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For me, life without music is inconceivable. My life experiences are constantly throwing up apparently contradictory situations. A central problem is the ongoing attempt to balance music with meaning against music that pays well. I find the most soul fulfilling music usually happens to be the worst paid and quite often vice versa. Another is to balance spontaneity [improvisation] against predetermined events [composition]. Art that is serious against entertainment that's supposed to be not serious. Naivety and simplicity against skill and technique. Family life against time alone to work.

Kitchen Rack Thumb Piano

For me, life without music is inconceivable. My life experiences are constantly throwing up apparently contradictory situations. A central problem is the ongoing attempt to balance music with meaning against music that pays well. I find the most soul fulfilling music usually happens to be the worst paid and quite often vice versa. Another is to balance spontaneity [improvisation] against predetermined events [composition]. Art that is serious against entertainment that's supposed to be not serious. Naivety and simplicity against skill and technique. Family life against time alone to work.

I now understand that these apparent contradictories which I once thought were mutually exclusive can be resolved. I'm trying to make music that pays well as soul fulfilling as I can. I've developed a technique where improvisation is the starting point for the composition process. I've learnt more from comedians and entertainers working drunk Saturday night crowds than I ever learnt at Concert Practice at the Conservatorium. I feel that you need more skill to perform simple music than the most complex music. A supportive and understanding family situation is a prerequisite for me, to get any work done.

I used to play 10 to 20 full programs of new music each year for 10 years to the same 200 devotees when I worked in contemporary music ensembles. I made a decision to focus on one program, call it an act, and play it to as many audiences as I could for the last five years. This act evolves and changes slowly. What I am doing now is very different to what I was doing three years ago.

Much has been written about the transformative power of performance. I haven't read any of it. What I know is what I've experienced over the years. There are moments in performance when I sense that the music is working, especially when I get a response which shows that the music has truly altered the listener's perception, or when I as the performer feel that my perception has changed as a result of the performance.

I try to bring to the concert platform what I've learnt in the entertainment arenas but my motivation is not just to please. I try to build the connection and trust with my audience and then challenge their judgements. I find many people have made up their minds about what they like and don't like. Twenty year olds would most likely have lost interest in music that they liked at ten, but do forty year olds still like the music they listened to at thirty? I like to open people up to the possibility of new sounds and new musics. I like to challenge people. I feel that what I am doing is a kind of grass roots cultural work in Australia. That's what my mission, my motivation, is.

I've chosen to live and work in Australia and I need to build an audience to survive. I feel that if I lived and worked overseas I could easily disappear into some foreign country's woodwork and lose my identity. My principle interest is the production of sounds during live performance. Methods of reproduction such as recordings, samplers, music synthesis and virtual spaces (Internet) are of less interest to me, mainly because they all rely on loudspeakers as the sound source and in my experience good loudspeaker systems are an exception not a rule. Sound reproduction via personal computers and domestic systems is completely uncontrollable and generally of poor quality.

Linden Gallery "Sound Bridge"
designed and built by
Graeme Leak and Stephen Hennessy

Background

Between 1975 and 1990 I worked as a freelance percussionist in Sydney, doing commercial work, 20th Century music including work in ensembles such as 'Flederman' (mixed instruments) and 'Synergy' (percussion) and as a solo percussionist. I had difficulty in first visualising a future (would I still be lugging gear at 50?) and secondly finding depth and meaning in the work I was doing.

In the late 80's I was fortunate to be a neighbour with a contemporary dancer, Michael Hennessy. As friends we decided to work up a whimsical piece and it's success led on to a fully developed dance/music/theatre work, 'Homeboys' which opened at the Rocks Theatre in Sydney in October 1989.

Homeboys was a major turning point for me. Michael introduced me to the expressive power of movement and the basics of physical performance. I was free from my instrument cage and my focus shifted off the music stand. I became aware of the power of lighting, colour and design as aids to effective musical performance. I became aware of new communication channels with an audience. I was introduced to two classic aspects of the entertainer's art - timing and working the crowd.

I now could envisage complete freedom to devise and develop performances which would unite all aspects of my nature and acknowledge and accept who I am, a mix of performer, composer, improviser and instrument builder. In 1991 I moved from Sydney to Melbourne to make a break from my established professional connections and to start exploring the potential of these new dimensions in performance.

Structures

Structure rules every facet of music making. Instruments are structures. Learned techniques are structures. Ensemble combinations from duos to symphonies are structures.

I do find inspiration in existing structures except that I can't envisage being confined in any one structure for a great deal of time. In the structures I've explored: - Symphony playing, freelance commercial work, classical contemporary music, pop and jazz bands and solo recitals - I've felt like a visitor and couldn't make a life commitment to any of these activities.

Rhythm

The Holy Grail

Conclusion On a wider level I call for continued experimentation with sounds and instruments - for continued investigations of natural acoustics and resonances inherent in bits of wood, metal, skin and string. And I call for music education and training institutions to take responsibilty for the cultural attitudes they generate by focusing on technique and skill thus avoiding the nurturing of imagination, ideas and creativity. On a personal level I want to continue to develop and consolidate the process I am engaged in and hopefully see a time when the ideas that I am working with gain wider acceptance and popularity. Much of the work I am doing in schools as a performer on found and kitchen sounds will have a long term audience building effect for all kinds of musical performers. In the future I would like to tour my original work to regional centres and country towns as well as to capital cities. I want to contribute towards opening up a circuit in Australia which will support a range of artists from large orchestras to solo artists.

Sound Bridge

Australia is not a half dozen isolated cities. Those cities are connected. With the recent development of major regional Performing Arts Centres we have a viable national circuit. Join the big city dots to these smaller dots and then add the thousands of tiny dots - every town has at least one old dance hall. These halls used to be active as venues for visiting artists. There is no reason why they can't again be so in the future.

Australians have a lot of work to do to establish meaningful connections with their 18 million strong audience. Once established, income from live performing could become the mainstay of those Australian musicians who choose to become active in our vital and unique contemporary music making culture.