WATA

Wata was developed over many years of collaborative improvisation begun in 2004 when composer Paul Grabowsky – distinguished Australian pianist, conductor, arranger and founder of the Australian Art Orchestra – first travelled to Arnhem Land to explore the possibility of potential musical collaborations. There he met Arnhem Land ceremonial musicians Daniel Ngukurr Boy Wilfred and David Yipininy Wilfred, and learnt of their manikay, “cycles of poetic invocations of time and place.”

Over two decades Grabowsky explored ways to combine ‘Western’ music with the traditions of the world’s oldest-continuing culture. Hugh Roberston, Editorial Manager of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, writes that “ With Wata … he has arrived somewhere new, old, familiar and unique all at the same time”.

Wata is a coming together of orchestral music and improvised music with the manikay, songs and ceremonial music of the people of Ngukurr, Southeast Arnhem Land.  Wata is based on the seven parts of the Djuwalpada cycle where an ancestral figure walks through the land creating the cycle of birth, death, regeneration and the things needed to sustain life – a cycle that represents a model of “a holistically interconnected universe.” It’s a universal theme that connects the past with the now and the forever.

This is the first performance of Wata since its world premiere in Melbourne in 2021. It introduces Daniel Wilfred – vocals and biḻma (clap sticks) and David Wilfred – yiḏaki (Arnhem Land didgeridoo) – to the Sydney stage, along with soloists Aviva Endean (bass clarinet), Peter Knight (trumpet and electronics), Erkki Veltheim(violin) and Helen Svoboda (double bass and vocals). And of course the wonderful Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by the very busy, energetic Benjamin Northey.

It was intriguing to listen to the original manikay sung by Daniel Wilfred accompanied by David Wilfred and the yiḏaki, hear them picked up and improvised by the soloists on their very different instruments, then orchestrated in Grabowsky’s composition played triumphantly by the orchestra.

Powerful, ritualistic words sung clearly, improvised by soloists who vary and contrast the motifs, then echoed and re-echoed in music created by an empathetic composer who brings the different elements together so they connect to become what Paul Grabowsky describes as a “living, breathing, organic musical world.

It was a privilege to be part of the audience for Wata’s first performance in Sydney.

Carol Wimmer

Image courtesy of Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Jordan Munns.