Move Records Australian classical & art music, est. 1968
Front cover art for The Dying Sun

The Dying Sun

Composers have long been inspired by the idea that we are not separate from nature but part of it, and that music can speak from that innate part of us. Award-winning composer Rebecca Erin Smith’s piece is both a connection to and a reflection on natural landscapes, featuring violinist Madeleine Antoine and pianist Setsu Masuda.

Madeleine Antoineviolin No photograph: Rebecca Erin Smith Rebecca Erin Smithcomposer Setsu Masudapiano
  • CatalogueMCD 609
  • Released1 Mar 2022
  • Playing time21 minutes 7 seconds

Listen & tracks

4 of 4 tracks have a preview · 1 work · 21:07

  1. The Dying SunRebecca Erin Smith 4 movements21:07
    1. 1 i. Blood 6:00
    2. 2 ii. Milk 6:00
    3. 3 iii. Nectar 4:29
    4. 4 iv. Salt 4:38

The Dying Sun depicts the natural environment as precious and rare. It is an homage to the land, made all the more important by our knowledge of the frailty of wilderness and the rapidity with which the environment is diminishing.

The first movement, Blood, meaning ‘lifeblood’, refers to the sun. Mostly slow and gestural, it explores images of a wide expanse of land over the course of a day. The sun rises and the sun dies. The movement finds the detail that can be drawn from a single note through expression and texture.

The second movement, Milk, depicts the vast Milky Way constellation.

The third, Nectar, refers to the canola fields, its rustling harmonic sounds evoking the movement of wildflowers and insects.

The final movement, Salt, explores the coastal area at Sugarloaf Rock – a large natural granite island rising dramatically out of the ocean near Cape Naturaliste in the south-west.

In the artist’s words

This composition reminds me optimistically that for every sunset there is a sunrise, not in a new world, it’s a very old and damaged world. But, maybe a new way of being in the world and interacting with it, through music and through other aesthetic experiences which are able to likewise re-frame a cultural narrative of systematic environment degradation.

— Dr Clare Davidson

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

— Henry David Thoreau

Artists

Photograph of Madeleine Antoine

Madeleine Antoine

violin

Albany-born Violinist Madeleine Antoine completed a Bachelor of Music at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2010. She since studied at the Prague Conservatory of Music and at The University of Western Australia.

 No photograph: Rebecca Erin Smith

Rebecca Erin Smith

composer

Rebecca Erin Smith is an award winning Australian composer who specialises in collaborative media and concert works. She works primarily with orchestra and large ensembles of acoustic instruments (at times electronically manipulated and set alight with found sounds) and the human voice, exploiting its full spectrum of sound from speech to song.

 Photograph of Setsu Masuda

Setsu Masuda

piano

Setsu Masuda started piano at the age of 5 in Japan and did training privately under late Professor Mr. Arai of Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo. Since being awarded the Licentiate of Music Diploma in Australia under the guidance of Dr. Adam Pinto, she has enjoyed performing in a variety of chamber music contexts and toured in Japan, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and WA.

Digital booklet

Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDF

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$15.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

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Also available to download from the iTunes Store.

Performers

Technical credit

  • Recording Engineer Stuart James

Details

List price
$15.00 AUD
Total playing time
21 minutes 7 seconds
Release date
Category
Classical
Genre
Contemporary Classical
Musical work copyright
© 2020 Rebecca Erin Smith
Sound recording copyright
℗ 2022 Move Records
Catalogue
MCD 609
EAN
9314574060928