2010
2009
Piano Hill - Poetry Book Launch
Penguin Book Australia
Piano Hill
Authors: Bolleter Ross
Well known composer and musician Ross Bolleter expands his creative territory with this striking new collection of original poetry.
Meditations on the big themes of desire, love, death, and the passing of time, these are poems of celebration and regret, intimacy and broad sympathy.
They encompass personal lyrics, contemplation, narrative and an extraordinary poem sequence ('Suite for Ruined Piano') where poet, composer and performer meet.
Published: |
23 November 2009 |
Format: |
Paperback , 64 pages |
RRP: |
$24.95 |
ISBN-13: |
9781921361647 |
Imprint: |
Fremantle Press |
Publisher: |
Fremantle Press |
Origin: |
Australia |
Category: |
Poetry By Individual Poets |
Speech made at "Piano Hill" book launch by Barbara Temperton:
I’ve known Ross for many years and I am delighted to be here today to launch Piano Hill.
Ross is interested in many things, but summing them up briefly I’d say that his work demonstrates a preoccupation in the mysterious and obsession. He is concerned, like many poets, with the shape of words, lines, sounds, and images – and as a practitioner with a foot in both the worlds of music and poetry – his poems are evidence that language can do very different things to music.
In a recent conversation we had a delightful misunderstanding brought about by the sound of words. I have some hearing loss and the misunderstanding came about between what Ross said and what I heard. Being partially deaf is a lot like pressing a key on one of Ross’s ruined pianos or accordions and experiencing the difference between expectation and actuality. Ross quoted Ezra Pound to me. Pound said “Rhythm is form cut into time” but I heard “Rhythm is formed by the trapping of sound.”
When words go out into the world, who knows what the reader reading, the listener hearing. It’s all part of the delicious mystery of reception and interpretation. I’m not a musician, but I am intrigued by the contrast between the concept of jazz as the ultimate in improvisation and the existence of a “jazz standard” that in essence remains unchanged. Like a jazz standard a poem in a book is no accident, no one-off rendition cum improvisation. Its patterns and structures are partly instinctual, part wrought by tradition and experience, and inscribed on our consciousness as much as they are upon the page.
The works in Piano Hill have been influenced by the traditions of haiku and its parent-form the ever-evolving form of Japanese poetry known as renga, their syllabic and line patterns varied and sometimes absorbed into larger structures. For example, in the poems Galactic and At Cottesloe Beach.
Piano Hill is populated by musical, meditative moments (and a few musical, rowdy ones as well). In music the measure is in the beat, in mediation it is the breath, and both these techniques are utilised in the structure of the poems regardless of content. In contrast to the deft manipulation of syllables, the focus in meditation is on the breath, something which happens naturally, instinctually, but only comes into consciousness when attention is focussed on it. The breath as a measure of line length endows these poems with a naturalness that is not easy to come by.
Ross has a gift for characterisation. From the moment I encountered the "arthritic angel" of Late Sonata ... her "hands / swallow diving into ivory" - I was hooked. Likewise, Adele the hairdresser At the Delly Barber who scavenges fresh flowers from the cemetery and lives in a haunted house. The Bird Man whom the narrator encounters sitting in the sun opposite his run-down Northbridge house: “bricks / rubbed raw as a fresh graze, verandah posts / like split pegs, bullnose crusted with pigeons / that you fed each afternoon. Evenings, you heard / the scraping of their claws as they settled deeper / into your rusting roof”. The Bird Man, who for decades – according to rumour - has papered the rooms of his house with Real Estate Agents offers, finally sells, is suddenly well-off, if not wealthy, only to be taken … suddenly! “You never know what felled you, yet you barely fell - / just tilted stiffly forward still almost upright / amongst the startled pigeons.”
One mustn’t overlook the smiles in Piano Hill, and there are many, such as the gentle parody on imagery a’la William Carlos Williams in Spectacle “one white cereal bowl / on a green striped mat a red and white Saxa saltshaker / the margarine’s olive tub”
Like imagery, sound works its way through all Ross’s poems, whether it is in their patterns, their structure or content. Cockatoos confabulate, “tattered palm fronds clatter” (At Cottesloe Beach), bees thump on windows, accordions leak, beds creak, girls shout, and always there are the pianos … “the chirrup of loosened strings” (Requitement), “the tiniest bing-plinking starlit note” (During the Flood), thunder (drought Piano) the “clink clinank” of “jangling mysteries” (Morning rolls them in the foam). Equal emphasis is placed on silence “to make a spine of love” (At Cottesloe Beach) and the “the raw plink of the stars” (Tonk). As the “old Zen teacher” of those who only wait says “There’s no such thing as waiting – only a stretching of the heart towards / an embrace that’s not yet”.
In contrast to Piano Hill's focus on ruined pianos - instruments brought undone by age and exposure to the elements, and the spontaneous compositions wrought from their battered keyboards and strings - there is nothing improvised or ruined about these poems. They are fine-tuned, highly crafted, demonstrating a refined, yet organic style.
