Easter Island
for fl, bcl, pno, 2vln, vla,
vc (2008)
duration: 20’
GRT • 135
audio sample
chapter 3:
collapse
score
available from
Australian Music
Centre
program note
Easter Island
(remotely located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean) is
thought to have been settled by Polynesians around AD800.
Its society rose and fell (without outside intervention)
due to deforestation and the resultant strain on food
supply. By the early 18th century the society was in a
state of collapse and cannibalism, the population having
dwindled to around 20% of its estimated peak. Giant stone
statues still line the coast, elongated heads mostly facing
inward and these too provide a fascinating artefact, adding
to the intrigue of a unique society. Evolutionary
biologist, Jared Diamond speculates that the collapse of
Easter Island serves as a metaphor for Planet Earth and the
probable result for our own environment if we follow the
same path.
This piece is a
meditation upon the story of Easter Island. Cast in one
relatively continuous movement of around 20 minutes length,
it is divided into the following sections:
prelude:
uninhabited island
chapter 1:
arrival
interlude 1:
stone heads
chapter 2:
expansion
interlude 2:
premonition
interlude 3:
stone heads (reprise)
chapter 3:
collapse
elegy
postlude:
‘…to dust we shall return’
The piece was commissioned by the
Australia Ensemble, resident at the University of New South
Wales and is dedicated to my children Aksel and Hanna who I
hope will inherit a peaceful and sustaining planet.
article
available on resources
page
review
“Stuart
Greenbaum’s Easter
Island, receiving
its premiere, was a thoughtful freshly-coloured piece, in
what is often called an ambient style, although that word
can imply simplistic harmony, whereas Greenbaum's ear
revealed itself as more sophisticated. The theme of how the
Easter Islanders destroyed their own environment through
misplaced belief conjures up pristine purity and its
opposite, and Greenbaum starts with a flute solo of
disarming simplicity which achieved a sense of simple flow
as the piano joined in. The simple but risky device of
moving the flute offstage for the final close, was
surprisingly effective: risky because in art one of the
hardest decisions is to judge if a simple gesture will be
touching or tiresome (here, the former).
The textures between narrated the toil by
which the islanders created their destruction and were
beautifully played, though Greenbaum exploited a small
proportion of the tonal resources the mixed septet
offered.”
Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald, March 2008