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Work Overview
The smell of salt water saturates Western Australia. It permeates the air, the buildings, the wind. It gets in your hair and your eyes and your mouth. When you get off the plane at Perth Airport it greets you. Even as you travel far inland through the Wheatbelt, the smell lingers, the landscape dotted with dry salt lakes.
At a microlevel, the smell of saltwater is caused by a combination of decomposition and chemical reactions. Marine worms and algae produce bromophenols, which give salt air its iodine quality. Bacteria consume dead phytoplankton, which produces the chemical dimethyl sulphide.And at low tide, seaweed eggs release the sex pheromone dictyopterenes to attract sperm.
Nowhere else I have lived has this quality and it amuses me that something I am so homesickfor has such a base chemical cause. That my nostagia is actually the smell of decomposition and pheromones. This work is therefore a reflection on the macro and the micro. On the macro it sits still: a deep breath in and out. On a micro-level it bubbles, a combination of tiny reactions and movements bouncing.
Work Details
Year: 2019
Instrumentation: Flute, guitar.
Duration: 7 min.
Difficulty: Advanced — Extended technique in flute, approx. Grade 8
Commission note: Commissioned by Connecticut Summerfest, 2019.
The composer notes the following styles, genres, influences, etc in relation to this work:
Atmospheric, nature, natural, contrasting worlds, quirky, soundscape.
Performances of this work
Jun 19: Hartt School of Music, Connecticut (US). Featuring Duo Alterity.
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