Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Adrian and I wanted to make a piece about the ocean; the possibilities for musical allusions to this natural force proved plentiful. The piece starts on the ocean floor; picked up in an underwater swell; awakened by the echoes of a long-drowned sea shanty; borne on a current that grows more insistent until it bursts through the surface to catch a lungful of air. The sea shanty arrived during my composition process and would not leave; a folky, 6/8 tune that provided structure for the rhythmic and harmonic material I weave through the work. This motif is framed by descriptive interpretations of the sea, where wave shapes start playfully lapping against the shore, their mellifluous patterns increasingly jagged and out-of-control, crashing in peaks, then evaporating like ocean spray while gulls cry.

Work Details

Year: 2021

Instrumentation: Violin.

Duration: 8 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — fast passages, some extended techniques

Dedication note: dedicated to Adrian Biemmi

Written for: Adrian Biemmi

Commission note: Commissioned by Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), The ANAM Set with funds provided by Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund.

Contribute submitted styles, genres, influences, etc:
Luciano Berio, Sequenza VIII for violin

Contribute submitted additional notes:
To the Sea was an absolute joy to work on, with Adrian’s input invaluable to ensure a natural, idiomatic work for solo violin. Our shared understanding and aesthetic was remarkable – as was our fortuitous mutual desire to include a nod to Berio’s extraordinary Sequenza for violin somehow in the texture of this piece. It is dedicated to Adrian Biemmi – with my fondest respect.