Organic Earth Suite

Austin Griffiths 2024

A Piano Quintet (piano, 2 violins, viola, ‘cello)

 

1. Dance of the final sunset

2. The winds of change: the water levels rise

3. Irregular heartbeat

4. Rain love and destruction

 

Many of us are aware of the changing state of our planet. The Organic Earth Suite is about the developing state of our home; a reflection on the changes and circumstances we face. It is not intended to be universal. Rather it is four personal pictures, four small glimpses of what is happening around us.

 

The first movement - Dance of the final sunset – asks the question: Are we taking the world to its end in terms of humanity? Earth will remain, but will human life be unsustainable? Are we entering the final sunset?

 

The second movement - The winds of change: the water levels rise – was inspired by an unusually warm autumn wind and intermittent heavy, short, cloud bursts, leading to a reflection on how our weather patterns have changed over the last six decades.

 

The third movement - Irregular heartbeat – linked my own state of health with the state of our World. Revieving a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and an irregular heartbeat, led to the reflection that the Earth, too, has an irregular heartbeat caused by human activity leading to meteorological change.

 

The final movement - Rain love and destruction – is about our relationship with water, and particularly with rain. Rain sustains us; it is essential to food production and the survival of everyday life. But as human activity influences our weather systems, rain becomes a destructive force that may overcome human existence. It may be our end.