Commissioned by the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing for the World Environmental Day concert, 2013 World Premiere presented by the Symphony Orchestra of the NCPA on 5 June 2013

  • 3(III=pic).2+ca.1+Ebcl+bcl.2+cbn/4331/timp.2perc/hp/str
  • 15 min

Programme Note

Wetlands was commissioned by the National Centre of the Performing Arts, Beijing for the World Environment Day concert, 2013. The purpose was to generate awareness around some major environmental themes, and I chose to focus on the wetlands.

The piece reflects on the element of water and its different interactions with land. While composing this music I didn’t want to be too descriptive of anything specific; I didn’t want to write a piece of programme music where the music follows step by step a visual process. It is more a meditation on a theme than a representation of the theme. It’s about how one might imagine being water and of being land; about the possible interactions between those elements; about each one of us reacting differently to these themes.

The piece is divided into five movements. After an introductory section there are four connected movements in a type of circular form, the last movement being a variation of the second, as if the process could re-start again from there. The music ends, with a suspension, maybe leaving us with a question mark about where we should go in the future.

© Ludovico Einaudi

Scores

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