The year 1971 was significant to say the least. The development of the first microprocessor heralded the birth of the digital age; Bangladesh was born while anti-Vietnam war protests raged, Idi Amin seized power in Uganda and Charles Manson and his “family” were convicted of the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Meanwhile John Lennon released the Imagine album, The Doors frontman Jim Morrison died and Dmitri Shostakovich composed his final symphony in what has been tagged the year that changed music forever.

It was this landmark period that inspired Sydney Symphony Orchestra percussionist, composer and singer Timothy Constable to create a “whimsical musical joyride” with six of his colleagues to launch the first of the Cocktail Hour series in the Sydney Opera House’s intimate Utzon Room.

Tim Constable. Photo © Georgia Jane Griffiths

As Constable says in his program note: “We begin at the Osaka 1970 expo, where radical futurists plot optimistic landscapes for future earth. We’ll deviate to make a folky stop at the homes of Joni (Mitchell) and Nick (Drake) before things get trippy, interspersing symphonic environmentalism with Miles (Davis), The Who and – representing all the artists that would farewell the world at this time – Dmitri Shostakovich.”

The evening was built around French composer André Jolivet’s Heptade duet for trumpet and percussion, written in 1971 – an engaging and technically challenging set of seven short eclectic sections with frequent changes of mood. The ebullient Constable, with a drum kit and an impressive array of percussion instruments, was joined by Principal Trumpet David Elton for a tightly nuanced performance of a piece – the first of several for the evening – which few of the audience had heard before.

Constable’s chosen line-up of musicians and instruments reflected the wide range of material – Sophie Cole on violin; harpist Louisic Dulbecco; twin double bassists Dylan Holly and Jaan Pallandi and fellow percussionist Rebecca Lagos who spent part of the set manning tapes, loops and samples as well as switching between various percussion instruments.

Holly showed his multi-instrumental skills with some gorgeous lap dulcimer for Joni Mitchell’s All I Want from her iconic Blue album while Pallandi displayed his keyboard skills on a Rhodes electric piano for Miles Davis’s jazz-fusion classic Sivad with Elton’s funky trumpet and some dazzling bebop runs from Constable on marimba.

Dulbecco’s harp was amplified for Tōru Takemitsu’s Stanza II which includes percussive effects and the use of a ring modulator for a non-Western sound-world.

Peter Sculthorpe at this time was also fascinated by Japanese influences and Flowers from his Night Pieces set showed the harp and Elton’s trumpet in a more meditative mood.

Constable stunned his audience when he sat down at the Rhodes and channeled Nick Drake’s wistful voice in the folk ballade One of These Things First, from the tragically short-lived troubadour’s Bryter Layter album.

Another highlight was Constable’s serene arrangement for violin, trumpet and tape of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Melancholy from Cantus Arcticus, for which the Finnish composer braved sub-zero temperatures to record birdsongs in the Arctic Circle, in this case an electronically treated loop of the shore lark’s ghostly song.

A bass duet with harp overlay gave way to the warm tones of Cole’s violin for Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, joined by Elton’s bright trumpet, bringing the hour to a delightful close.

Cocktail Hour with Timothy Constable is performed again on 14 March.