After finishing the symphony and writing nearly every day for nine months, I felt a loss. I quickly moved to getting the audio cleaned up in Dorico and so the loss was brief. Finishing the audio, I enjoyed resting for about a week before feeling restless again and so, not wanting to force anything but wanting to get back to writing, I waited for inspiration.
Years ago I read (I think in Guns, Germs, and Steel) about the possibility that Australia had been populated twice by early Homo sapiens and that the first wave, coming across a now-submerged land bridge, wiped out the local megafauna resources and then extincted themselves from the resource starvation. A quick scan walking through the book’s index, I can’t find a reference to the extinction and although it is likely a mis-remembered fact, the elimination of megafauna was confirmed.
Either way, I’ve had that false memory for a long time and have often thought about the last inhabitants as they dwindled to one. (The evocative inspiration goes back to at least not long after college because I initially had ideas for a painting around the concept. It, of course, never happened.) The idea of a primitive human with their potentially more animistic world view living their days alone is haunting. How did they explain to themselves–as much as self-reflection existed in their self–the initial isolation and then the continued isolation? Until they’re gone.
(Again, though, unless I’ve missed the reference to it in my brief scan of the book, this is not historically supported.)
I’ve always had an affinity for chamber music in general and string quartets in particular and lately have been listening to late-20th-early-21st-century chamber works. That and the fact that the aboriginal extinction story had stayed with me as a potential creative wellspring were a natural direction: string quartet. And like the symphony, a program work felt inevitable.
My notes start on 15 May with a two-movement framework:
- the grounded earth
- ἔσονται (they will be)
The first dealing with the last inhabitant’s final days, and the second the subsequent centuries of emptiness and re-population. String quartets are notably the most difficult form to master and, let’s face it, well beyond my abilities. But what’s to lose? Also: it just feels right and it feels good to get back to composing.