Adaptation of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy Canto XXXIII. Featuring mezzo-soprano Helena Brown of Chautauqua Opera Company, Melissa Panlasigui (Conductor), Rannveig Ryeng (Violin), Valeriya Sholokhova (Cello), Molly Shambo (Flute), Caitlin Beare (Clarinet), Jason White (Piano), and Tomek Arnold (Percussion) of the Manhattan School of Music. 

A narrow puncture in the mew 
whence from me is named the Famine Tower, 
and in which others will still be locked, 
has shown me moon after moon after moon
when I dreamed the evil dream,
when I slept the evil sleep, 
which rived the veil from my future.
Before the morrow was awake
I heard my sons weep and ask for bread 
to slake their hunger.
Cruel you are if grieve you not
thinking of what my heart forebode.
And if you weep not now, then when?
They did awake as the hour drew nigh 
when the food was to be brought, 
but the dream of each misgave him.
I heard them then enchain the door
of that wretched tower, whereat without a word
I turned to gaze into the faces of my sons. 
I wept not; I within turned to stone. 
As now a little glimmer made its way
into the dolorous prison and I saw
upon four faces that mirrored my own.
I bit upon my hands in grief. 
Thinking this came of savage appetite, 
forthwith they uprose and said
‘Father, we should grieve far less
if you would eat of us!’
I kept my spirit down in stillness
that I should spare them worse misery.
That day we all fell silent, and the next.
Ah, callous earth! Why did you not open?
Thrown prostrate at my feet 
my Gaddo cried ‘Father, why don’t you help me?’
And down he fell with deadened weight. 
I saw three more fall, one by one, 
and I, now blind, groped o’er their bodies.
I called for them.
Then hunger got the mastery of grief.

5 - Mastery

4 - Weeds

2- Dreamer

1 - Introduction

Foreigner or Foreigner is a work for orchestra that explores dissociation from both one’s place of origin, and one's place of destination. It is a kaleidoscopic montage of events suspended between two places of belonging.

Performed by the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro David Gilbert.

Foreigner or Foreigner

Murakami’s Well draws inspiration from Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, both fictionally and structurally. Extremely layered in nature, this piece is designed to be viewed through multiple ‘lenses’; each listening of the work highlighting different facets, and bringing a different meaning to the fore.  

From a technical standpoint, this piece is built upon a collection of notes called a tone row; a non-repetitive ordering of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. This particular tone row is steeped in sentiment as it was a parting gift from a dear friend of the composer. Whilst this collection is the foundation for the piece, the work is not completely serial in nature. Rather, there are glimpses of serialism within the greater context of extended harmony. 

Deeply rooted in the importance of gesture, colour, narrative, and texture, Smith’s music has a certain ethereal quality that stems from ambiguous harmony that is largely unresolved, juxtaposed against complex rhythms. This sound world becomes the vehicle for an exploration of the effects of absolute isolation on the human mind; at the centre of this, the adaptability and elasticity of the brain, and how it alters its basic functions to cope with trauma and the unknown, opening up a wildly vibrant alternate universe.

This piece is dedicated to absent friends.  

Performed by the WA Youth Orchestra 2016

Murakami's Well

The Dying Sun for violin and piano is a work in four movements. A collaboration between R. E. Smith and landscape photographer Andrew J Clarke, each movement is a distillation of an iconic Western Australian image into musical form. 

Movement 1 - Blood
Movement 2 - Milk
Movement 3 - Nectar
Movement 4 - Salt

Performed by Madeleine Antoine (violin) and Setsu Masuda (piano). Recorded byThe Soundfield Studio, Perth WA

RebeccaErinSmith

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