra-burria Indigenous Composers and Their Interventions in Art Music Practice
- Part IV Institutions
- Index
- References
19 - Artists’ Perspectives Ngarra-burria Indigenous Composers and Their Interventions in Art Music Practice
from Part III - Diversities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction and Historiography of Music in Australia
- Part I Continuities
- Part II Encounters
- Part III Diversities
- 11 Exclusion and Inclusion in Australian Metal
- 12 New Directions in Australian Art Music: The Curatorial, Creative and Conceptual
- 13 Artists’ Perspectives Experimental and Electronic Music in Australia
- 14 ArtistPerspective Australian EDM in the 1990s – Finding the Magic between the Art and Commerce of the Dance Floor
- 15 Artists’ PerspectivesJazz in Australia – The State of Play
- 16 Diverse Musics: Shaping Music through Cultural Difference
- 17 Chinese Music Performance in Australia
- 18 African Musics in Australia
- 19 Artists’ Perspectives Ngarra-burria Indigenous Composers and Their Interventions in Art Music Practice
- Part IV Institutions
- Index
- References
Summary
The Ngarra-burria First Peoples Composers program is an Indigenous-led initiative that assists Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians to develop composition skills and emerge within the Australian classical/new music sector. It is about enabling new expressions via mostly scored music for fine First Nations musicians, and the facilitation of their own narratives. This is against a background of many non-Indigenous composers appropriating First Nations cultural materials including music, and First Nations cultural and historical narratives, a practice which went on for many decades. In the chapter we hear from the founder Christopher Sainsbury and participating composer Nardi Simpson, both First Nations people. Ngarra-burria means ‘to listen and to sing’ in the Dharug Aboriginal language of the Sydney region. Whilst the industry has some way to go, in the seven years since the program began in 2016 many ensembles, festival directors, soloists, educators and broadcasters have indeed begun to listen to First Nations composers and sing with them. Many composers from the program are being commissioned, programmed, broadcast and participate in various industry events. As Nardi Simpson points out, it is not all about the music, but also about the ongoing community of First Nations musicians that existed already, of which Ngarra-burria has become a recent part. Whilst the composers glean from any relevant Western styles and techniques in the workshops we hold, they are not necessarily tethered to the same.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia , pp. 299 - 308Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024