Tyalgum Mantras by Ross Edwards with Australian bird calls
A response to Laura Patterson’s Family Portrait, The Audience and Gully Sentinels (2021) by Anna Colville with music by Ross Edwards and improvisations from Camerata players.
About Anna’s piece
“I have chosen to respond to the beautiful works of Laura Patterson – Family Portrait, The Audience and Gully Sentinels. My response is based around a piece composed in 1999 by the Australian composer Ross Edwards, called Tyalgum Mantras. Tyalgum Mantras belongs to a series of meditational pieces which have been described as “contemplation objects in sound”. These are designed to focus the listener’s attention inwards and create a trance-like stillness. The work was first performed in Tyalgum, a town in North Eastern NSW, and has since been performed around the world in many unique settings.
Originally this version is written for string quartet, didgeridoo, handbells and temple blocks. I have arranged this instead to include extra string players, who play bird calls. These are all the calls of Australian birds, and I have used a recording of birdsong from the Lamington Plateau to transcribe particular birdsong from that region.”
– Anna Colville
