On Further Reflection: A Day in the Life of the Rundle Mall Spheres
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Wind Band
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A musical depiction of the iconic sculpture at the heart of Adelaide's central shopping district.
I loved the challenge of translating visual art into music. My aim was to make the 'translation' as clear as possible to young musicians. And it works on many levels... Program note:
The Spheres, commonly known as the Mall’s Balls, have stood in Rundle Mall (Adelaide, Australia) since 1977. Just two large silver balls, one balancing on top of the other. I drew them on a musical stave: two semibreves spanning a third, a D and an F. There’s my first bar.
Put like that, it isn’t much of a sculpture, and it doesn’t make much of a piece of music either. But these spheres are mirrors. In them we see the buildings, pavement, sky and people of Rundle Mall. The spheres stand still, reflecting the daily stream of shoppers, buskers, tourists and students who hurry past. In just under ten minutes, this piece of music portrays 24 hours in the life of Rundle Mall, from midnight to midnight – probably during the week, when the small hours of the morning are relatively quiet. After a long, reflective opening (full of eerie mirrored chords), the sun rises over the hills and the mall comes to life. The footsteps of the first pedestrians echo loudly, then soon it’s a bustling hive of activity. It all builds up to the busiest time of day, the lunch hour (here the brass present the main theme in bold C major), before mirroring back on itself – the afternoon hubbub, the evening rush hour, and then once more falling quiet as night descends, the shops close and everyone goes home. Percy Grainger once wrote a piece called The Immovable Do, in which one note (a high C) is held throughout. I decided to double that challenge. The Mall’s Balls, portrayed by those two round semibreves pictured above, stand in every single bar of this piece of music. You may not notice them after a while – just as we have grown used to the Mall’s Balls, and walk past them without much thought. But they are always there, reflecting… A flugelhorn is heard at the beginning and end of the piece, alluding to the sculptor of the Spheres, Bert Flugelman (1923–2013). This work was written especially for the musicians of the Adelaide Youth Wind Orchestra and their conductor, Bryan Griffiths. It was commissioned by the Adelaide Youth Orchestras Inc. with the support of Carclew Youth Arts. © David John Lang 2013 |
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