Premiering at our upcoming If The Earth Could Sing concerts, Songs from the Lytton Fire is a newly commissioned work for treble choir and cello by composer Andrew Staniland, setting poems by Meghan Fandrich from Burning Sage: Poems from the Lytton Fire (Caitlin Press, 2023). We asked Andrew about what drew him to these poems, why the piece expanded into three movements, and what he hopes listeners carry with them.
Q: What drew you to Meghan Fandrich’s poems – and what did you want the music to hold?
When Cassie first approached me about this project, she knew the concert was going to have an overarching theme of climate concerns. Knowing this context, I was interested in pursuing musical inspirations around wildfire. In researching poems dealing with fire, I found a lot of beautiful contemporary texts, and some classic ones as well (eg: Fire and Ice, by Robert Frost). But setting text is a very personal thing – as a composer, you know pretty much immediately when it is right for you – there is this feeling of synergy and understanding. When I found Meghan’s poems about the Lytton Fire online, they spoke to me on several levels. I found the idea of a poet poeting their way through the experience of wildfire very moving – and like Alex Ross said in his New Yorker review that has followed me everywhere, they are both beautiful and terrifying.
Q: This commission expanded from one movement into three. What insisted on being said next?
After I composed the first piece, I felt there was much more to explore. Because the poems are about so much more than fire. In fact, they are not really about fire at all, but rather, about community, purpose, family, hope, and vulnerability. Wildfire is more the lens through which we see, as opposed to the subject. The composition grew to three interconnected pieces to reflect these different aspects. One song was not enough.
Q: If you could “frame” the listening experience in one idea – what should audiences listen for as the piece unfolds?
While this piece brings us into Meghan’s Lytton, it simultaneously brings us to our own fragile places: our own cafes, our own homes, our own communities.
I think that what we all need to listen for is this: even in catastrophe, there is hope. Listen for – I am breathing. I am whole. I understand.
BONUS FUN FACT:
I worked with Cassie Luftspring in the 2000’s, when she was a young student composer in Toronto. I later encountered her at a big choral event in St John’s 2018, where she sang a work I composed with Elektra. It is a wonderful full circle moment to reconnect with her again in 2026 in her role as artist director and conductor of Elektra! Life is full of surprises.
Songs of the Lytton Fire is generously supported by the SOCAN Foundation.