Output details

Nature

Commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Oslo Sinfonietta. First performed by BCMG, Huw Watkins (piano), CBSO Centre, Birmingham, 25 May 2012.

Carlos Casteneda’s writings on shamanism became a starting point for ‘Nature’: “The gait of power is for running at night, and it is completely safe. This is the night! And it is power! At night the world is different. My ability to run in the darkness had nothing to do with my knowledge of these hills. The key to it is to let one's personal power flow out freely, so it could merge with the power of the night. Once that power takes over, there is no chance for a slip-up. You have to abandon yourself to the power of the night and trust the little bit of personal power that you have or you will never be able to move with freedom. The darkness is encumbering only because you rely on your sight for everything you do, not knowing that another way to move is to let power be the guide.”

The compositional question underpinning the work concerns the role of the piano in relation to these writings: who/what is she/he/it? One of Davies’ visions for the piano is that of a maenad, a wild woman, driven by the desire to connect the earthly and spiritual realms, led purely by instinct. Without expectations about how to behave, the maenad simply exists. The physicality of the piano is also very important, at times becoming an athletic figure, running fearlessly through dense forest at night. A further vision is that of an enormous moth, prowling in the undergrowth, at the edge of a wilderness where man meets Nature or the Supernatural.