Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

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The Australian Music Centre's catalogue does not include any recordings or sheet music of this work. This entry is for information purposes only.

It is listed in our catalogue because an event featuring a performance of this work was included in our calendar of Australian music. Details of this performance are listed below.

Work Overview

Garan began on a quiet morning on Wadi Wadi Dharawal Country. I was sitting on my verandah, coffee in hand, when I saw a murmuration twist above the rooftops. At first, just one bird came in and out of view. Then a flock appeared, darting, circling, then disappearing southward. That choreography in the sky became the inspiration and heart of this piece.

The word Garan comes from Gathang, the language of the Birrbay, Guringay and my Warrimay ancestors, and translates as wings of birds. It speaks to both the physical motion of flight and the spiritual connections that birds hold in our culture; as messengers, kin, and guides between Sky Country where the ancestors live in the stars, and the earth below, moving between worlds, carrying knowledge and story.

I wanted to capture that sense of motion and relationship, how sound, like flight, can traverse space and return transformed - the piano mapping the path of the flock; the clarinet, the arc of a lone bird; and the percussion the air between them, with brushes, chimes and bows evoking feathers, wings and wind.

The piece blends scored and improvised sections, allowing the musicians to listen and respond to each other and move as a flock might, intuitively and in conversation. Working with Ensemble Offspring during this process has been a gift. Their responsiveness and openness to sound worlds rooted in listening and place helped shape the final form of the work.

For me, Garan is as much about listening as it is about sound and I hope it invites audiences to widen their awareness, to tune in to the messages that hover just beyond sound and sight.

Work Details

Year: 2025

Instrumentation: Clarinet in B flat, percussion, piano.

Written for: Ngarra-Burria

First performance: by Ensemble Offspring at Ngarra-Burria (Eugene Goossens Hall) on 15 Oct 2025