Renaissance Harpsichord and Sufi Music

By Jarrod Watt - ABC Regional Online - Ballarat, Australia
Friday, January 18, 2008

How fitting a music festival featuring the finest in classical and ancient music should come to Buninyong, the settlement which predated nearby Ballarat - although there were no organs to be heard on this day's program, the sensibilities of those keen for the music of ages previous were not to be disappointed.

In the morning, the sound of the harpsichord - as played by Ballarat-born musician Myfanwy McIndoe, who had only been notified the day before of having attained a licentiate from London's Trinity College.

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In a bold move by festival organisers which brought kudos from all who got to hear, the invitation to the Melbourne-based Rona Ensemble to play classical Persian music - the music of the sufis - was a truly magical event.

Meditative and spiritual in the beginning, the near-hypnotic sounds of the kamancheh (the Persian precursor to the violin) combined with the melodic plucking of the tar, (the Persian precursor to the guitar and sitar) and the rhythmic beating of the daf drum to lock in powerful, surging rhythms upon which the vocalist soared.

The setting for the concert, the Buninyong Town Hall, is a tribute to the community of Buninyong who managed to hang on to their 1887-vintage building after their council was amalgamated into the City of Ballarat late in the 20th century.

Where once civic aldermen and the town's burghers gathered, now the entire community enjoys a well maintained concert hall and function centre for use in community events and gatherings.