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20 - Iconic Musical Sites in Australia

from Part IV - Institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Amanda Harris
Edited by
Amanda Harris  and
Clint Bracknell
Amanda Harris
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Clint Bracknell
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia
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Summary

This chapter explores the music histories of two internationally recognizable Australian sites – The Sydney Opera House and Uluru. By examining music’s relationship with place, the chapter discusses millennial-old musical histories, early colonial negotiations and contemporary musical encounters. The world-renowned Sydney Opera House opened to gala performances, protest and acclaim in 1973. Positioned on Sydney Harbour, the site has variously been known as Bennelong Point and Tubowgule, has fostered music making for millennia, and continues to be symbolic of Australia’s musical identity. Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) is a Dreaming site and geological phenomenon in Australia’s geographical ‘Red Centre’ with long-established importance in Anangu songlines, which also holds significant symbolic value in contemporary music making. Centring this account in place, the chapter explores the musical encounters that have shaped music in Australia across time, drawing attention to the acoustic possibilities of Country, people and stories of the past.

Keywords

music and placemusic in Australiamusical iconsAboriginal musicSydney Opera HouseUluru
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia , pp. 311 - 326
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Harper, M. and White, R., Symbols of Australia: Uncovering the Stories behind the Myths (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2010).Google Scholar
Harris, A., Representing Australian Aboriginal Music and Dance, 1930–1970 (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, D., ‘Signposted by Song: Cultural Routes of the Australian Desert’, Historic Environment, 25(3) (2013), 30–42.Google Scholar
James, D. and Williamson, I., ‘Kungkarangkalpa Inma Alatjila Kuwari Palyani: Dancing the Seven Sisters Songline Today!’, Musicology Australia, 42(2) (2020), 179–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerry, G., New Classical Music: Composing Australia (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Power, A., ‘The Eighth Wonder: Explorations of Place and Voice’ in Karantonis, P. and Robinson, D. (eds.), Opera Indigene: Re/Presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 141–55.Google Scholar
Rickwood, J., ‘African Grace in Central Australia: Community Choirs, Reconciliation and Intercultural Performance’, International Journal of Community Music, 7(3) (2014), 343–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, R., ‘The Modernity of the Songlines’ in Diamond, B. and El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, S. (eds.), Transforming Ethnomusicology, vol. 2: Political, Social and Ecological Issues (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).Google Scholar

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