
When the World Awakes
When the World Awakens
For Large String Orchestra and Percussion (9”)
perc(3)-strings.10.8.6.6.4
Programme note:
The complexity and diversity of the natural world is overwhelming. The simplicity of what it takes for nature to heal and show its resilience however, is equally startling.
When the global pandemic hit our world in 2020, humanity was forced to change its damaging behavioural patterns for the first time in a long time. The way the natural world reacted has been documented by many. In cities, we heard birdsong instead of airplanes, saw wildlife venturing more confidently into our urban world, and ultimately appreciated the very existence of nature and the ‘outside’ more than ever. Try as we might, and love our world as much as we think we do, we remain a constant threat to our great planet, and to ourselves.
Our desperation to get back to ‘normal’ and to live as we did before exists in all of us. The threat we pose to the future of our planet remains until we accept that we need to move forward differently.
Inspired by the idea of a pastoral lament, which becomes at times unhinged by something more unsettling, this piece is about the innocent fragility of the natural world; the dominant threat of humans and the city, and the need for us to respect and work together with our planet, instead of against it.