The Black Cockatoo (Flying Alone…) by Richard Charlton

The Black Cockatoo…flying alone

The Black Cockatoo…flying alone is a wonderfully evocative and playable solo work by Australian composer, Richard Charlton.

The composer writes:

Composed for Ascham Year 12 student Charmaine Lee, and first performed by her as part of her Music 2 HSC exam in 2008. Black Cockatoos often fly over my apartment in Sydney's Eastern suburbs on their way to Centennial Park. They usually mate for life, so upon seeing a lone adult, it led me to admire it, but with a touch of sadness.

The work is at an intermediate level featuring lyrical passages that use the full length of the fingerboard and some nimble slur motifs that recur throughout. Like all of Richard’s works for guitar the piece works on the instrument exceptionally well.

You can find the sheet music for this piece on Richard’s website: https://www.richardcharlton.com.au/

Its Place in the Classical Guitar Repertoire

Although The Black Cockatoo is a relatively recent addition to the guitar repertoire (it was written in 2008), it already carries the weight of a well-established work. It has moved well beyond its original context of a music exam, though its presence continues in exam programs. Now it has also made its way into many recital programs across the world. This is at least thanks in part to the great Australian guitarist Stephanie Jones, whose YouTube video of the piece has almost 250K views. It is a great representation of modern Australian guitar music.

Part of what has helped the piece gain such ground in the repertoire is its dual identity. It functions as demanding exam repertoire in the academic grading systems Charlton composed it for, and it functions equally well as a standalone recital piece for a general audience. Few contemporary works manage both so comfortably. The video above captures a full performance of the piece, offering a reference recording for students working through it at any stage.

The Composer: Richard Charlton

Richard Charlton is one of Australia’s most active guitarist-composers, prolific across solo, duet, and ensemble writing for the instrument. Though born in the UK, he has lived in Australia since childhood and built his career there, composing steadily for solo guitar and guitar ensemble alongside his own performing. His catalog reaches well beyond The Black Cockatoo. Duet players will also recognize his piece Drifting, which appears in CGC’s graded duet collection.

Charlton has spoken about his process and his relationship to the guitar directly with Simon on the CGC Podcast, a conversation that touches on several of his works and gives useful context for anyone learning his music. Richard was also a special guest artist for CGC’s Guitoberfest in 2020, teaching members about his approach to composition with many useful practical tips.

Why you should learn this music

That mixture of admiration and sadness that Richard describes when reflecting on the solo cockatoo shapes the entire piece. The music is split into two contrasting sections, each of which repeat. The first section, Con Moto, is in E minor and embeds the melody in sixteenth-note arpeggios. Next is an Andante Cantabile section in E Major, which features eighth-note rhythms and is slower and much more lyrical. Then we return again to a repeat of the Con Moto, which is followed by a return to Andante Cantabile. The final line of the piece mixes the approaches together. Thus the form and content of the music carries forward the theme of longing and sadness the birds first evoked.

And for that reason, students consistently respond to how playable the emotional content is. The piece does not require an advanced concert artist to communicate its story. It simply requires attention to phrasing, tone, and pacing, which makes it a genuinely satisfying piece to perform.

Technical challenges on the classical guitar

Despite its lyrical surface, The Black Cockatoo asks a good deal of the left hand. The piece moves across the full length of the fingerboard, so shifting accurately and without disturbing the musical line becomes a constant technical thread throughout. Recurring slur motifs woven directly into the melodic material appear throughout. Most of these involve pull-offs to open strings so it’s important to take care of the sound of the pull-off that it doesn’t sound too harsh. That takes real left-hand control, evenness of tone between fretted and slurred notes, and a right hand disciplined enough to stay out of the way.

Its place in the Cornerstone Method: Grade 7

At Classical Guitar Corner Academy, The Black Cockatoo sits inside Grade 7 of the Cornerstone Method, alongside Legnani’s Caprice No. 22, Bach’s Allemande from BWV996, and Tárrega’s Prelude No.1. Grade 7 is where the curriculum really shifts its emphasis toward advanced concert playing. The later grades in the curriculum really focus on using repertoire to teach interpretive sophistication. The Black Cockatoo is a great example of modern repertoire that counterbalances an admittedly large presence of public domain repertoire from 200 years ago or more.

Members progressing through the graded curriculum can see how this piece fits alongside the rest of the collection on the full graded repertoire page, which lists representative works for every grade from Fundamentals through Grade 8.