Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

These three "war" sonatas were composed during the escalation of the 2014 war on Ukraine by Russia beginning on 24 February 2022, the largest attack on a European country since World War II. Many composers have written large works as a response to the insanity of war wielded by aggressive maniacs, a formidable example for piano being Wolpe's Battlepiece of 1943-4. Towards the end of completion of these sonatas war in the Middle East again flared. Three entities helped me negotiate this period and the deep feelings of anger, despair and sorrow I felt for the innocent victims: Peter Singer's writings, my friend and collaborator on many projects Dr Arjun von Caemmerer,and my return to the study of philosophy.

Autonomous AI is on the horizon, driven by war as much as medicine. In this sonata the intuitive hallucinations in movement I are metaphors for the human sense of reality, obliterated by AI in movement II. Unlike other human self-destruction technologies like nuclear weapons, autonomous AI is unlikely to tolerate an off switch in the hands of its creators. It seems it is a technology, to paraphrase Dennett, currently on the horizon and best kept that way.

Work Details

Year: 2023

Instrumentation: Piano.

Duration: 25 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — High virtuosity required

Contents note: I. Hallucinations -- II. Hammered, relentless.