Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Once upon a time there was a girl who lived in the sky and bathed in the sun. A terrible curse was placed upon her, and she was sent down to the darkness of the earth, where the sun couldn't quite reach. She could not remember who she was or why she was there, but she knew she had to find the sun to break the curse. This is her story, where she follows the sound of water and stars in the sky to finally be eternally illuminated by the sun as the Phoenix Aurora.

In November 2014 Griffyn Director Michael Sollis joined astronomer Fred Watson in the Arctic Circle in search of the Northern Lights, as Part 2 to the Griffyn Ensemble's Southern Sky by Estonian composer Urmas Sisask. This seventy minute piece contains fourteen movements representing the passing of twenty-four hours as the girl searches for the sun.

Work Details

Year: 2016

Instrumentation: Sextet and electronics: Electronics (loop pedal, samples), violin, double bass, mandolin/acoustic bass guitar, flute/alto flute/piccolo, harp, soprano.

Duration: 80 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

First performance: by Griffyn Ensemble at Northern Lights (National Gallery of Australia) on 30 May 2015

The composer notes the following styles, genres, influences, etc associated with this work:
Urmas Sisask, Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, Fairy Tales, Walt Disney, Fred Watson, Astronomy