Music & Compositions

The Monolithic Scores

march 2020 · art gallery of western australia

Monolith Scores / Tonal Steps was performed in the iconic Art Gallery of Western Australia in response to its “brutalist” architecture. Paul took inspiration from the main feature of the concourse, its spiral staircase, and also its imposing hexagonal structure, attempting to make the fixed stone edifice breathe.

Collaborating with artist Tom Muller, partly improvised, and again entirely sung in vowels, the performance explored the two poles of rigid/fixed versus flowing/breathing through movement and sound.

Monolith Scores / Tonal Steps · Watch on Vimeo

Ebb and Flow

november 2019 · ps art space, fremantle · fremantle biennale

Ebb and Flow is conceived as an expansion and investigation of the mysterious art of “toning” — vocal improvisation using only vowels. Over one year, the specially-formed Undercurrent Choir worked with Paul Lawrence to uncover some of the mysteries of toning.

This music is not intended to be either entertaining or intellectual. It is a reflection of the subtle music that resounds above, below and around us: the Undercurrent of Life itself.

Four water-inspired movements, with audience interaction

1. Oceanexpresses the rhythm and harmony that arises between the two universal acts of contraction and expansionThe audience is invited to move with the gently revolving current created by the choir.
2. Tidesexpresses one aspect of the mighty cosmic Will in natureThe audience stands against the north wall to bear witness to the moving tides.
3. Undercurrentexpresses the subconscious music that dwells in the utter depths of our earth, our oceans and ourselvesMeander amongst the sounds or sit and lean against a pillar and feel the pull to the semi-conscious place of mysteries.
4. Riverexplores the primordial breathing rhythm created by “the interval of the fifth”. The subtle hypnotic rhythm of the eternally flowing river encourages us to breathe and healWalk slowly through the channel of sound as many times as you like.

Musical director

Paul Lawrence

Artistic support

Tom Mueller

The Undercurrent Choir

Tony Balint, Sam Banks-Smith, Shaun Banner, Zoe Brennan, Rick Bryant, Jennifer Byrne, Madeline Clare, Dave Coggin, Jess Colgan-Toohey, Agnes deSouza, Paula Harris, Lekkie Hopkins, Brendon Humphries, Koral Island Ward, Tej Bhagti Kaur, Nicole Lawrence, Anna Macoboy, Sharon McCann, Fiona McVey, Daniel Martin, Lesley Meaney, Elizabeth Murray, Kia Nelson, Lisa Payne, Peter Payne, Mark Rowntree, Jeremy Scrivener, Jane Shanahan, Mark Taylor, Cara Teusner-Gartland, Anjea Travers, Sue Wallwork, Andy Williams, Bobby Wilson, Gosia Winter.

What people said

reviews, and words from the choir

“Innovative, fresh, moving, astonishing.”

“It was like being part of a moving, singing pilgrimage as we walked round with the singers in a sort of trancelike state… it was profoundly moving and I felt like crying for some reason, not from sadness, the kind of welling up that comes when you encounter the beautiful.”

“The most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.”

“A beehive symphony, an underwater bardo, waves sung to the shores of hearing, a pilgrimage amid the voice of friends. I felt uplifted, cleared, and cleansed amid a sea of sound.”

“It was a powerful experience being bathed in the pure, open sound of the human voice. The sense of community was strong, wholeness was made audible.”

FROM THE CHOIR

“Socially and in terms of community building it’s been wonderful to work with a group as diverse in age and interest and sensibility as this one, and to feel the shifts and changes in group energies as everyone seriously learns to listen to and respond musically to one another.”

“You are like a patient gardener of sound and voices.”

“Words can’t sum up my love and gratitude to everyone in the Undercurrent Choir this year. This project has grounded me through some of the best, worst and busiest months of my life.”

The Winter Festival Series

2004–2011 · perth waldorf school and silver tree steiner school

These five Winter Festivals were written and directed by Horst and Jennifer Kornberger with music by Paul Lawrence. They were enacted outdoors by the school communities.

Throughout the evening a story would unfold as the community — more than 700 people — moved through various outdoor stages around the school. Students had already prepared songs, teachers and parents would act the various roles, and the narrative thread led the whole community through an inner Solstice journey.

• 2004The Man with Three Names
• 2005The Queen and the Key
• 2006The Knights of the True Fire
• 2009The Winter Shoes
• 2011The Two Flutes

The Bee Master

2008 · national anthroposophical society conference, perth

A festival-drama written by Jennifer Kornberger, with music by Paul Lawrence. It has only been performed once. The Bee Master, with its 50-page music score, unfolded over three nights across the Michael-Easter full moon confluence.

Something stirs now in the world — the nectar flow has begun…

The Bee Master is a contemporary fairy tale for adults. It uses the metaphor of the global honey bee crisis to awaken us to the challenges and possibilities of new community. It grapples with genetic engineering and the meeting of art and science. It explores the experience of time as the speed of love, and the meaning of warmth in the human encounter.

The choir formed largely by word of mouth — people with a deep longing to create a new music that speaks a universal language. The sounds of the Bee Master are pure, profound and timeless: simple clear melodies and warm harmonies produced by that most resonant of all instruments, the human voice.

The Bee Master has drawn me out of my hermit’s cave into a buzzing, spiritual-artistic community. Listening to one another, harmonizing together, striving mind, body and soul for a higher purpose: this to me is future community, the human hive in which each individual is aware of the whole and gains nourishment from it. Our striving together has produced nectar. I hope that you too may taste the honey.

Edge of the World

2005 · vital years conference, perth · darlington hall

Another artistic collaboration with Horst and Jennifer Kornberger, culminating in performances on 2 July and 17 December 2005.

1. The Sermon of Spicespoems by Jennifer Kornberger, piano music by Paul Lawrence
2. Spirit of Placepoems by Horst Kornberger, music by Paul Lawrence
3. The Magdalen Does Seven Drawingspoems by Jennifer Kornberger, music by Paul Lawrence
4. Suburban Kul-kulpoems by Jennifer Kornberger, improvisation by Paul Lawrence
5. Earth Seen from Spacepoem by Horst Kornberger, music by Paul Lawrence
6. Dreammusic by Paul Lawrence
7. Love Poemspoems by Horst Kornberger, music by Paul Lawrence
8. Melodymusic by Paul Lawrence, performed by Mark and Cerys Tooby
9. My Beautiful Old Agewords by Horst and Jennifer Kornberger, improvisation by Paul Lawrence

The Sermon of Spices

21 and 28 november 2003

An artistic collaboration with Horst and Jennifer Kornberger and Nicole Lawrence, synthesizing poetry, visual art and music.

1. The Sermon of Spicespoems by Jennifer Kornberger, piano music by Paul Lawrence
2. Buddha in Honeypoems and visuals by Horst Kornberger, music by Paul Lawrence
3. Suburban Kul-kulpoems by Jennifer Kornberger, percussion by Paul Lawrence
4. Invocations to the Spirit of Placepoems by Horst Kornberger, music by Paul Lawrence
5. Spinifex Dreamvisual art by Nicole Lawrence, piano music by Paul Lawrence
6. Dat Rosa Mel Apibus“the rose that gives the bees honey” — poems by Jennifer Kornberger, music by Paul Lawrence