Score on special sale

Island Songs consists of two movements, Song of Home and Lament and Yearning. An adaptation of a work of the same name for saxophone, strings and percussion, the music is based upon three melodies from Australia’s far north. The first of these is an almost-forgotten popular song from Thursday Island. During World War II, with the threat of invasion, it gave comfort to the islanders. The second is a chant called Djilile, from the nearby mainland coast. It means ‘whistling-duck on a billabong’. The third is a lament from Elcho Island. This was passed on to me some years ago by a local tribal elder. Song of Home embraces the first two of the melodies and also makes references to the third. It sings of the love that the indigenous inhabitants have for their island home, the place where they and their ancestors were born. Sadly, because of climate change many of these places are now in peril. The second movement begins with the lament, with the thought of islands that may disappear forever in the rising tidal waters. This finally gives way to a return of the Thursday Island music. Here, it sings of the yearning for a more stable world. Given the will to do so, it is still possible for humankind to halt the worst effects of climate change. P.S.