Northwest Passages
thirteen climate alarms from the Arctic
for 13 violas
Duration: 20'
2021
Commissioned by Joanna Hood, this work is scored for the unusual combination of 13 violas, often playing separate parts.
The Northwest Passage, sought for five centuries by European explorers as a sea route to China, was finally achieved by Roland Amundsen in 1906 and represented both a triumph of navigation and a shrinking of the globe. Today's situation is more ominous, with melting ice forging unprecedented new "passages" through the Arctic, as temperatures rise at nearly twice the global average, threatening ancient ways of life and signaling a global crisis.
"Northwest Passages, thirteen climate alarms from the Arctic" is a musical soundscape that invokes the Arctic panorama, its contemporary disruption and the urgency of addressing it. Its thirteen diverse sections, presented as one continuous movement, represent my latest exploration of same-instrument orchestration (along with works for 5 double basses, 8 cellos, 8 guitars and 10 flutes.) The unique timbre of thirteen distinct viola parts enables massive textures suggesting the vastness of the landscape, as well as glacial layering, sliding, splitting, melting and deformation. In addition, the instruments merge in various combinations, with solo passages from the 13th viola (performed by Viola 1) providing a lone personal voice.
The sections are titled as follows:
Shrinking Ice Sheets
Sea Level Rise
Warming Ocean
Narwhal
Global Temperature Rise
Polar Bear
Caribou
Extreme Events
Beluga
Melting Sea Ice
Feedback Loop
Glacial Retreat
One Planet