"Ringing in the Changes"
Pianist/composer Paul Grabowsky and his colleagues believe in pushing musical boundaries
When Ringing the Bell Backwards premiered at the Melbourne International Festival in 1993, it heralded the debut of a bold new venture in Australian contemporary music; a national jazz orchestra dedicated to the performance of major new works by Australian composers.
From the first performance the orchestra proved itself capable of producing some of the most exhilarating music I've heard.
Ringing the Bell Backwards, a seven-part suite written by pianist/composer Paul Grabowsky, is based loosely on popular European songs from the '30s and '40s.
Fragments of Piaf's La Vie en Rose and Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again wind their way through an astonishing blend of Latin rhythms, big-band swagger, "found sounds" (including snatches from one of Hitler's speeches) and eerie atonal melancholy.
What is perhaps even more astonishing is that music of such vitality could be recreated in the rather rarified confines of a studio setting, without the natural momentum provided by a live performance.
But that is exactly what Grabowsky and the Australian Art Orchestra has done.
"There were moments when I'd think: "What on earth are we doing here?" Grabowsky admits with a laugh. "But I worked very, very hard on it-we all did. And I think the results speak for themselves."
Grabowsky is the first to admit that he is too close to the recording to be able to speak about it objectively, but is pleased to report that everyone who has heard it so far has responded in a similar fashion.
Stuart Campbell, assistant musical director and keyboard player with the orchestra, says its main aim is to redefine the boundaries of contemporary music by introducing an element of improvisation within the more confining framework of notated music.
"It also acts as a forum for Australian composers to explore new avenues," he says. "To try thing they wouldn't have the opportunity to try anywhere else. It will be like a vehicle for new thought."
It is a noble thought but how do you fund it on an ongoing basis? Maintaining an 18-piece orchestra is a costly exercise and its pursuit of individualistic aims makes it less likely to attract commercial or government support that its more conventional counterparts-a fact that obviously piques Grabowsky.
"It's an absurd situation," he says. "I mean, if you're a back-desk violinist with the MSO or any of the state orchestras, you're on a salary. You can actually look forward to a fairly secure existence.
"In the Art Orchestra, on the other hand, we've got some of the greatest musicians in the country and yet they can't even make a living. They scuffle from day-to-day, every single one of them.
"They have to play gigs that they hate with people they don't like to play with in order to make any money.
"And whenever they do something they do like, they make little or no money.
"I find that an intolerable situation and a completely unjust one".
Grabowsky and Campbell look forward to the day when members of creative ensembles such as the Australian Art Orchestra will be on a fixed salary or retainer, providing them with a secure base from which to work.
Grabowsky says: "We're just continuing to push the band as hard as we can in an effort to expand everybody's minds and really work up that ensemble feeling- that esprit de corps-which is, I think, what separates good ensembles from great ones."
- Herald Sun (Jessica Nicholas), 24 March 1995
