Fritz Bennicke Hart: The Bush, Op 59 (1923) - Poco lento e sostenuto 2
Abstract
The Bush is an evocation of the Australian landscape as seen through the eyes of an English-schooled musician, one who nevertheless possessed an uncanny understanding of the majestic tranquillity and vastness of the Australian outback. Some of the quieter movements convey the feeling of a muted veil being draped over the musical imagery, in a manner similar to the landscapes painted by Hart's friend, Arthur Streeton. The work begins and ends softly, but between the first and the last bars lies a wealth of contrasts. At times poetic and softly elegiac, the music veers suddenly into violent tempests. The first movement is tranquil, and invokes a transparency of sound interspersed with approaching sounds of thunder. Ranging freely from 6/8 to 3/4, the second movement draws upon leitmotifs that portray the florid, festive sounds of bird calls, together with what seems at first hearing to be the awkward perambulations of wombats. The movement concludes with a violent giocoso which brings together the principal thematic material. The sense of tranquillity returns in the third movement, which in its use of a rolling 4/4 - 3/4 time signature conveys a sense of timelessness in the manner of Vaughan-Williams. A Holstian majesty reminiscent of The Planets dominates the fourth movement, which sees agitation jostle with a rich, quasi-Elgarian melodic grandeur. A virtuosic passage for orchestra leads to a brilliant 'false finale', in which the Elgarian theme rings forth in an apparent affirmation of the now cliched Englishman's view of the Australian outback. Perhaps fittingly, the final movement evokes the haunting quality of the bush by night. Debussy-esque writing for strings and woodwinds creates an eerie stillness, until finally the work comes full circle through a reiteration of the opening thematic material.