All Flesh Is Fire (2023)
a choral song-cycle in 7 movements
poetry by Kate Llewellyn AM
35 minutes
for Chamber Choir
Commissioned by the Adelaide Chamber Singers for the Art Gallery of South Australia Biennial, 2024, funded by Arts SA.
First performance by the Adelaide Chamber Singers at the opening of the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum on February 29th, 2024.
a choral song-cycle in 7 movements
poetry by Kate Llewellyn AM
35 minutes
for Chamber Choir
Commissioned by the Adelaide Chamber Singers for the Art Gallery of South Australia Biennial, 2024, funded by Arts SA.
First performance by the Adelaide Chamber Singers at the opening of the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum on February 29th, 2024.
All Flesh is Fire is a work in seven parts composed for the superb voices of the Adelaide Chamber Singers, with text taken from the poem Faith by poet and writer Kate Llewellyn.
I see this work as a meditation on memory, aging, and the passage of time. There is an enchanting beauty in Llewellyn’s words: her niece Annabel’s claim that “the humble is the most beautiful” certainly rings true throughout. Colour, light, and texture all play an important role in the imagery used in the poem, where all living things are imbued with divinity and spirit, and the temporary nature of life is celebrated rather than mourned.
The opening anthem Under The Olive Tree is an invitation to not just imagine a scene, but to feel it’s visceral energy– a green chair, an olive tree, and our narrator safe in her garden, which for her is a place of refuge and solace. War is Over takes us back in time to a childhood memory of a momentous, world-changing occasion. Four female voices combine as one in the roles of first child, then mother. The outlook lightens for White Petals, a work for the full choir that contemplates the passing of time as observed through seasonal changes in the garden. The tone here is one of gentle acceptance along with a recognition of aging, and the quiet joy of being alone.
The central movement of the work, living being spirit is a departure from Llewellyn’s poetry, using instead quotes from Hildegard and Blake. These quotes were footnoted in Llewellyn’s poem as sources of inspiration for her words. Here, two soprano voices dance and swirl above a quiet drone, using canon and modal harmony to evoke adoration and celebration of the natural world. The full choir returns for Night / Light, a warm and rich-toned hymn that expounds the virtues of possibility and impermanence, as embodied by the night sky. The line ‘All flesh is fire held in time’, taken from the poem Ceremony by Father Andrew Bullen SJ (another of Llewellyn’s footnotes) is the climax of this piece.
From here, the music turns inward once more, back to our narrator and her garden. The image of This Old Woman is painted by a vocal quintet, often split into intimate pairs and trios. It begins with an external view of the almost-ninety year old writing letters in her garden, before shifting to a personal declaration of strength, humility and sanctuary. Finally, Angel of the Olive Tree brings us back to where we began, encouraging us to wrestle with our faith and to see the presence of the divine in the everyday.
© Anne Cawrse, 2024
I see this work as a meditation on memory, aging, and the passage of time. There is an enchanting beauty in Llewellyn’s words: her niece Annabel’s claim that “the humble is the most beautiful” certainly rings true throughout. Colour, light, and texture all play an important role in the imagery used in the poem, where all living things are imbued with divinity and spirit, and the temporary nature of life is celebrated rather than mourned.
The opening anthem Under The Olive Tree is an invitation to not just imagine a scene, but to feel it’s visceral energy– a green chair, an olive tree, and our narrator safe in her garden, which for her is a place of refuge and solace. War is Over takes us back in time to a childhood memory of a momentous, world-changing occasion. Four female voices combine as one in the roles of first child, then mother. The outlook lightens for White Petals, a work for the full choir that contemplates the passing of time as observed through seasonal changes in the garden. The tone here is one of gentle acceptance along with a recognition of aging, and the quiet joy of being alone.
The central movement of the work, living being spirit is a departure from Llewellyn’s poetry, using instead quotes from Hildegard and Blake. These quotes were footnoted in Llewellyn’s poem as sources of inspiration for her words. Here, two soprano voices dance and swirl above a quiet drone, using canon and modal harmony to evoke adoration and celebration of the natural world. The full choir returns for Night / Light, a warm and rich-toned hymn that expounds the virtues of possibility and impermanence, as embodied by the night sky. The line ‘All flesh is fire held in time’, taken from the poem Ceremony by Father Andrew Bullen SJ (another of Llewellyn’s footnotes) is the climax of this piece.
From here, the music turns inward once more, back to our narrator and her garden. The image of This Old Woman is painted by a vocal quintet, often split into intimate pairs and trios. It begins with an external view of the almost-ninety year old writing letters in her garden, before shifting to a personal declaration of strength, humility and sanctuary. Finally, Angel of the Olive Tree brings us back to where we began, encouraging us to wrestle with our faith and to see the presence of the divine in the everyday.
© Anne Cawrse, 2024
REVIEW
"Cawrse’s composition... is a masterpiece of choral writing and deserves to find a place in the repertoires of choirs around the world. Her harmonic progressions and resolutions provide moments of ecstasy that one associates with Wagner’s ‘Tristan chord’. They come one after the other, often teetering on dissonance before emerging into a goosebump-inducing chord and afterglow....
(Cawrse) is a voice entirely of her own making, confident and accomplished enough to embrace a school of writing that is reassuring to the listener. All Flesh is Fire stays with you long after the performance is over. Indeed, nearly 24 hours after attending its world premiere, it still echoes in this writer’s ear with a haunting beauty that will hopefully never fade."
-Jansson J. Antmann, 1st March 2024 (Limelight)
(Cawrse) is a voice entirely of her own making, confident and accomplished enough to embrace a school of writing that is reassuring to the listener. All Flesh is Fire stays with you long after the performance is over. Indeed, nearly 24 hours after attending its world premiere, it still echoes in this writer’s ear with a haunting beauty that will hopefully never fade."
-Jansson J. Antmann, 1st March 2024 (Limelight)
Performance scores for Movements 3 (White Petals) and 5 (Night/Light) are available from the Australian Music Centre.
Full text of the song cycle can be found here.
Full text of the song cycle can be found here.