Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

It was in the aftermath of the 2020 summer bushfires that a singer rang me from Cyprus to suggest I compose a work about climate change, a subject of concern for me. My research for lyrics did not elicit anything I considered suitable, so I turned to Derek Dowding, a local poet, singer, actor, raconteur, and a person vitally interested in the future of humanity and of the planet.

Derek worked long and late on the lyrics for the work, producing an emotional document covering history, cause and effect. His words produced musical responses from me which I consider react appropriately to both his words and the subject matter. I hope our listeners will agree.

Without going into a detailed analysis of the musical treatment, I had to consider that the length of the work, through-sung, 20 minutes, required a recurrent grounding to avoid too many thematic ideas getting in the way of the words. To that end, I created a section which appears, rondo-style, quite a few times during the length of the piece and another section which appears a couple of times.

We can only hope that the work ultimately adds to the chorus of warnings and concern about the climactic future that awaits if we continue to ignore or postpone dramatic and urgent attention to addressing the causes of climate change.

Work Details

Year: 2020

Instrumentation: Soprano, piano.

Duration: 20 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Requires professional standard from both perfomers

Dedication note: "This work is not dedicated to, but it is for, those who are climate deniers and for those who otherwise care little about planet earth and all who live or will live on it."

First performance: by Anna Fraser, Jack Symonds at Toasting Mother Earth (Adamstown Uniting Church) on 11 Aug 2022