The stars have so far to go
alone or in harness
across a window pane.

Hour after hour tonight I’ve journeyed with them, steady the waves of your breath.

Dark space between our beds; on the table a full tumbler splits the lights of stars

to stars, or floats a leaden column of dead water dead sky.

From centuries away, out of the reign
of one of nineteen pharaohs, a planet’s dust, metallic,
alive, is sifted down, hovers in a bright arc upon your cheek.

Miraculous!

I lean across the dark and touch it, you smile in your sleep.

How far, how far we’ve come together, tumbling like stars in harness or alone

David Malouf was born in Queensland, Australia, in 1934 and became a full-time writer in 1978. He has published poetry, novels and short stories, essays, opera librettos and a play, and has been widely translated. His first two published books were collections of poetry. His first novel, Johnno (1975), is the semi-autobiographical tale of a young man growing up in Brisbane during the Second World War. His second novel, An Imaginary Life (1978), is a fictional life of the poet Ovid. Later novels include Child’s Play with Eustace & The Prowler (1982), Fly Away Peter (1982), Harland's Half Acre (1985), The Great World (1990), which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book) and the Prix Fémina Etranger (France); and the acclaimed Remembering Babylon (1993), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction, won the first International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book). The Conversations at Crulow Creek (1976) followed. His collections of short stories include Antipodes (1985); Dream Stuff (2000); and Every Move You Make (2006). Recent publications are Ransom (2009), a novel inspired by a part of Homer’s Iliad, and Earth Hour (2014), a poetry collection. He was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2011. His most recent volume of poetry is An Open Book (2018).

Source

Freelance Australian Composer, Conductor and Educator Stephen Leek is an internationally awarded musician with long associations with some of the finest and most innovative choral ensembles around the world, including his own, vOiCeArT and The Australian Voices, that he co-founded and was with until 2009. His distinctive compositions have forged new directions for Australian choral music and Leek is often credited as the “founder of Australian choral music” through his commitment to the development of Australian choral music over the past 4 decades and through his composition of over 700 unique choral works. Whilst continuing to freelance, Leek now resides in Canberra and is Artistic Director of the Young Music Society, lecturer in composition at the Music Academy at Canberra Girls Grammar School and the ANU School of Music, and choral conducting at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium. In 2021 he formed a new ensemble - the Voices of Canberra Ensemble - to continue his work with young people in the development of a vibrant and informed Australian choral culture.

1. Research what is a star and how it works? Click here.

2. Encourage the students to go outside on a clear night and examine the stars above their homes. Discuss with the students what they see.

3. Discuss the text of the poem. How does it reflect your experience of stars in the sky?

1. Set up melodic percussion instruments with the notes of the Aeolian scale commencing on D – DEFGABbCD (you will need to replace the B with the Bb)

2. Encourage the students to explore the notes of the scale.

3. Discuss with the students the impact of these notes – are they happy? sad? melancholy? bright?

4. Discuss with the students how stars sometimes cluster together and are sometimes shining brightly on their own.

   Teacher models a 4-bar improvisation in 4/4 that depicts the stars in the night sky on a melodic instrument using the notes DEFGABbCD

   Discuss with the students how to replicate the ‘sound’ of the star’s reflection. For e.g. using long, soft sounds rather than short, staccato, loud sounds.

   Encourage the students to develop their own improvisation on these notes to depict a starry sky.

   Perform the pieces around the class.

   Choose students to be the conductor – layering the 4 bar pieces over each other and sometimes having one (shining) on its own, bringing in the students to create their own sound world depicting the night sky.

5. Listen to the first section of ‘Stars’ by Stephen Leek (when the quartet are singing vowel sounds or humming – before the words are sung). Discuss the similarities and differences between the class compositions and the focus listening piece (Stars).

6. Ask the students to listen particularly to the Tenor part as he sings a long sound and vocalises the harmonic of that sound (he sings the note D which is held and the harmonic A can be heard emerging from the held note). Click here to view Tenor part Bars 1-2.

7. Discuss the following 'composer instruction' with the students:

   Soprano and alto part start together but sing at their own time and meet at the breath, starting each new phrase together, each rest is like a relaxed breath, ‘as if dreaming’

8. Perform your class composition together again – this time without a conductor, listening to each other, entering at different times, taking rests together ‘as if dreaming’.

