ABSTRACT
To the reader unfamiliar with the history of Australian art music, the title of this book may appear substantially unintelligible. The remainder of this introductory chapter attempts a preliminary investigation, in order to establish a context for the exploration in subsequent chapters of the music of Australian composers to whom the label 'Jindyworobak' has come to be popularly applied. The chapter considers the relationship between Jindyworobak literature and the music of composers to be addressed in greater detail in subsequent chapters. With the partial exception of Alfred Hill, all composers discussed in this book will be seen to have located the bases of their compositional techniques in a post-tonal context. Nevertheless, the aspirations themselves however imperfectly realized – are an important factor in assessing the Jindyworobak credentials of the composers to be discussed in this book. The impressionist and ‘pastoral’ styles lend themselves ideally to the gentler areas of the ‘environmental’ or ‘landscape’ aspects of Jindyworobakism.
