Program note

“Today it is possible to hear everything from sing-along Messiah with hundreds of choristers to chamber versions with one voice to a part…Messiah, it seems, has something or everyone.”

Of Cantilena Pacifica, Richard Meale wrote, “…it became clear that the work could not be based on any artifice. Its existence had to lie in its emotional truth.”

“Jean-Philippe Rameau is, for me, the greatest composer of dance music up until Tchaikovsky and certainly Stravinsky. His endless invention and boundless imagination for rhythm, harmony and melody have stood the test of time.”

“It seems to me that music must first of all stir the heart.” — CPE Bach

“Timpani accompanies majestic chords from the full ensemble, festooned with elegantly cascading violins…It’s not long before the orchestra takes off, motoring strings propelling the music forward.”

“Music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters…it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all.”

I have attempted to depict this ‘perceptual widening’ musically: throughout the piece, more and more of the night sky is gradually revealed in the sonic fabric.

Birds weave this story into our dreaming cosmos, the conventional limitations of earth, sky, death, day, life and night dissolving and creating its own universe of existence.

Brenda Gifford works collaboratively, with an interest in using the medium of music to express her culture.

“We so often hear grand or serious music pertaining to the universe… But what if the beginnings of the universe were simply fun?”