1. Listen to the first section of the piece where the singers are humming and singing a soft Aah sound.

   How many singers are singing in the opening section? (three)

   What voice types are they? (Soprano, Alto, Tenor)

   Which parts are moving, and which are static? (Soprano and Alto are moving, Tenor is static)

   Why has the composer made these choices? (Word painting, not introducing the Bass voice to keep ‘dreamy’ upper voice vision of the night sky)

2. Listen to the second section of the piece from ‘the stars have far to go, alone or in harness across a window pane’. On the word pane the singers glissando demonstrating the effect of water travelling on the glass pane. This technique is used often in the piece. Why do you think Stephen Leek has employed this?

3. Explore ways of making glissando sounds on instruments or with voices.

4. In the next section, the top 2 parts sing ‘hour after hour’ four times, with the other parts singing an exaggerated ‘haa haa’ sound. What is the effect of this?

5. How has the composer set the phrase ‘journeyed with them’ (it is echoed amongst the top three parts, creating a feeling of momentum).

6. In the phrase ‘steady the waves of your breath’, the top two parts come together to give a feeling of steadiness. What techniques has the composer used to achieve this?

7. Examine the rest of the piece for examples of ‘word painting’ where the music reflects the literal meaning of the text eg.

   In the phrase ‘sifted down hovers in a bright arc’, sung by the Soprano and Alto parts, the melody is falling. Click here to view the Soprano and Alto part.

   ‘How far’ is repeated to give a sense of movement until it ’comes together’ literally at bar 67. Click here to view bars 65-67.

Stephen Leek uses a variety of vocal techniques in this piece. Examine and discuss how they make the piece more effective.

1. At the beginning, the tenor part is a long-held note D with the harmonic or overtone A emerging from the sound over time. Click here to view the Tenor part.

2. Listen carefully and explore harmonics/overtones. Explore using the voice, a singing bowl, a metal cooking bowl with water in it or other items that ‘ring’.

3. The singers often use a glissando at the end of a phrase. This can be described as a continuous slide upwards or downwards between two notes, as in the word pane (the sounds slide like water on glass). Explore where these occur in the piece.

4. Dissonance of two notes close together is used for extra sparkle – for example at the end of the first and second phrase the Soprano and Alto sing an E against an F. What effect does this have? Click here to view the Soprano and Alto part.

5. Rests are extended with pause marks, what impact does this have?

6. Word painting – where the music illustrates the literal text. Find examples such as the descending notes for ‘across a window pane’ in the Soprano and Alto parts against ascending notes in the Tenor. Click here to view Soprano, Alto, Tenor parts.

7. The phrase ‘steady the waves of your breath’ is sung by the top two parts against a rocking ‘Haa Haa’ sung with ‘exaggerated expression’ by the bottom two parts. How does this give a feeling of rocking on the water?

8. The phrase ‘From Cent’ries away, out of the reign of one of nineteen pharaohs’ is sung in rhythmic unison by the top two parts at a contrasting louder dynamic supported by a strong ‘Ah’ sound sung in close harmony by the bottom two parts. How does this reinforce the gravitas of this royal image? Click here to view the score.

9. The piece finishes with the top three parts in unison. Listen to what happens at the very end (a harmonic is sung by the tenor – mirroring the stars reflection). How does this support the title of the piece?

English Stage 3: EN3-OLC-01, EN3-VOCAB-01, EN3-RECOM-01, EN3-UARL-01

English Stage 4: EN4-RVL-01, EN4-URA-01, EN4-URB-01, EN4-URC-01, 

English Year 5: ACELA1501, ACELA1504, ACELY1701, ACELY1702, ACELY1703

English Year 6: ACELA1518, ACELY1709, ACELY1711, ACELY1713, ACELY1801 

English Year 7: ACELA1528, ACELA1782, ACELT1619, ACELT1621, ACELT1803, ACELT1622, ACELY1804, ACELY1723

• Poem Stars’ by David Malouf found at the top of this page

• Link to ‘what is a star’. Click here. Millis, John P., Ph.D. "Going Inside a Star to See How It Works." ThoughtCo, Dec. 23, 2021, thoughtco.com/what-is-a-star-3073608