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This piece was written after visiting Winton in Western Queensland. I had never been out west, and I was instantly taken by the striking, harsh beauty of the landscape.
Driving from Longreach I was struck by the way the country slowly morphed, as the trees gave way to vast grasslands, stretching literally as far as the eye can see. Even though most of the land is used for sheep and cattle you see very few livestock and you really get a sense of wilderness and the vastness of our country. It is very flat and sparse, and one gets a similar type of broad, panoramic view of the surroundings as you might see from a mountain view. I almost got a sense of vertigo looking across the endless plains.
There is a surprising number of birds; seeing a brilliant gold and green flock of budgies contrasting the barren land was stunning. The landscape is occasionally punctuated by totemic, red, rocky outcrops, which the locals call 'Jump Ups'. On my first afternoon in Winton, I went up to a Jump up on Rangeland’s station and explored the cracked, crevassed surface and then watched a spectacular and colourful sunset from a high position across the plain.
The night sky is unbelievable. The darkness was kind of scary as there was only a sliver of moon and as I watched the lights of Winton disappear into pitch darkness as I drove out into the night, the combination of nocturnal dark and the vast nothingness around me gave me a strange, lonely feeling. But then getting out of the car and looking into the spangled night sky I was overwhelmed by a primal feeling of wonder. I feel mankind must have experienced this an uncountable number of times, staring into a clear night sky which seems quite alien to the sky one can see in a city.
I found it impossible to capture the spirit of this amazing landscape of our vast country in photography, so this piece attempts to capture something of the feeling of the land in music. We hear the dry rattling wood of col legno, violin bird calls and flickering harmonics all of which try to paint a sonic picture of the plains. A high cello solo is an attempt to emulate that sense of vertigo I experienced looking across the plains and a heat stricken allegro middle section attempts to convey the tectonic starkness and harshness of the landscape.
John Rotar on Plains Baked Golden in the Morning Light (2021)
Learn more about Plains Baked Golden in the Morning Light, and John's creative process.
- What inspired you to compose your piece specifically on?
I was struck by the beauty of the country of Western Queensland, and that is what inspired the piece, here is what I wrote about it at the time:
The thing that most struck me was the country. Having not ever gone out west before I was really taken by the striking, harsh beauty of the landscape. The countryside is just huge grasslands that stretch literally as far as the eye can see. I found it kind of like looking out over the ocean in that you sort of lose a sense of perspective because of the vastness and lack of visual cues. It's very flat and sparse and so you get a similar type of broad, panoramic view of the surroundings as you might get from looking off of a mountain, very weird, but very cool, I almost got a sense of vertigo looking across the endless plains. Also there's a surprising amount of birds; seeing a big flock of budgies contrasting the barren land was pretty stunning. The landscape is occasionally punctuated by big, red, rocky outcrops, which they call 'Jump Ups' and and on my first night in Winton we drove up to one of these and walked around on top and explored some crevasses and then watched the sunset from a high position across the plain; very spectacular and colourful. I also drove about 15kms out of town at night to near a place where they have a dark sky reserve and the night sky was almost unbelievable. The darkness was kind of scary as there was only a sliver of moon; watching the light of Winton disappear into pitch darkness in my rear view mirrors was weird, and the combination of night time dark and the vast nothingness around me was a strange, lonely feeling. Even though the majority of the land is used for sheep and cattle you see very few livestock and you really get a sense of wilderness and the vastness of our country.
The piece tries to capture something of this amazing landscape, with rattling dry wood of col legno, violin bird calls and flickering harmonics. The high cello solo is an attempt to emulate that sense of vertigo I got from looking across the plains and middle sections attempts to convey the tectonic starkness and harshness of the landscape. The title comes from a quote from one of the Matilda museum exhibits and I felt like this section from Banjo Patterson's Clancy of the Overflow pretty much perfectly captured my feeling of the outback of Winton:
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plain extended,
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.
- How would you describe your creative process?
I began writing the piece on my second night in Winton. It began with that lonely, longing cello melody and then I just ‘coloured in’ around that, filling in the soundscape of the piece with what I felt were the natural sounds of the landscape I was in.
3. What would you like your listeners to take away from your piece?
I really would love listeners to be transported to Western Queensland… and to, in just ten minutes, try and capture that feeling of the extreme vastness and rugged beauty of our incredible country.
