Anguilla
for double bass
Composed for William Taber
Performed as part of The ANAM Set 2024
This ANAM Set commission was generously supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia and the Anthony and Sharon Lee Foundation
Program note:
Anguilla is named for the eel, specifically the New Zealand Longfin Eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii) of Aotearoa, where double bassist William Taber hails from. In our initial meeting over Zoom, William happened to mention an enjoyment of the ocean, and that the lifecycle of the eel was particularly fascinating. I was intrigued by this, and read some online sources which describe the slow, decades-long process of maturation until finally the elderly mother eel swims a long journey to Tonga to lay her only batch of eggs then die. Anguilla is a melancholy musical exploration of this timeline.
About the composer:
Dr Peggy Polias (she/her) is a composer, music engraver and casual academic residing and working on Darug and Eora lands in Sydney. She graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney in 2022. Her creative research under the supervision of Professor Liza Lim has focused on themes of safety, secrecy, and journaling in sound, and in the creative process. Polias was part of the Conservatorium’s Composing Women program of four participants in 2018-19. Polias has moved in and out of academic and art music industry settings in a busy portfolio career, working directly for composers and in arts and publishing organisations such as the Australian Music Centre.
As a composer, Polias has had works performed or recorded by artists including Claire Chase (USA), Bernadette Harvey, The Nano Symphony, Lamorna Nightingale, The Riot Ensemble (UK), Sydney Chamber Opera, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Her digital albums "Picnic at Hanging Rock Suite" (2009) and "Hive" (2017) were released by Kammerklang in 2016-17 and were completed as part of the inaugural Peter Sculthorpe Music Fellowship awarded to Polias by Create NSW in 2015. Recent works include "Receptor" (2020) for solo marimba, composed especially for Claire Edwardes and an orchestral work, "Arachne" (2023), for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s 50 Fanfares project, which received its premiere in August 2023. Polias is an Associate Represented Artist with the Australian Music Centre and takes a keen interest in the possibilities for music in the online space.
For more about Peggy, visit her website: peggypolias.com/