Fire Clouds (2022)

large ensemble and electronics

Over the last several years, some parts of the world have experienced extreme wildfires, most recently in California, Oregon, and Australia. An alarming feature of many of these fires is the formation of pyrocumulus clouds, or “fire clouds.” Hot air and ash from the fire rises, forming an enormous thundercloud capable of producing lightning, which can touch off additional fires on the ground. They sometimes produce rainfall that may or may not extinguish the fire. Many scientists believe intense wildfires are becoming more frequent because of anthropogenic climate change. These events are frightening for those directly affected, but they also are disturbing indicators of a challenging future for all of us.

While the elements of music tend to resist characterization in extra-musical terms, as they occupy their own world in our imagination, it still can be helpful for a composer to shape the structure and affect of music in light of a non-musical narrative and for a listener to follow the music with that narrative in mind. As an example, in The Widening Gyre, my piece for large ensemble and laptops, I took as my inspiration the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Laptop performers decomposed the ensemble’s instrumental sound, blasting it into tiny bits, by analogy with the corrosive action of sea water and sun on the man-made materials we discard every day.

In Fire Clouds, I cast the ensemble in the role of people and other animals who suffer from the effects of climate change, through the experience of wildfires. The electronic soundtrack, which you hear coming from loudspeakers on stage and behind the audience, acts as the sonic embodiment of the wildfires and the storms they unleash, with both realistic and imaginary portrayals of nature. The ensemble plays music that reacts to the chaos and violence of these natural events, sometimes with frantic activity and other times with a calm demeanor, as if maintaining a sense of denial.

Because some people do start fires — and certainly are exacerbating environmental conditions that lead to severe fires — the ensemble alone opens the piece and initiates the events. You soon hear the crackling of a fire and eventually a storm. After a calm middle section, the fire returns, and this time there’s no evading it. You might hear the final moments of the piece as striking an optimistic tone, expressing a hope that we may learn to live in harmony with nature and become more protective of the planet. Or, if you’re a pessimist, you might interpret this music, especially in light of its harmonically ambiguous coda, as more of a dirge — reflecting a conviction that it’s too late to overcome enough of the effects of climate change for us to continue as a species. Regardless of your interpretation, I hope the piece offers another opportunity to think about the environmental destruction that we may have some power to control.

This project would not be possible without the talents and dedication of the members of the New Music Ensemble and their conductor, David Dzubay. I thank them. I also wish to thank Indiana University for supporting this work with an IU Presidential Arts and Humanities grant.

Performances:

• New Music Ensemble, dir. David Dzubay, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, 9/29/2022