Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Paintings by Edvard Munch - 'Melancholy' (1892), 'The Scream' (1893) and 'The Dance Of Life' (1900) - were used as sources of inspiration for the similarly titled movements of this composition. The work is dedicated to the Canadian diplomat and broadcaster, Stephen Lewis, whose idealistic and impassioned work has done much to bring global attention to the desperate plight of Africans afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

The first movement, Melancholy starts in Eb - the key often associated with humanity. After an initial exploration of the resonating potential of this pitch, the prominence of Eb is undermined by increasing amounts of dissonance. It eventually succumbs to the presence of the pitch, D, which in a major tonality is often evocative of youth and joy, but which in a minor tonality, is symbolic of death and the underworld.

The second movement, Scream, is both a product and extension of the first movement. Although it commences in a manner reminiscent to the opening of Melancholy, there occurs a broadening of the tonal parameters to include the pitch E, which in a major tonality is often associated with triumph and jubilation, but in minor key can signify stress and anxiety.

The musical developments in the final movement, 'Dance Of Life', centre around the importance given to four "primary" pitches: D, E, Eb and C. The pitch C is representative of divinity, or at least, humanity minus the dominant preoccupation it has with itself.