Guildhall Saxophone Ensemble

Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi (arr. Penman)

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Big Yellow Taxi was written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970. Mitchell said about the piece:

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“I wrote Big Yellow Taxi on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart…this blight on paradise.”

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The song is punctuated by the refrain “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot”, whilst my personal favourite line is “They took all the trees, and put 'em in a tree museum, And charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em”.

 

The song was in many ways ahead of its time, lamenting the destruction of the natural world and use of chemical pesticides, and the powerful lyrics are in juxtaposition with the somewhat jovial nature of the music.

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Jenni Watson Waves

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Jenni Watson is one of the most prolific living composers for the saxophone, with a vast and rapidly growing catalogue of works for the instrument. Watson’s music is influenced by her love of many wide-ranging genres and she uses her composition as a means to tell emotive stories.

 

Watson writes:

“Waves is a meditative piece evocative of the lapping of ocean waves. It has no particular melody but features undulating sound weaving in and out of the various parts of the ensemble.”

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This piece gives a chance to reflect on both the beauty and the power of nature.

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Lydia Kenny After the Birds

Text by Emily Wills

World Premiere of version for saxophone ensemble, percussion and voice.

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I. Prelude

II. Descent

III. Blackbird Solstice

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Programme note by the composer:

After the Birds is a sequence of poems by Emily Wills, commissioned and set to music by Lydia Kenny. The suite depicts a series of interactions between birds and humans, showing a dystopian view of the climate crisis. ‘Prelude’ paints a solitary picture of the beginning of the end of the natural world. ‘Descent’ contemplates the moment after birds will leave Earth, leaving only “shadows // which could be wings, leaves, fragments // dreams or silences”. Finally, ‘Blackbird Solstice’ depicts an alternative look at the dawn chorus: “nothing feathery about it... more a scribble of sound.”

 

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Jenni Watson 7 Day Total

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7 Day Total was commissioned by the saxophone studios of Arizona State University and Penn State University (USA), and the David Pyle Stone Saxophone Recital Endowment. The piece reflects upon plastic waste, and in particular our consumption and recycling of it. The piece requires the performers to collect their hard plastic waste for the 7 days prior to the performance, which encourages them to reflect on how much waste they produce. This plastic waste is then used during the piece both for percussive and dramatic effect, and reminds the audience of just how much waste we produce every week. The hope is that there will come a time when no plastic waste is collected in the 7 Days prior to the performance!

 

 

Jacob Ter Velduis Postnuclear Winterscenario No 10

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Programme note by the composer:

Postnuclear Winterscenario No 10 for saxophone quartet (2004) is based on the original version for piano. On January 23 1991, just after the Gulf War broke out, I felt speechless and unable to compose. In the media, meteorologists predicted apocalyptic consequences for the climate and the environment, similar to the effects of a nuclear war. They called it a‘postnuclear winterscenario’. I decided to express my speechlessness in music. In just a few hours Postnuclear Winterscenario No 1 for solo piano was written, the simplest music I ever wrote. A looped ‘melody’ consisting of one single note, the E, is accompanied by just four different notes: B, A, G, F-sharp. No rhythmic, melodic or harmonic developments. The main way of expression is in the repetition and the delivery. No 1 was performed worldwide by Kees Wieringa, even in Iraq, on the ruins of Babylon.

 

Musicians asked me to arrange other ‘scenarios’ for their ensemble and so I arranged more melodic versions for string quartet, for choir, for percussion, for one and two guitars, for saxophone quartet, for string orchestra and finally in 2005 for symphony orchestra. Each scenario is a bit different, but they all have in common speechlessness about war and devastation.

 

 

Michael Jackson Earth Song (arr. Penman)

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Earth Song was released in 1995 and was the first of Michael Jackson’s songs to make a statement about the environment and animal welfare. Jackson’s aim in writing the song was to write a powerful song with meaningful lyrics, but with a tune that would be simple enough for the whole world to sing, even those who did not speak English. As conflict continues to intensify in Ukraine and the Middle East the lyrics to the chorus remain as relevant and powerful as ever.

 

Did you ever stop to notice
All the children dead from war?
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth, these weeping shores?

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Alastair Penman The Last Tree

World Premiere

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I. The Last Tree

II. Men Argue

III. A Fine Place

IV. Big Fat Dose

V. Surging Seas

VI. Doorway to Love

VII. Every Man’s Greed

VIII. Last Generation

 

The Last Tree is my second project inspired by Climate Change, following on from my 2020 EP Do You Hear Me?. One of the spoken lines that permeates the title track of Do You Hear Me? is “nothing has changed”, which is a reflection on the fact that we have known about the effect humans are having on the planet for decades (Carbon Dioxide increase was first linked to global warming in 1938!!), however whilst politicians continue to pay lip service to the climate crisis, very little has been done to prevent its devastating effects. Whilst climate activists are arrested for peaceful protest, CEOs of oil and gas companies reap huge financial rewards for their exploits and suffer no consequences for their part in the devastation of our planet.

