we have seen it rising
for solo viola
Composed for Daniel You
Performed as part of The ANAM Set 2024
This ANAM Set commission was generously supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia and the Anthony and Sharon Lee Foundation
Program note:
The title we have seen it rising comes from the extraordinary, haunting, poem ‘Tell them’ by Marshallese poet and climate change activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner: “…tell them about the water/ how we have seen it rising/flooding across our cemeteries/gushing over the sea walls/ and crashing against our homes…”. I think it is one of the most extraordinary poems – artistic expressions of any kind – I have encountered in recent memory, and I struggle to read it in full or even discuss it without having to stop, emotionally unable to find words. Often, when words fail, music seems the only viable response to me.
The poem is a simple invitation, upon the sending of gifts from the Marshall Islands to the poet’s friends in the states, to go into the world and just tell people about the islands, a simple act of love and friendship that by necessity also includes speaking about the human cost and reality of climate crisis. The poem is also a profound invitation to consider the frailty of human life and our planet’s ecosystems.
My piece, we have seen it rising, is animated by a growing sense of urgency, built from the tension between beauty and distress that is the basis of the entire poem, as well as the love, rage, and desperation, that is so palpably conveyed. Throughout, my piece sets up what sound like elegant musical systems and patterns that, eventually overwhelmed and overwhelming, spin out of control, before the piece ends with a strong sense of loss and desolation. I see these as vivid musical analogues for chaotic systems like climate. They are also analogues for how – for better and worse – small details that might at first seem insignificant, come to consume the whole.
Although the poem is addressed to the poet’s American friends, I have long felt that Australia has a special, un-honoured, responsibility to the islands, not just geographically but because of our environmental decisions. The poem makes a simple request to friends, and I have a simple request too: read the poem.
About the composer:
“...between the ether and ecstasy...”— Rob Kennedy (CityNews)
Australian composer Chris Williams’ (he/him) alluring and evocative music draws his listeners in through its sonic invention and subtle craft. It is music of expressive power and delicate detail.
Winner of the composition prize of the Australian International Chopin Competition, Chris has twice been featured at the Gaudeamus Muzeikweek in the Netherlands, and attended the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan, at the invitation of Toshio Hosokawa.
He has been commissioned by The Song Company, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall.
In addition to concert music, Chris’ Theatre Music credits include ‘Cosi’, for the Melbourne and Sydney Theatre Companies, the Australian Premiere of ‘A Doll's House, Part 2’ for the Melbourne Theatre Company, and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Cloud Nine’ for the Sydney Theatre Company. Chris’ songs and music for the latter were nominated for best original score at the Sydney Theatre Awards, while the Daily Review noted his “brilliantly unsettling music” for the former, at the Sydney Opera House.
Chris studied at the University of Oxford, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and is currently a PhD candidate at Duke University. While at Carnegie Hall, Chris worked with then composer-in residence Kaija Saariaho. Previously, Chris was one of only six composers worldwide to be selected by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to attend the Advanced Composition course at the Dartington International Summer School.
He is a Represented Artist at the Australian Music Centre and is represented by Aurora Artists’ Management.
For more about Chris, visit his website: chriswilliamscomposer.com
Photos by Michele Stapleton (michelestapleton.com)