Today marks the 85th birthday of Australia’s foremost living composer, Peter Sculthorpe, a link to whose “Earth Cry” I posted on April 22. I mentioned at that time (it being Earth Day) Sculthorpe’s concern for the environment, which informs much of his music.

Prolific filmmaker Tony Palmer is attempting to raise funds to make a documentary about the composer. He’s been making films for 40 years, with subjects ranging from the Beatles to Frank Zappa to Richard Wagner to Benjamin Britten to Richard Burton to John Osborne and Athol Fugard. His melancholy portrait of Ralph Vaughan Williams, “O Thou Transcendent,” is excellent. The Sculthorpe project seems like a worthy endeavor. If you’re interested in contributing, here’s more information:

http://www.documentaryaustralia.com.au/films/details/1765/earth-cry-a-profile-of-peter-sculthorpe

In the meantime, here’s Sculthorpe’s “Kakadu.” According to the composer:

“The work takes its name from the Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. This enormous wilderness area stretches from coastal tidal plains to rugged mountain plateaux, and in it may be found the living culture of its Aboriginal inhabitants, dating back for fifty thousand years. Sadly, today there are only a few remaining speakers of kakadu or gagadju. The work, then, is concerned with my feelings about this place, its landscape, its change of seasons, its dry season and its wet, its cycle of life and death. In three parts, the outer sections are dance-like and energetic, sharing similar musical ideas. The central section is somewhat introspective, and is dominated by a cor anglais solo. … Apart from this solo, the melodic material in Kakadu, as in much of my recent music, was suggested by the contours and rhythms of Aboriginal chant.”

Happy birthday, Peter Sculthorpe.