Buckley - Jared McCunnie (Performed live by Geelong West Brass Band)

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2017Apr 23

Geelong West Brass Band's live performance and world premiere of Jared McCunnie's major work "Buckley" for Brass Band, placing 3rd in the Own Choice section of the B Grade Australian National Band Championships. Conducted by Jeff Steele. "Buckley" can be purchased here http://jaredmccunnie.com/buckley.html Huge thank you to Tim, Veronica and the Brassbanned team for providing the fantastic HD footage! About The Piece "Buckley" tells the incredible tale of William Buckley, the first of few Englishmen to truly live live amongst the Austrlian Aboriginal people. Commissioned by Richard Harvey for Jeff Steele and the Geelong West Brass Band, the 16 minute epic encapsulates Buckley's unbelievable story. "Buckley" begins in Holland, where William Buckley and his English comrades were combatting Napoleon's French forces. Seriously wounded, Buckley returned to Britain and was swept up into troublesome crowds. Found guilty of participating in the theft of a hankerchief, Buckley was sentenced to transportation for life, namely to the new Port Phillip penal colony in Victoria, Australia. Buckley faced the lengthy and treacherous journey upon ship Calcutta to Port Phillip. Despite being treated well, Buckley and three other convicts made an escape from the colony, in the hope of reaching Sydney. Only managing to circumvent Port Phillip Bay, the group split up, and Buckley found himself alone in a foreign, dangerous land. When a small group of Aboriginals came across the starving Buckley, the Englishman was accepted within the Watourong people. For over thirty years, Buckley firsthand participated in Corrobberrees, hunted for kangaroo and eels, and learned their native tongue. Surviving tribal warfare, years of living alone and even witnessing acts of cannibalism, Buckley truly lived as an Aboriginal. In the meantime, more Europeans were venturing to Australia for a new beginning, and Buckley had to make a choice between his Eurpoean past or his Aboriginal present. Making a homecoming, Buckley's became an interpreter and consul for the natives. Despite his high value in society and a pardon for his crimes, Buckley went on to live a life of unrest, being paraded as a freak show and labelled "The Wild White Man".