Eucalypts Yearn for their Stars (2022)
for distant clarinet and fixed media
Some trees in South-West Australia (darling range ghost gums, eucalyptus wandoo, etc) strain higher than those around them, and bleed cold red sap that sets on their bark. It dries and flakes in the sun, and in winter it drips and sets like a thin film filled with syrup.
At dusk these trees almost sigh in relief. The air cools as the westerly moves in from the sea to the darling scarp. The trees seem to breathe and groan as if passing a secret, or politely leaning out of one anothers way.
Almost every night birds perch on the crown of these trees, singing to the sun all that they had meant to say during the day.
This work is the second part of a triptych; the other two are for ‘cello, and flutes.
premiered by Nadar Ensemble
Dries Tack (clarinet), and John Pax (electronics)
pre-recorded audio by; Madison Greenstone, John Pax, Ensemble Recherche, Daniel Brew
