In 2020, Scott Davie and School of Music Indigenous Convenor, Chris Sainsbury, developed a research project based on the oldest piano in the Keyboard Institute collection. The square piano, built circa 1770 by Henri Henrion, is a cultural artefact created at the time Cook charted the eastern coast of Australia. Given the significance of the date, four Indigenous composers were asked to write new music for the instrument, reflecting on the myriad ways the two cultures juxtapose. 

Nardi Simpson, Elizabeth Sheppard, Tim Gray, and Rhyan Clapham were supported by a grant from the ABC's Fresh Start Fund, with the compositions being recorded in Llewellyn Hall in October 2020. The tracks were first released on an ABC New Waves podcast, and later to streaming services. An article was co-written by Davie and Sainsbury for The Conversation, and a paper on the project was given at the 2021 Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia. 

Each of the four compositions are remarkably different from each other. Elizabeth Sheppard's simple work 'Kalgoorli Silky Pear' highlights the capacity of the 1770 instrument to still produce a melodious tone, while in 'Lupe's Waltz' Tim Gray sets a short refrain for soprano. In 'The Binary', Nardi Simpson creates a code to ingeniously incorporate slogans heard at Indigenous rallies, while in '1770' rapper Rhyan Clapham delivers a powerful encapsulation of 250 years of Australian history.  

View Scott Davie's Researcher page. 

View Chris Sainsbury's Researcher page.