Program notes

Moon Drowned for soprano, tenor and piano, opus 102c (2017)

The Moon Drowned is a setting for soprano, tenor and piano of a text by the Melbourne writer, Katherine Firth. The piece is drawn from a larger work (Southern Cantata for soloists, chorus, baroque ensemble, 2017) which has a duet for soprano and tenor which I have reduced to piano accompaniment here. For me, the text expresses deep concern at the plight in recent years of so many child refugees whose lives have ended at sea.

See also the version for soprano, viola and piano, Elegy, The Moon Drowned.

© Andrew Schultz, 2017.


Text

The moon drowned in the ocean,

A silver coin.

Is water safer than land?

The towering waters fall, the dinghy floods,

We swallow salt, we swallow blood.

A star arises in the morning,

A deep grey sky, and pre-dawn calm.

The wind calls. A child’s voice.

The waves on the wet sand found him

After the storm.

 

Text: Katherine Firth, Southern Cantata, 2017.

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Click here to watch The Moon Drowned in a version with viola replacing tenor voice and called Elegy in a performance by Jéssika Arévalo, James Munro and Argentina Duran, performing in Mexico City, on Facebook Watch: