Glenelg Sunset (2025)
5 minutes
for Chamber Choir
Commissioned by UKARIA for Nobuntu and Academy Voices, as part of Cultural Connect: A Choral Residency, facilitated by Timothy Wayne-Wright, June 2025
First performance by Nobuntu and Academy Voices on June 21st, at Ukaria, Mount Barker, South Australia. Directed by Jonathan Bligh.
Score available soon. Please contact the composer for archival recording
5 minutes
for Chamber Choir
Commissioned by UKARIA for Nobuntu and Academy Voices, as part of Cultural Connect: A Choral Residency, facilitated by Timothy Wayne-Wright, June 2025
First performance by Nobuntu and Academy Voices on June 21st, at Ukaria, Mount Barker, South Australia. Directed by Jonathan Bligh.
Score available soon. Please contact the composer for archival recording
Nobunto (Zimbabwe) with composers Cheryl VanWageningen, Anne Cawrse, and Carl Crossin. UKARIA Academy Voices, photo credit Claudio Rashella
I live at Henley Beach, not far from the beachside suburb of Glenelg. On any day of the week (weather permitting) the esplanade will be filled with walkers taking in the fresh air, stretching their legs after a too-long day in the office, taking their four-legged family members for a walk, and- sometime between 6 and 8 pm, daylight saving pending- retrieving their phones to attempt to capture the magical colours of the sunset. Some days even I do it, although I know I’m being a bit silly. The photo never does it justice. And besides, it looks this glorious most nights.
Goldsworthy’s poem paints with pithy, evocative language the splendour of our South Australian sunsets. Perhaps my music captures a little of the image also- the blending, the texture, the vast array of colours. Like any sunset recreation though, there is always more than what we can reproduce. I think that is why I ended up with much of this piece being driven by sound rather than text. May these gentle chordal waves, the smudging harmonies and delicate layered textures provide a sense of peace and fulfilment, as if we were watching the sun drop below the horizon at the end of the day.
© Anne Cawrse, May 2025
Goldsworthy’s poem paints with pithy, evocative language the splendour of our South Australian sunsets. Perhaps my music captures a little of the image also- the blending, the texture, the vast array of colours. Like any sunset recreation though, there is always more than what we can reproduce. I think that is why I ended up with much of this piece being driven by sound rather than text. May these gentle chordal waves, the smudging harmonies and delicate layered textures provide a sense of peace and fulfilment, as if we were watching the sun drop below the horizon at the end of the day.
© Anne Cawrse, May 2025
The original version of this work calls for a quartet of singers (approx. Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone) to be featured alongside and within a SATB chamber choir. I have recently completed an alternate version that is for SATB only (with divisi).
Glenelg Sunset
Always the same finicky attention
to detail: the high smears of cloud,
obsessively ribbed and textured,
the studied back-lighting, the precise
colouring, as if by numbers,
panther-pink, pool blue, shade-grey
a gift, yes, but thoughtlessly exquisite,
and far too expensive to reciprocate.
Peter Goldsworthy
Always the same finicky attention
to detail: the high smears of cloud,
obsessively ribbed and textured,
the studied back-lighting, the precise
colouring, as if by numbers,
panther-pink, pool blue, shade-grey
a gift, yes, but thoughtlessly exquisite,
and far too expensive to reciprocate.
Peter Goldsworthy