Commissioned by St Andrew’s Cathedral School (Sydney, Australia), Huge Earth received its first performance at Sydney Town Hall on 26th June, 2003 as a three-movement work scored for massed choirs, orchestra, pipe organ and soloists.

When composing Huge Earth in 2003, I was inspired by three things. First, the thought of the School’s large array of performers (massed choirs, a cappella motet choir, orchestra, pipe organ and soloists) encouraged me to write music about something magnificent. I was then led (by way of the poetry section in Dymocks bookstore, George Street, Sydney) to a wonderfully creative and inspiring text for my work in the form of an extract from “Dew”, a poem by the acclaimed Sydney-based author, Luke Davies. The third and no less important source of inspiration for my work was the energy and enthusiasm that I knew St Andrew’s Cathedral School would bring to the premiere of my work.

Huge Earth (2003) begins and ends with a music that involves all the musicians with choristers singing of the awe-inspiring magnitude of the earth…

The huge earth, bigger than we can
possibly imagine, held together as if by
string or magic …

The middle section of the work features the recorder and piano soloists, unaccompanied motet choir, orchestra, and massed Primary School Choirs singing of the huge earth “smelling of jasmine and honeycomb, poppy dust and diesel” as it rumbles through the spiral fringes of the galaxy.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to poet Luke Davies and publisher Allen & Unwin for permission to set this text to music.

Matthew Orlovich,
Composer.

PS: In 2013, at the invitation of conductor Jacob Narverud (Kansas City, USA), I took the opportunity to arrange the first movement of the work for TTBB choir with piano accompaniment for performance at a concert entitled “Galaxies” presented by Amphion Male Vocal Ensemble, USA on 23rd March, 2013. (Click here to read more about the arrangement for TTBB choir & piano).