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Given the influence that water has in Australia's Riverina district of New South Wales - one of the planet's largest alluvial plains - this was an obvious topic for Kara to form the basis of her through-composed, programmatic work in five sections.
Evolving from a commission for the Assai Quartet in 2022, the musical excitement, colour, and imagery of Songs of the great Alluvial Plain has been elevated to another level as a new work for wind band: the bitterness and beauty of the frost; the awakening of life as the sun warms the earth and the frost evaporates. Too heavy to contain their burden, the clouds release their first intermittent drops, and as the wind stirs up torrents and the earth can hold no more, the rivulets create waterways winding their way through the countryside; finally slowing, soaking back into and nourishing the earth, waiting for the cold to make the frost once again.
Duration 9min
Instrumentation: Picc (dbl Fl), Fl 1 2, Ob, Bsn, Eb Cl, Cl 1 2 3, Bs Cl, A Sx 1 2, T Sx, B Sx, F Hn 1 2 3 4, Tpt 1 2 3, Tbn 1 2, Bs Tbn, Euph, Tuba, Dbl Bs, Timp, Cymbals, Sus Cymbal, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Triangle, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, Xylophone, Triangle