This work was inspired by From Nothing to Zero, a book of extracts from letters written by asylum seekers in Australian detention centres. With a preface and chapter introductions by Julian Burnside, the book provides heart-rending testimony to the inhumane treatment of refugees, including children, in mandatory detention. The music also addresses the plight of asylum seekers everywhere.

 

String Sonata No 4 consists of five thematically related movements:

 

I Loneliness

II Anger

III Yearning

IV Trauma

V Freedom

 

All the movements are straightforward in structure, and the first, third and fifth movements are freely based upon an ancient love song from Central Afghanistan. The second and fourth movements use a scale similar to that stated in the first, and the fourth movement is based upon rhetorical devices employed in the second.

 

Throughout the work, there are occasional bird-like sounds: many of the asylum seekers write about birds being free to fly in and out of the ‘refugee zoos.’ While the brief first movement is concerned with loneliness, a persistent theme of the letters, the second and fourth movements are my responses to letters of considerable anguish. The third movement, on the other hand, is a response to letters of yearning for loved ones in distant places. In the last movement, the music sings of dreams of a free life

beyond confined spaces and razor-wire fences.

 

P.S.