On 30 July the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaime Martin perform Anne Boyd’s 2001 orchestral work “…at the rising of the sun…” at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall in the MSO’s Mid-season Gala.
The 10-minute piece is titled after a passage in the gospel of Mark in the King James Bible. The passage describes the journey of the three women on Easter morning to Christ’s tomb, and their discovery that it is empty.
Boyd’s music evokes their dawning consciousness of the fact of the resurrection, coming to terms with a new spiritual and mystical reality. The piece opens with a lustrous brass fanfare before moving into more ruminative territory with slowly shifting chords in the strings. It is dedicated to Boyd’s mentor and friend, the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe.
The piece, Boyd writes, is “a meditation and a prayer.” She continues,
Essentially it is about tuning – of ourselves to each other and to the natural world. The sun is perceived cosmologically as a symbol for the Son of God and for the coming of light, of life (both natural and spiritual) and of knowledge. Philosophically the music is based upon the intersection of Christian Love with Buddhist silence, a concept which lies at the heart of my creative activity.
Details of the concert and tickets are available here