Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Hood Yourself in Stars explores the cyclical nature of time and generations. The first movement represents age, wisdom, knowledge and reflection. The second is the stuttering chaos and colours of a life in motion. The third is new life and promise. A single primary motif carries all three movements; that which is passed down through generations is recognizably the same but also strikingly different.

The title and much of the inspiration for the work comes from Amy Lowell's poem Generations.

'Generations'

Amy Lowell

You are like the stem
Of a young beech-tree,
Straight and swaying,
Breaking out in golden leaves.
Your walk is like the blowing of a beech-tree
On a hill.
Your voice is like leaves
Softly struck upon by a South wind.
Your shadow is no shadow, but a scattered sunshine;
And at night you pull the sky down to you
And hood yourself in stars.

But I am like a great oak under a cloudy sky,
Watching a stripling beech grow up at my feet.

Work Details

Year: 2018

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1st doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, clarinet in B flat, bass clarinet in B flat, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in C, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (2 players), harp, piano, strings 12.12.10.10.8).

Duration: 18 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Contents note: 1. Pull the Sky Down -- 2. As the Fever Breaks -- 3. And Hood Yourself in Stars.

Commission note: Commissioned by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.. Commissioned as part of the Young Composer in Residence program.

First performance: by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Clark Rundell at MSO: Metropolis 1 (Robert Blackwood Concert Hall) on 19 Apr 2018