Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform “Stay Close” at Deakin Edge in Federation Square, Melbourne on Saturday the 28th of January. Conducted by Carlo Antonioli.

Stay Close

Every third dawn is a subtle contemporary climate-change re-telling of the Persephone myth. It draws on the creation of seasons through her survived altercation with Hades, denoting a shift in the world from eternal Spring to it only encompassing the world one third of every year. In parallel, it is now as if our world’s ‘Spring’ is being sacrificed by the climate crisis and ongoing inaction, or more often, inadequate action. We consume our planets precious finite resources as if they are lush pomegranate seeds, yet it is those same seeds that bound a Goddess of Spring and the world itself to a much darker existence.

~ Dedicated to Martina & Madeleine

Performers in this recording from its Australian premiere: Bridgette Kelsey (sop.), Jenna Choi (fl.) and Jennifer Enchelmaier (pn.).

SET TEXT: Every third dawn (2024) by Savanna Wegman
Tiered rivers pour from above 
Deeper than this terra firma 
Every shade is drunk of red 
She and the velvet, burn
the promise of rain

And warm azure falling
Here, soft libations run
And from her pomegranate veins 
Flows every third dawn

next sun, blessed 
rushing wind, cradled
a swansong, opened
As Underworlds awaken

Her body fell
From the garden of Zenith
Deep to the end of her rivers, Nadir 
Restless, beyond the breath
And the beginnings

TIMING: ~6minutes

*Commissioned by Martina Rosaria O’Connell for ChamberFest DUBLIN 2024 | RIAM.

Every third dawn received its world premiere performance by Martina Rosaria O’Connell, Sarah Van Den Heuvel-Mouchot and David Vesey at the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s 2024 ChamberFest DUBLIN, in the Whyte Recital Hall on the 01/05/2024.

It subsequently received its Australian premiere performance by Bridgette Kelsey, Jenna Choi and Jennifer Enchelmaier as part of Bridgette Kelsey’s Honours Year Recital, held in Conservatorium Theatre, Griffith University and Queensland Conservatorium of Music on the 11/112024.

Every third dawn © Robert McIntyre 2024 www.roberttmcintyre.com

Every third dawn (LIVE)(trio for soprano, flute & piano)(2024)(Bridgette Kelsey's Honours Recital)

What You Do

Our coral reefs were once vibrant, bustling under water cities complete with high rise structures and even rush hours for schools of fish. Each day, as the rays of sun hit the water, a morning chorus would emanate through the reef. The ecosystem was alive with purrs, grunts and groans: a noisy place. Described as the rainforests of the sea, our reefs were an explosion of colour, teaming with fishes, plants, invertebrates, sea turtles, and sea mammals.

In the past 30 years, 50% of the world’s corals have perished through the process of coral bleaching. Cities of bright and beautiful colours have transformed into graveyards of eerie white skeletons. These biomes are disappearing seemingly unnoticed; the world under the ocean is largely out of sight and out of mind.
In 2015 in New Caledonia, the documentary crew for Chasing Coral stumbled upon a perplexing glowing radiating from the corals. The corals had become florescent, producing a chemical sunscreen to protect themselves from the heat. Though this transformational phenomenon is extremely stunning it is, in reality, an “incredibly beautiful phase of death”. The coral was turning bright, and then eventually white due to stress.
When It’s All Gone attempts to capture this moment, this last moment of brightness before imminent decay. The piece is veiled through a lens of a tender sadness, as though Mother Nature herself is comforting the corals. The mood created also reflects my own sorrow and guilt in witnessing the destruction of something so magnificent.

When It’s All Gone was commissioned by Musica Viva Australia and composed for Claire Edwardes as part of the Morning Masters series. It was premiered on the 25th of October 2023 at The Concourse, Sydney Australia.

When It's All Gone

Compositional Insight per s(1)(a)-(d)
1 Purposes
The main purposes of this Composition are––
(a) to unveil unconscious bias within our legal system relating to our construction of Victorian legislation and how our laws are often created in a non-inclusive way through referencing the gender binary, instead of utilising gender-neutral language; and
(b) to highlight this issue of bias through the particular irony of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and how it defines discrimination with using ‘he or she’ in its definition, as well as the use of ‘he or she’ in the Constitution Act 1975 (Vic) when appointing judges;
(c) to utilise additional pieces of Victorian legislation where applicable; and
(d) to harness cross-disciplinary measures of music and law to create a new ~5min composition.

World Premiere per s(2)(1)
2 Commencement
(1) This Composition comes into official operation on the day on which it receives Royal Assent, being its world premiere date. This date is the 29th of June 2024, with the work performed for the first time at ‘Aether Duo – New Dawn’ by Robert McIntyre, Tempo Rubato, 34 Breese Street, Brunswick VIC 3056.

Aim per s(3)(a)-(f)
3 Objectives
The main purposes of this Composition are––
(a) to create a legal and musical composition that acts as a commentary on our current non-inclusive law-making tendencies, to be submitted for Future Lawyer (LAWS90243) as a project and concurrently owned (with all rights reserved) to the Composer for all current and future use;
(b) to raise awareness about unconscious bias through creative use of the law and contemporary-classical composition, employing electro-acoustic backing track (tape) and an acoustic instrument for performance (flute);
(c) to encourage the identification and elimination of systematic causes of discrimination such as the use of the gender binary within existing and new legislation;
(d) to promote and facilitate the progressive realisation of equality and inclusive gender equity through newly accessible musical means;
(e) to use my time interning at the Commission of Gender Equality in the Public Sector in 2023 as a legal research intern investigating LGBTQIA+ perspectives, coupled with my experience in legal compliance training creating Unconscious Bias, Diversity and Inclusion, and Discrimination module courses, in a newfound, reflective way;
(f) to engage Future Lawyer course materials, seminar discussions, additional research and select excerpts from pieces of legislation as the legal and academic backbone of the musical composition and its purpose.

...

Structure per s(6)(1)
6 Structural Reasoning
(1) I have constructed this Composition’s programme/insight note and score as if it is its own piece of legislation, in the effort to not only mirror the composition’s subject matter, but also to expose future musicians who will perform the work to what a statute generally looks like. This way, I can equally draw legal minds into a directly relevant space, while also broadening potential lay-person flautists who may rarely interact with the law and legislation.

Codifying Neutralities (LIVE)(2024)(solo flute & tape)(performed by Robert McIntyre @ Tempo Rubato)

For my City

Original Soundtrack to the short film 'Oi', directed by Sophie Serisier with music by James Mountain.

Jassie Loses It

Warm, atmospheric electronics inspired by a day in Trentham, Victoria in Australia

Stay Close

Julia Potter