 

The Last Tree is in eight movements, with each movement based on a quote about climate change from a diverse range of sources.

 

I. The Last Tree

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“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught and the last river been poisoned will we realize we cannot eat money”

         – Cree proverb

 

This Cree proverb highlights the ignorance of mankind to its own fate. Once we have destroyed the natural world and are unable to survive, financial gain becomes meaningless.

 

II. Men Argue

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“Men argue, nature acts”

         – Voltaire

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This movement shows how we cannot control nature. Whilst we argue, nature does not wait for us, but responds to the stimuli that we give it. At the start of the music we hear arguments taking place, before nature (lead by the baritone saxophones) drags the music in a different direction.

III. A Fine Place

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“The earth is a fine place and worth fighting for”

         – Ernest Hemmingway

 

Whilst much of the material we are presented with surrounding climate change can be very bleak, it is important to remember what we are trying to save.  The classic response to the question “Why do you care about the environment?” springs to mind; “Because I live here”.

IV. Big Fat Dose

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“It's really cold outside, they are calling it a major freeze, weeks ahead of normal. Man, we could use a big fat dose of global warming!”

         – Donald Trump

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This movement provides a musical caricature of perhaps one of the most dangerous men on earth. This movement was written before Donald Trump’s re-election, however it has now gained a new poignancy. If one of the most powerful world leaders cannot understand (or wilfully ignores) the science surrounding climate change and actively calls for global warming, how much damage could he do to the planet? I asked ChatGPT to imagine the programme note that Donald Trump might write for this piece and the result appears painfully plausible:

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“Let me tell you something – ‘Big Fat Dose’ is huge. It’s the greatest blues piece you’ve ever heard, believe me. Nobody knows blues like I do. This song is big, it’s bold, and it’s got everything – the drama, the tension, the beautiful chord changes. The chord sequence? Oh, it’s amazing. 21 bars, people. It’s ambitious, just like everything I do. Some people would say it’s too complicated, but those people are probably losers. It’s genius, actually – a brilliant way to break the mold. You listen to it and you just know – this is a game-changer. The rhythm is tight, the chords are strong – this is a blues song that stands tall, like a Trump Tower in the middle of Manhattan. You can’t miss it. And let me tell you, the swing? Absolutely fantastic. No one swings like I do.”

V. Surging Seas

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“The surging seas are coming for us all”

         – Antonio Guterres

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For many years Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations has been vocal about the dangers of climate change, but unfortunately his calls have not been heeded. As temperatures warm and sea levels rise, some countries are literally disappearing from the map. Five islands in the Solomon Islands have already disappeared under the sea and many major cities are under serious threat in the near future, including Bangkok, New Orleans and Jakarta. ‘Surging Seas’ juxtaposes musical material representing the laid-back style of life in island nations and the lapping of the sea at the shore with the power and danger that sea level rise presents to us all.

VI. Doorway to Love

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“If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again.”

         – Robin Wall-Kimmerer

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Robin Wall-Kimmerer is a Potawatomi (Native American) women who has spent much of her life researching Western science and indigenous environmental knowledge. This beautiful quote is taken from her book Braiding Sweetgrass, and offers hope that together we can begin to fix the damage that we are doing to the world.

VII. Every Man’s Greed

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“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed”

         – Mahatma Gandhi

 

This movement is a feature for the baritone saxophone (played tonight by Charles Curtin), in which the baritone represents the greed of mankind and demonstrates how the greed of an individual can derail an entire community. One of the biggest hurdles when tackling climate change is society’s fixation on growth. To successfully tackle the climate crisis we need to transition to an economic model that does not rely on eternal growth, and even embraces degrowth. How are our politicians yet to accept that you cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet?
 

VIII. Last Generation

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“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”

         – Barack Obama

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The final movement of the suite offers a glimmer of hope. Although climate change is already here, we can still attempt to mitigate against its worst effects and even without political support, if everyone acts on an individual level we can make a huge impact. Some of the most effective ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint are to eat less (or ideally no) meat and reduce your food waste, buy second-hand items (and reject fast fashion), use public transport rather than driving and reduce the number of flights you take.

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Programme notes by Alastair Penman 

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In relation to the theme of tonight’s concert, here are some organisations Alastair Penman would recommend looking into:

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No Music on a Dead Planet

A community of musicians fighting the climate crisis.

 

Take the Jump

Try these six shifts to reduce your environmental impact.

 

Do You Hear Me?

Contains some stark facts about the environment.

 

TreeApp

Use this app to plant a tree every day, for free!

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