TARKA PROJECT
Background
In November 2008 Maribel Steel was inspired by an orchestral concert at the Melbourne Concert Hall. Enthralled by the beautiful music of Nigel Westlake’s “Shadow Dancers”, she came home that night with a dream and a vision - to inspire a group of people, yet unknown to her, to help bring to light the exquisite music of Tarka as a live performance for the music loving community of Victoria. And in the small hours of the night, she wrote up ‘a plan’ as she dared to dream…”it seemed like a far fetched idea at the time, but my heart knew we would make it happen”…
Like sending a mysterious message in a bottle, Maribel believed her dream would reach the ‘right’ person – she emailed her local community. Mary Crooks responded, “Sounds interesting, let’s talk”…and thus collaborative plans began between Spring Studio and The Victorian Women’s Trust.
Tarka the music – Watermark the book
Tarka - is a modern symphony in three movements, first performed and recorded by members of The London Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestras in 1978. Co-composers Harry Williamson and Anthony Phillips also play on the recording, inspired to write the music in 1976 as a homage to Henry Williamson’s classic book ‘Tarka the Otter’.
His magical descriptions of the natural world have helped open the eyes of so many to the beauty of England’s West country.
Watermark – is an highly informative and thoroughly researched book produced by The Victorian Women’s Trust (VWT) as a ‘wake up call’ to the citizens of Australia to become actively involved with plans and projects to conserve precious water supplies.
As Executive Director, Mary Crooks saw the obvious natural link between the music of Tarka – literally meaning “wandering as water’ – with the message of Our Watermark. The world premier performance of Tarka in Victoria in 2010 was a unique opportunity to be pro-active in conserving our most essential resource!
The collaborative spirit
Harry and Anthony found themselves swept away in the dream collaborating all over again, after 30 years! The scores were retrieved from their various hiding places in the UK and Australia and dusted off for revision – it needed re-scoring in places, the original manuscripts having laid dormant for so long.
A flurry of emails between the composers ensued as Anthony checked his guitar parts with his original score before posting his corrections to Harry 12,000 miles away in Australia. The two musicians and old friends meticulously compared notes and sometimes, relying on their memories of the different orchestral parts rewrote small sections via the wonderful modern day invention of the internet.
Anthony’s corrected scores arrived safely in February, as several huge packages, and Harry took on transcribing the 1000 bars into 'Sibelius', so that little changes and improvements could be easily achieved and consistent printed scores produced.
The work in progress
The complete Tarka movements one, two, three and final anthem was handed over to Gerald Keuneman, conductor of The Whitehorse Orchestra, in December 2009
The organizers worked well like a team of busy ants as this project began to really take shape and funds were sought and links made with other supporting organizations.
The concert + guest musicians
Internationally renowned guitarist, Doug De Vries graciously took on the challenge of learning Anthony Phillip’s part in altered tunings as Anthony could not attend the concert. Harry and Doug were joint soloists with The Whitehorse Orchestra for the performance of Tarka
In the second half were our other highly acclaimed artists.
Kavisha Mazzella
Invention In Time
Michael Johnson – Solo harpist
Doug De Vries
Northern Voice Choir with Frank Jones
Mary Crooks herself presented excerpts of the Watermark Book in between acts in the second half of the concert.
The World Premiere Live Performance Of Tarka
WHERE: The Melbourne Town Hall
WHEN: Saturday 27th February 2010
TIMES: 2pm + 7.30pm
Celebrating the music of Tarka and Our Watermark…
Future plans
As interest and enthusiasm is growing every day for this project both in Australia and in the UK, particularly the region of North Devon in ‘Tarka Country’, Harry and Maribel are planning the filming of a documentary ‘The making of Tarka’ to make easier access to a much wider community, the message of ‘wandering of water’ and how we really must Wake Up and take care of it!