Last summer, I responded to a Call for Composers from the Centre for Energy Ethics in collaboration with the University of St Andrews Laidlaw Music Centre. They were searching for composers to commission to write new music inspired by the Art of Energy gallery — a series of artworks centred on the theme:

“How can we make sense of the entanglement of life with energy?”

I spent an enjoyable afternoon browsing the artworks in the virtual gallery, and was particularly captivated by Katerina Evangelou’s work. In contrast to many of the artists who focused their work on the impact fossil fuel consumption is having on the planet, Evangelou chose to create pieces inspired by the huge potential Earth offers in the way of renewable sources of energy. Wave, solar, tidal and geothermal energy are each represented in four evocative works of art, with a fifth entitled Gaia — Mother Earth combining them all together. This concept really appealed to me and I decided to submit a proposal based on the idea of responding to each of the artworks in turn, exploiting different textures and colours from the ensemble to interpret Evangelou’s concept into music. I thought that this approach could work very effectively with a woodwind quintet which offers a broad palette of instrumental colours.

Artwork by Katerina Evangelou, featured on the Art of Energy gallery

I was absolutely delighted to be one of the four composers selected for the commission, alongside Neil Tomas Smith, Tom Green, and Sarah Horick. The wind quintet I had envisaged for the piece morphed into a sextet, since associate teacher Alex South offered to play a bass clarinet part alongside the St Andrews scholarship quintet — an offer too good to refuse! I’ve always loved the dark, rich timbre of the bass clarinet, and this also opened up more possibilities for the geothermal section of the piece which I had conceived as a ‘bubbling up’ from the lower to the higher instruments in the group.

“Energy is untouchable, undefinable, unseen and yet so powerful. Energy is Power!”

Katerina Evangelou, notes from the Art of Energy gallery

To begin writing the piece, I printed out photographs of Evangelou’s artworks to keep by my piano so that I could refer back to them as I composed. This was a relatively new way of working for me, and I found her vivid images very expressive sources of inspiration. The first section of my piece, Wave, conveys a sense of gentle, rocking waves passing between the instruments, building up to create more than the sum of the parts. The bassoon and bass clarinet then lead us into Geothermal, creating a musical energy which gradually bubbles up into the higher instruments. The bright, spiky melodies in Solar reflect the erratic eruptions of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun’s atmosphere, and finally Tidal is represented through the layering of ever intensifying crescendos, conveying the sheer power behind this source of energy. As with Evangelou’s work, this piece focuses on the idea of renewable energy as humanity’s “regenesis” and a cause for hope, though the precarious nature of our situation is hinted at in the final chord.

Since I’m lucky enough to live locally to St Andrews, I had the opportunity to work with Alex and the scholarship quintet in rehearsals of my piece, a process which I very much enjoyed. It was great to see it all come together in a successful concert on 19th November 2021. Congratulations to the other composers, and to the St Andrews scholarship ensembles for a great performance!