Songs from the Lytton Fire

Program Notes:

4:54 p.m. – with cello, ~7 min
Fire at Night – a cappella, ~5 min
Now – with cello, ~3 min

Conductor Notes:

For SSAA div. and cello. Commissioned in 2025 by Elektra with generous support from the Diane Loomer Commissioning Fund, the SOCAN Foundation, and Felice Luftspring.

Composer / Arranger Notes:

Excerpts from Elektra’s Q&A with Andrew Staniland:

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.

Text:

Text Source

By Meghan Fandrich, from her collection, "Burning Sage: Poems from the Lytton Fire". Published by Caitlin Press © 2023.