Piano Hill is a new and exciting chapter in the life of a man dedicated to music and words. May it travel far.
Ten Days on the Island - Tasmania
Ten Days, in conjunction with Tasmanian Regional Arts, are on a quest to find the ruined pianos of Tasmania. Once identified, Ross will explore them in a series of regional performances aptly titled, Ruined. But remember, 'ruined' means really ruined (see Ross' Taxonomy of Ruin). The ruined pianos of Tasmania will be installed in the Bond Store at the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery. Ross will demonstrate his radical brand of instant composing on the pianos and will run a series of workshops on playing pianos as found objects. In a unique take on the social history of music in Tasmania, the installation will also feature stories of the pianos' former lives.
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June '07 Frontear
Productions and WARPS present WARPS 11 - Composition:
Ross Bolleter. Production: Anthony Cormican. Recent Performances and Presentations Monday June 4 '07: As part of Pi's Neither Here Nor There Foundation Day in Fremantle: - Ross Bolleter with Paul Tanner and Domenico Persinotti: Improvisations on three harmoniums in various states of Decay at St John's Church. Ross Bolleter (ruined accordion) with Anne Norman (Shakuhachi) & Tos Mahoney (Flute): Improvisations in Philimore's Courtyard. Trios with Mark Cain and Lee Buddle at Kidogo Arthouse. Accordion duos with Kathy Travers at Fremantle Prison.
May 30: Rob
Castiglione completes a short film: Five Studies in Ruin - April '07 Dominion(17' 00") Presented
April 28 '07 at the West Australian academy of Performing Arts, as part
of the Totally Huge New Music Festival's Sound and Image Conference. Dominion
combines the sound world of Ruined Piano with that of the ocean and streams.
It is inspired by the first contact between indigenous people and the
British in West Australia in1829. The vision track of photographic images
by Vivienne Robertson functions 'at an angle' to the sound and music.
The images arise from the music, inverting the conventional filmic approach.
April
29' 07
November 18 The launch of the Ruined Piano Sanctuary. This included an exhibition of Vivienne Robertson's photographs on canvas in the Wambyn exhibition space. These works had as their theme the ruined pianos at the Sanctuary. Vivienne Robertson's Ruined Piano Calender - a ruined piano for each month of the year, was also launched to critical acclaim. The guided tour was recorded by ABC's Radio National. The concert and piano burning were filmed and recorded by Robert Castiglione, and are providing footage for Rob Castiglione's forthcoming Ruined Piano film. Some of it has been used in his short film, Five Studies in Ruin. Vivienne Robertson, the photographer produced a stunning photo essay of the pianos in the Sanctuary, including this piano as it burned. The curator of the Sanctuary, Kim Hack did virtuoso piano moving. The large German piano, the Hoelling and Spangenberg burned magnificently. 100 people
attended. The sanctuary was well launched. Tura New Music in association with Wambyn Olive Farm and WARPS Music presents: The Ruined
Piano Sanctuary Launch Saturday 18th November 2006 Under the supervision of composer Ross Bolleter and the practical hands of Wambyn owner KimHack, the pianos have been placed in a variety of intriguing environments around the farm. Pianos from the convergence have been joined by a steady stream of new additions as the general public continue to heed the call for Ruined Pianos that was established as part of the convergence. It is envisaged
that this Ruined Piano Sanctuary will be a permanent home for ruined pianos
from around the state. Of course the beauty of this is that here they
can continue the process of decomposition as the elements continue to
create new and wonderful nuances in their sound, appearance and mechanisms. To celebrate the establishment of the Sanctuary, Tura New Music is presenting a special day of guided tours and performances at Wambyn Olive Farm. Program 3 pm Guided Tour of Ruined Piano Sanctuary Ross Bolleter will take the audience on a tour of the 18 Ruined Pianos spread around the property, retelling their stories and demonstrating their unique …. 6 pm Performance: Ross Bolleter and Guests A special performance on 3 selected Ruined Pianos: Ruined Piano improvisations laced with stories and poems about the pianos or other aspects of ruin. 7 pm Official Launch of the Piano Sanctuary 8 pm Piano Burning "The
pianola's dusky melodies become the harsh and common parlance of dogs,
crows and sheep station owners complaining about the drought." RB Tura New Music Award winning Tura New Music is one of Australia's peak bodies for the production and presentation of new music events with an annual program supported by ArtsWA and the Australia Council. The scope of its activities and services makes Tura unique in Australia and rare in the world. It provides vital support to emerging and accomplished Australian composers, performers, organisations and audiences in WA and beyond. winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in a Regional Area category at the 2006 Classical Music Awards Tura is dedicated to bringing new music to regional WA.
Entrance: $25 includes BBQ Dinner Tura on 08 9380 6996. www.tura.com.au
Release of
Secret Sandhills and satellites on Martin Davidson's label,
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