AVE

 Have you heard the work of AVE, the Australian Vocal Ensemble?

They did a couple of performances at the Heritage Collective, the old Wearne House, in Cottelsoe. Wearne House was built in the late 1890s as a convalescent home for children but when we knew it, it was an aged care hostel and Alan, my father, spent some time there in respite. The site has now been redeveloped with new aged care facilities but they've kept the historic buildings. If I win the lottery, I might just sign up for one of the prestige suites with Indian Ocean views for my later years. 

We had time to explore the building with its art and stained glass windows, prosecco in hand with canapes to hand, in the lead up to the concert where a small group of us sat in room with a view of the ocean listening to some exquisite music.

AVE is Katie Noonan (Artistic Director and Soprano, QLD), Fiona Campbell (Mezzo Soprano, WA), Louis Hurley (Tenor, WA/NSW) and Andrew O'Connor (Bass-Baritone,WA/NSW).  They specialise in singing, accapella, the work of Australian writers and poets set to music by Australian composers. Since their establishment in 2021, AVE have commissioned the extraordinary number of 61 new vocal compositions. The WA concert featured the words of Tim Winton, Gwen Harwood, Trent Dalton and David Malouf with four of the composers in the audience: Lachlan Skipworth, Aaron Wyatt, Emma Jayakumar and Alice Humphries and there were also compositions from the AVE members. 

The works chosen to be sung were sometimes beautiful but sometimes extremely tough but in all cases, utterly engrossing. For example, can you imagine four sweeping voices creating an extraordinary vocal picture of these dark words from Tim Winton's book Scission:

The last image in Rosemary McCulloch’s conscious existence is a rose enveloping the world with its cool, impenetrable petals. Sheis gone, but her twisted body is undeniably present, mutilated on the floor. Another eruption gives it a semblance of life, but the deception is momentary as the pelvis quivers. Her body is dead.

Corner from her mouth. Choir of thunder singing.

Rosemary McCulloch is a model. She is the woman-model. She gives life to clothes libido to car bonnets, meaning to vodka. She sets the pace for mothers and daughters who want to be like her. Her husband is haunted by her reproductions, and her sons have learnt to hate her.

Not only do AVE put Australian words to music, they put indigenous words to music. With the appropriate permissions, they translate songs into the languages of the places they come from or where they are singing and in this case it was a Church Cantata by JS Bach translated into Gubbi Gubbi (Sunshine Coast), Gadigal (Sydney) and Noongar (south west WA).

Susan, a choir singer for many years, was completely swept away by the sounds. I, not an expert in such music, was simply in awe.