Instrumentation

2 treble, 2 tenor, bass viol

Availability

A4 score 0-571-55465-2 (fp) and score and parts 0-571-56405-4 (fp) on sale

Programme Notes

Djilile, consort music of five parts (1995) Djilile was commissioned by the South Bank Centre for the Purcell Tercentenary. As a schoolboy, I was so excited when I first heard the “Lament” from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, that I wrote several works inspired by it. I planned to base the present piece, for the Purcell Tercentenary, upon one of these works. Later, however, I decided that the occasion demanded the best possible music that I could write, rather than a return to my early essays as a composer. Djilile, then, is based upon an adaptation of an Aboriginal chant from northern Australia. The title translates as “whistling-duck on a billabong”. The work is a straightforward one, with four statements of the chant separated by brief interludes, and followed by a coda. While it contains elements of the chaconne, or chacony, there is no conscious influence of Purcell upon the music. I do, however, share with Purcell much joy in the sound of a consort of viols. In writing the work, I decided to use scordatura in the bass viol, and to exploit the higher pitches of one of the treble viols. I also decided to bring the work to its conclusion with the six-part chords in most of the parts. Djilile is dedicated to Fretwork.

Peter Sculthorpe

Djilile

Playhouse Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (Brisbane, QLD, Australia)

Fretwork

Djilile

Canterbury Cathedral (Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom)

Fretwork

Djilile

Teatro Manzoni (Milan, Lombardy, Italy)

Fretwork

Djilile

Purcell Room, Southbank Centre (London, United Kingdom)

Fretwork