Large Ensemble

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.

Rings

Rings

For Chamber Orchestra (10”30)
1.afl.2.2.2-2.2.0.0-perc(3)-strings.

 

Programme note

This piece is inspired by a recently released video of Saturn rising from behind the moon in a ‘lunar occultation’. The video, which is accelerated, captures Saturn and its unmistakable rings gradually emerging from behind the whiteness of the moon, into the blackness of space.

This piece attempts to musically deaccelerate the video once again, beginning with the black emptiness of space, as sparse woodwind chords move together melodically above a string pedal. The comforting familiarity of the moon, our closest neighbour, is captured through a more tender melodic line that interweaves between many of the instruments as soloists.

Gradually, though, a more sinister and terrifying harmonic language and steadily thickening texture takes a hold of the orchestra, as Saturn and its alien rings gradually emerges from the blackness.

Once the music reaches its climax, the opening theme is now heard played by the full orchestra, both majestic and chilling, signifying that Saturn and its rings are in full view.

The piece ends in a cyclical manner, with the lyrical melody returning to interweave between many instruments of the orchestra once again, before the open chords of the beginning return alongside a tolling bell.