What We Owe to Each Other

About

This cycle for mezzo-soprano and soprano is set to a selection of poems of Pippi Jean, all written while she was in high school. I've known of Pippi's work for a long time, and these high school poems were some of the first of hers I read. They instantly struck me with their adolescent honesty, their rapid-fire imagery, their acerbic bite. I spent the summer holidays after my first year of university composing this cycle, centering it around two character voices of young lovers. Throughout its gentle melodic contours, everyday facets of contemporary Aotearoa are depicted: shimmering town-square bells, light shining on Taranga Island, fantails swooping through the bush.