9 Candles for Dark Nights
for solo harp
(2005)
duration: 8’
GRT • 111
audio sample
score
available from
Australian Music
Centre
program note
The soft,
rough strike of matches.
Black space interrupted by a single yellow flame, joined in
turn by others.
Illumination established, a subtle breeze stirs an ebb and
flow,
bending simple arcs of flame, flickering through deep
tunnels of night.
Moments of reverie drifting back into consciousness and a
final dampening of candles,
gently fizzing back to darkness.
9 Candles for Dark Nights
was commissioned by Matthew
Hindson for the 2006 Aurora Festival. It was written for
Marshall McGuire to play at a concert by candlelight.
postscript:
At the time of writing this piece (April 2005), six navy
and three air force personnel serving aboard HMAS Kanimbla
died when their Sea King helicopter crashed while
delivering aid to the Indonesian island of Nias. At a
national memorial service their names were read out and
nine candles lit. The title of this piece was independently
conceived but the coincidence is striking and my thoughts
are with them.
review
"The program
clincher was a work written for McGuire in 2006 by
Australian composer Stuart Greenbaum. 9 Candles for Dark Nights
is just as evocative as its
title suggests. McGuire's beautiful delivery of the work's
spacious undulations and gently clashing notes had the
audience riveted."
Rosalind Appleby, The West Australian, August 2010