Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Over the past few years and more recently in the media many scientists and
journalists have pronounced the Great Barrier Reef as either dead or dying. After 25 million years of existence, the wondrous world heritage site has suffered a continual state of degradation from coral bleaching, assaults from the crown of thorn starfish and increases in carbon levels due to the rising temperatures of global warming, causing the water to become acidic and thus harmful to the life forms that reside in the Great Barrier Reef.
As The Reef is my musical expression of the frustration and sadness I feel upon hearing constant news of the demise of the Great Barrier Reef, I hope to project a sense of urgency on the situation the reef faces by telling the story of what has been, what is, and what could be.Although the Great Barrier Reef is large, it is extremely fragile and without implementing drastic measures to save what remains, we will lose one of the most spectacular wonders of our planet.

Work Details

Year: 2022, this version: 2019

Instrumentation: Piccolo, 2 flutes, oboe, English horn, clarinet in B flat, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in C, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 3 percussion, harp, celesta, piano, strings.

Duration: 9 min.

Difficulty: Medium

Commission note: Originally commissioned and performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as part of their Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers project.Commissioned and recomposed for the Melbourne Youth Orchestra in 2019

First performance: by Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Brett Kelly at MYO: The Firebird (Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall) on 1 Sep 2019