‘The Ascent Music’ (‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’) - Bruce Smeaton
''A surprising number of human beings are without purpose, though it is probable that they are performing some function unknown to themselves.''
When interviewed by the Australian gazette, ‘Cinema Papers’, in 1974, Bruce Smeaton described his contribution to the score of Peter Weir’s ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ as ‘’almost nil’’, and expressed frustration at the director’s preference for using sourced classical music - ‘’Peter assures me it was a search to find something. I found it next to impossible to create an original idea because there’s all these things arriving all the time…. I’m only doing minor music, the major part of the music is Romanian pan-pipes with an organ accompaniment. I believe they probably fit, I don’t know how well.’’
I beg to differ. I think ‘The Ascent Music’ actually becomes the defining theme of the film, (more so than Gheorghe Zamfir’s panpipes in the opening credits), because of the economic manner in which Smeaton’s original music is used, for only the key scenes. Of course, the modern piano style is anachronistic to the period setting, but it gives the story a more timeless feel. As the three schoolgirls ascend the rock for the first (and last) time, Smeaton’s music reinforces the supernatural interpretation that they really are entering another dimension. Weir himself conceded this when interviewed in the 2004 documentary, ‘A Dream Within a Dream’ - ‘’Bruce was searching for ultimately a signature sound that would be within the music that WAS the rock.’’
Another piano solo featured in the film, also full of arpeggiated figures, is J.S. Bach’s Prelude in C Major, which plays out the girls' final coach ride from their school to the rock. While Bach’s music evokes the old European order of the Appleyard College that they are now leaving behind forever, I think 'The Ascent Music' evokes more the timelessness of the volcanic rock structure they will then enter.
The same track is also used effectively when the English aristocrat, Michael Fitzhubert joins forces with the local ocker, Albert Crundall and returns to the rock to search for the missing girls. The camaraderie between these two young men, in spite of their class differences, is for me one of the more uplifting outcomes of Laura Lindsay’s story. Each becomes a better man through having known the other.
This music was written in a lengthy 17/8 meter, with a repeat section at the start which briefly shifts it to 15/8 then 12/8. These unequal groupings really throw off the listener, along with all the strange key changes that the music then passes through. The girls don’t know where they are going and neither does the music. What starts as a tiny piano solo, then builds into a huge ensemble as they climb higher. Smeaton was also fond of electronic devices (his score to Weir’s previous feature, ‘The Cars that ate Paris’ included an eerie Theremin track), and the ghostly choir which takes over ‘The Ascent Music’ was provided by a Mellotron looping device, while a bass guitar, harpsichord and flute also join in.
The original recording was never released commercially, however a solo piano arrangement was published in 1982 by Chappell & Co. (Australia), complete with dynamics and metronome marks. The repeat section was eliminated from the start, keeping the meter at a steadier 17/8 throughout, and a small coda of arpeggiated semiquavers was added.
I’ve tried to incorporate elements of both versions for this humbler solo arrangement.
I am just an amateur and do not own any of this.