Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

MAN, SKIN CANCER OF THE EARTH
MICHAEL WHITICKER
(b.1954)
texts collected from German and Australian sources

Teach your children vhat we taught ours. The earth is our mother. What the earth suffers, the children of this earth also suffer. If man spits on the earth he is also spitting on himself. But we already know that. The earth doesn't belong to man. Man belongs to the earth Everything is intertwined. Like the blood that unifies a family. All is bound together.  What the earth suffers the children of the earth also suffer. Men didn't create the web of life. He is only one almond. Whatever you do to this web, you do to yourself.

Ben Wargin

The composer writes:
"In Germany alone there are over 15OO environmental organisations with a total membership of about three million, yet so little is achieved. It is so easy to be apathetic. 'They' know that and make it even easier by not telling us about those 'little' things  that we don't really want to concern ourselves with. In fact they sometimes help us even more by lying (just a little) and then we feel especially pleased that things aren't as bad as the 'stirrers' try to assure us they are.

I was looking for some facts one day. and I met a wonderful little woman in a particular organisatìon. She was very good - knew her stuff so to speak - I was looking for some figures. She said, 'Oh, you're a composer are you?  You're not going to put this into a piece of music are you. Oh, that vould be such a shame, dont do that , music is so beautiful'.

I guess for me it comes down to making a choice. Like being prepared to say 'Yes, I want to stand up and be counted'. It is no alternative to refrain from having, an opinion, it is too late for that now. You've either got to care for the environnent or not care, and if you don't, then you're either very greedy or very ignorant, or just plain mad'.

Australian premiere

World premiere in Berlin on 17th February 1991.