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.

© 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: