BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Quilty: Painting the Shadows is an important documentary, which — released in November 2019 — has wrapped up the decade with a reminder of Australia’s dark history. This ABC production takes viewers into an exploration of artist Ben Quilty’s landscape painting and, by doing so, it exposes the horrific events of the 1838 Myall Creek Massacre.
In this story, we chat with Damien Lane, who co-wrote the score to Quilty with fellow composer Amanda Brown. Damien tells us about the process of setting to music these stories of Australia’s Indigenous community — and the story of a local artist who confronts this history.
Hi Damien. First of all, congratulations on your co-written score for this powerful documentary Quilty: Painting the Shadows. How did you two find yourself writing a score together?
Thank you. Having discussed working together previously, Amanda approached me about coming on board for this project. It was directed by Catherine Hunter, who had worked with Amanda on a number of documentaries profiling Australian artists, and they’d established a great trust creatively.
It was the perfect opportunity for a collaboration — we were given a lot of freedom and left to follow our instincts.
I feel composition is of a personal nature — that is, a composer may often use their own musical language to communicate a message or mood in a way they best feel fits. So what was it like to split up the task?
Initially, we watched a rough cut of the film together and discussed the potential role of music in each scene, as well as our palette and general approach. So we were working from the same rough guide from the beginning.
Subsequent to us having agreed to collaborate on this, a few other projects had popped up that we’d completed together, so a work rhythm had been established.
The source material suggested certain approaches, and our ideas came together very naturally and easily. Though we have stylistic differences, as all composers do, our musical ‘voices’ are complementary and we seem to have similar sensibilities.
You learn something from every job, but working with another composer and witnessing their processes gives you a new perspective on your own. You’re producing a score that is characterised by the combination of two unique voices, and each voice casts the other in a new and different light.
How did this work on a practical level?
We divided the music cues between us, and earmarked a couple for co-writing, following the guide I mentioned earlier. With the co-written pieces, one might start the cue and send it to the other to develop.
Files were sent back and forth, adding elements to the other’s work such as violin or guitar. Later, there was a recording session with musicians Chris Abrahams (piano, wurlitzer), Hamish Stuart (drums, percussion), and Jonathan Zwartz (upright and electric bass), alongside Amanda (violin) and myself (guitar) – which was incorporated into all the other bits and pieces that Amanda and I had recorded in various instruments.
We provided ‘road maps’ for the music – chord charts, some notation, sometimes nothing — and encouraged a degree of improvisation so that the music had a spontaneous and organic feel to it.
Tell us a bit about the music itself. What was it like using one artform to convey another? Specifically, how did the nature of Quilty’s fine art impact the style of your music?
Early in the film, Quilty talks about ‘taking the risks to make the mistakes that make the beautiful paintings’. We wanted the music to have that kind of spark to it. Much of the guitar is improvised, often eschewing conventional tunings, so that the familiar patterns weren’t there, the usual reflexes didn’t apply.
There is also mention in the film of how Quilty’s paintings are at once beautiful and ugly, so we wanted a score that mirrored this by marrying gritty and occasionally abrasive textures with the more melodic aspects of the score. Elements such as guitar feedback, seashell percussion, and bowed electric guitar are woven throughout.
There’s a lot of footage in the film of the art being created: thick paint being slapped on, works being smudged together, images being layered over or rubbed out. Cymbals were scraped, double bass struck with the wood of the bow, guitars played with a shaving brush, a cello bow, a tuning fork – all to reflect the images of his artistic process.
Beyond the aesthetic of Quilty’s art, the story of this documentary and art is distressing and powerful. It shares the important narrative of the 1838 Myall Creek Massacre. What was your responsibility as composers to create music that would most sensitively accompany or convey this story?
I believe the key responsibilities are sensitivity and restraint.
This story, along with others explored in the film, is quite brutal and gut wrenching. It’s important to avoid letting the music tip over into sentimentality, and undercut or distract from the message by being self-important or melodramatic.
We were respectful towards the subject matter, and aimed to write suitably atmospheric music that is congruent with the visuals and emotional context, and subtly helps the telling of the story.
How did you incorporate research into your music? Did you undertake research about Australia’s Indigenous culture and history to inform your work on a deeper level?
Many years ago, some colleagues of mine attended the Myall Creek Massacre memorial ceremony, so I’ve been aware of that awful history since then.
I also read numerous interviews and articles on Ben Quilty prior to commencing the project. Once we started, the whole thing from conception to delivery took about three weeks. There was no time to be researching: we needed to write, record and mix the score!
What advice would you give to composers who have the privilege of telling a story through music that will resonate so strongly with Australia’s communities?
One of the most important qualities a film composer can have is a kind of hyper-sensitivity towards the emotional nuances in the material – delving further than the dialogue into the interior of characters, and often contributing something that is implicit rather than being shown or spoken.
This sensitivity is only heightened when the material features real people and current events. So, I’d say following your emotional intuition is paramount, be respectful, and always be aware that you’re playing a supporting role in telling the story.
Quilty: Painting the Shadows was first broadcast on ABC TV, 19 November 2019, and is available on ABC iView.
Quilty the exhibition shows at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until 2 February 2020.
Image supplied.