The instrumental septet Island Landfall is in many ways a summing-up of the spiritual and emotional territory already explored in two works Ross Edwards completed in the year 2000: his Third Symphony (Mater Magna) and the quintet Enyato V. These works make a powerful statement about present-day Australia while at the same time introducing such European musical resources as plainchant, canon and passacaglia into Edwards’ own distinctive forms and textures. Here they coexist with rhythmic and melodic shapes gleaned from the natural world (birdsong, frog and insect patterns) as well as musical references to various Asia-Pacific cultures. The result is a kaleidoscopic but highly unified interplay over drones and ostinati which symbolise the earth.

As hinted at by its title, Island Landfall seems to enact some kind of ceremonial journey, and this culminates in a celebration. The work is largely built around a fragment of the plainchant Ave Maria Gratia Plena (Hail Mary Full of Grace), which also pervades the Third Symphony and which holds special significance for the composer. Much of his music has an an ecological theme and it would appear that the Christian Mary has been magnified here into a symbol of the Earth Mother, common to many cultures and probably synonymous with the concept of Gaia, in which the earth is held to be both sacred and alive. In his music, then, Edwards is expressing his recognition that humanity, in order to survive, must once again live in harmony (grace) with nature.

The work consists of three main sections which are continuous. A crisp, concise introduction marked drammatico juxtaposes rarefied fragments of the Mary chant with what sounds like birdsong. There follows a serene passacaglia, which Edwards has described as ‘a sort of antipodean barcarolle’ and which reworks Emerald Crossing, a movement composed some years earlier for The Australian Piano Quartet. Obviously symbolic at a deep level, it was inspired by a vision of a boat approaching an island across calm green water, possibly a lagoon. Reaching the island appears to represent some kind of fulfilment: exultant parrots shriek amongst lush vegetation, waves break on a shore and the work ends with a lusty, joyful maninya (Australian dance-chant) in which whirling plainchant fragments alternate with transformations of a children’s song (composed by Edwards) in a celebration of the earth.
Also celebrated in Island Landfall is the outstanding virtuosity and musicianship of The Australia Ensemble, whose 25th anniversary occasioned its commission and to whom it is affectionately dedicated by the composer.

Fred Watson