Seeing Earth
for oboe, bassoon and piano (2019)
duration: 12’
GRT • 209
score available from
Australian Music Centre
program note
The 2017 film, The Space Between Us, features a scene where a boy, born on Mars (of human parents) sees Earth for the first time. Initially from a distance (seen as a planet on approach) and then experienced on the ground. While this work does not convey the full arc of the film, it takes that sequence as an emotional, psychological idea in its own right. Written for Ensemble Françaix (Emmanuel Cassimatis, Matthew Kneale and Nicholas Young), the work was commissioned with financial assistance from Jennifer Bryce. It was premiered at the Australian Digital Concert Hall (Athenaeum Theatre Melbourne) on 17 November 2021.
review
“The featured work of the night, Stuart Greenbaum’s Seeing Earth (2019) brought the full trio and the composer to the stage. Greenbaum shared the inspiration he took from the film The Space Between Us, about a boy born on Mars who experiences Earth for the first time. Commissioned for Ensemble Françaix by Jennifer Bryce, the music first conveyed the child’s many aspects of awe, wonderment and questioning. Solo oboe first penetrated the atmosphere with gentle exclamation, bassoon responded with short phrases of questioning and observation, and the piano explored colours and tone clusters, floating, soft and gentle. Each instrument affirmed its own realities, exploring changing timbres, detached phrases and uneven metrical pulse groups, until the ensemble grew in boldness, fuelled by big resounding low bassoon notes. Excitement grew with a virtuosic whirlwind-like finale.”
Julie McErlain, Classical Melbourne, November 2021