Sally Greenaway | Composer

An homage to one of Sir Arthur Streeton's most famous oil paintings, Greenaway's string quartet, The Murray And The Mountain, explores Streeton's deep appreciation of Australia's land and environment, and its conservation.

The music video features a recreation of Streeton's painting, by award-winning Queanbeyan painter Paul Martin, whose brushstrokes are captured stroke-by-stroke in stop motion by animator and film director Marisa Martin.

The compelling and evocative performance of Greenaway's The Murray And The Mountain, by Canberra Strings (violinists Barbara Jane Gilby and Pip Thompson, violist Lucy Carrigy-Ryan, and cellist Samuel Payne), filmed by Luke Patterson, captures the movement and energy of Streeton's painting and transports the listener to Australia's unique high country.

Streeton considered this painting crucial to Australia's national identity, depicting the unique scenery nearby to Corryong, with snow-capped ranges and Mount Kosciuszko in the distance and idyllic farm land flanking the Murray River.

Conjuring images of rugged snowy peaks and rocky outcrops, open areas rich with wildflowers and heath, expanses of white gnarly limbs of gums - this ancient Yerto landscape is known most intimately by the Jaithmathang, Dhudhuroa, Ngarigo and Wolgalu first nations peoples, who have known its beauty and treacherousness for many thousands of years. The surrounding grazing land and townships punctuate the rich historic tapestry of this unique environment.