UNBREAKABLE (2024)

PROGRAM NOTES

“Unbreakable” is inspired by the enduring bond between Australia and the United States as embodied, exemplified and served by the new Embassy of Australia building—an “unbreakable alliance.”

The notion of something being truly ‘unbreakable’ led me to reflect: what makes something unbreakable? While I am not a philosopher, I am an engineer, and in my understanding, nearly everything is breakable. If something were unbreakable it would be an ‘ideal’ material. Thus, for the alliance to be unbreakable, it must be made of ideal materials.

I believe this to be true, because the “unbreakable alliance” is grounded in our shared pursuit of freedom, liberty, justice, the right to self-determination and to ‘a fair go’ – these ideals (to name a few) are those that we hold to be infallible, even if we ourselves are not. They are the ‘light’ in which we flourish, that guides us, that we strive to reach for, that is core to our identities as Australians and Americans. When tested we have stood by each other, and for over a hundred years, our resolve and shared commitment to these ideals has endured and prevailed, even inspiring others from distant lands to join in our way of life (including my own family).

This is what I see when I walk into the Embassy building: a welcoming and aspiring ‘light’ coded into its very architecture, beaming through its centre; the glass and copper exterior reflecting brilliant and warm light, evoking the vast skies and red earth of home; the sunlit interiors, the atrium, and the vertical wood paneling, with ascending lines drawing our gaze upward to the light. These architectural motifs of light and ascending lines – connected to the notion of something that is ‘unbreakable’, something that is solid and unyielding, something that is tested, endures, and ascends – form the core rhetoric of this work.

Vertical and ascending gestures are embedded within the identities of phrases, melodic lines and harmonic progressions evoking a sense of forward and upward motion, hope, and optimism. The intervallic identity of the work is the ascending perfect fifth (a strong and stable interval with a sense of openness, as well as a subtle nod to “The Last Post”), followed by the major second (a less stable interval, which adds a sense of forward movement, yearning, and aspiration).

Throughout its duration, the work progresses from low, heavier textures to higher, lighter ones, whilst exploring and developing the overarching transformation of an enduring, ascending light. It begins with deeper, solid, lustrous colours before moving to spacious and radiant sonorities, brilliant sparkling piano figurations, and eventually to pure bright light in the form of cello harmonics.

For me, the “unbreakable alliance” is not just a political concept, nor is the new Embassy just a building—it resonates on a personal level, since these are forces that have and continue to shape the lives and aspirations of many, certainly my own. As you experience this work, I invite you to reflect upon these lights that guide us, both as individuals and as nations.