By:

• Chris Adams

Duration:

10' 00"

Instrumentation:

3*333; 4331; timp., perc, hp; strings; Percussion - bass drum, crash cymbals, large gong, snare drum, tambourine, tubular bells, vibraphone

Availability

• This work has 3 scores and a recording

Programme Note

With (special) thanks to all those in the Canterbury Region who run or own high-intensity Dairy Farms or use other wasteful water practices and those who are directly responsible for safeguarding the environment (WRT, ECAN) but then have only their personal best interests at heart.

Vedi le valli e i campi che smaltano

(See the valleys and the meadows painted)
Di color mille; e con la piva e’l crotalo
(in a thousand colours; and the shepherds,)
Intorno ai fonti i pastor lieti saltano.
(with bagpipes and crotales, leaping happily around the springs.)
[Sannazaro]

“[a] recent NIWA investigation…found that 90% of the lowland streams in New Zealand are polluted,…many dangerous for swimming… Most streams and rivers on the east coast of the South Island have been seriously dewatered by irrigation…[with] countless other rivers…threatened by water draw-off and agricultural pollution.”
John Kent, letter to Editor, The Press, Jan 25th, 2006.

This piece takes the juxtaposition of the two images above as a starting point; the first nostalgically referring to the traditional golden age when shepherds symbolised balance and harmony between people and the land, and the other current and bleaker image where unsustainable farming practices and over-extraction of water from our rivers has had a considerable negative impact.

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Influences:

• Politics

Performance History

	04 Sep 2009	Performed in a rehearsed reading by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ben Northey as part of the NZSO-SOUNZ Readings
		New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Awards

• Auckland Philharmonia Graduate Composer Workshops (2006)
  

  Fonterra’s Mad(rigal) was performed and recorded at the 2006 Workshops.

• NZSO-SOUNZ Readings (2009)
  

  Fonterra’s Mad(rigal) by Chris Adams was performed at the NZSO-SOUNZ Readings in September 2009.