Tarka

Composer, arranger, performer, engineer and producer Harry Williamson has directed hundreds of albums and concerts. He plays diverse instruments including charango, piano, 6-string guitar, glissando, tiple, hammered dulcimer, percussion and his own invented angel guitar, also excelling in set design, environmental architecture, choir conducting, folklore, wood-turning, narration, film, vinyl record-manufacturing and even tuning our Federation Bells. Harry’s soundtrack for his father Henry Williamson’s classic book “Tarka” – published in many languages – saw its Renaissance with a new arrangement and performance that I was fortunate to witness at the Melbourne Town Hall. Tarka, which means “wandering water”, is a symphony in three movements, co-composed by Harry Williamson and Anthony Phillips in 1976. Created as homage to “Tarka the Otter” and England’s West country, it was first performed and recorded by The London Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestras in 1978. The composers reunited 30 years later, 12,000 miles apart, to revise scores. Paradoxically, Tarka’s environmental plea is both timely and timeless. And paradox comes naturally to Harry, whose genius whirls like a dervish river from ripples and eddies, to rapids and tempests.

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