The pieces selected here have been chosen by our working group, and encompass a wide variety of difficulties and styles, from straightforward tonal works to the avant-garde. Some are for voice and accompaniment, others are for one or two instruments, and electronics may be included.
We will also provide a complete list of all submitted solo/duo pieces as a downloadable spreadsheet.
Erik Branch - The King Tide Marching Out To War With Land: Two Poems of Ariel Francisco (soprano and piano): listen on YouTube, contact composer by email for the score. The first poem("On Seeing A Photo Of An Octopus In A Parking Garage") recounts a true story of an octopus washed into a Miami parking garage as a result of the constantly rising tides and is a nightmarish, apocalyptic vision of the future inundation of the city. The second ("Stillwater/Still Water") is the poet's grim resolve to survive as the skies get bleaker and greyer, but finds himself surrendering at the end.
Monica Chew - Ice Calf (solo piano): listen to recording, contact composer by email for the score. I wrote Ice Calf for a concert themed on creation and change, shortly after hearing the story of a walrus who was found on the coast of Ireland, far from where walruses normally live.
Ludovico Einaudi - Elegy For The Arctic (solo piano): listen on YouTube and buy the score. Ludovico Einaudi has added his voice to those of eight million people from across the world demanding protection for the Arctic: performed on a floating platform in the middle of the Ocean, against the backdrop of the Wahlenbergbreen glacier (in Svalbard, Norway).
Román González-Escalera - Like a piece of ice on a hot stone (solo guitar): listen on YouTube, view a score excerpt, purchase on Babelscores (7€). The piece is inspired by Néle Azevedo's urban action called "Minimum Monument", an artwork of miniature ice figures melting.
Stanley Grill - Canciones de la Terra (mezzo soprano and viola). Hear a recording on YouTube, request a score on Stan's website (free). With thoughts of climate change – and the inability of world leaders to take the necessary action to prevent it – in mind... lovely, delicate poems of Federico Garcia Lorca, word paintings of the Andalusian landscape that so inspired him, seemed fitting as an expression of our elemental connection with the earth.
David Ibbett - 10^4 Rays of Hope (cello and electronics): listen on Bandcamp, contact composer by email for the score
David Ibbett - Generation (cello and piano): listen on Bandcamp, contact composer by email for the score. These pieces were created for Climate Hope Concert, a yearly celebration of climate science and activism.
David A. Jones - Wild Birds Teach Us (soprano voice and cello): listen to recording, view perusal score, contact the composer by email to purchase full score. "How Birds Die" lists numbers of birds that die from increasingly horrifying causes, most of them human-related, concluding with "Be the last one of your kind." The second poem, "How Birds Live," is more hopeful, suggesting that birds, and by extension, all of nature, still find ways to live and thrive.
Anselm McDonnell - Shards on a Beach (double bass and fixed stereo electronics; requires triggering by either performer or technician): listen on Bandcamp and buy the score. A piece based on the new environments formed on beaches through littering and sea detritus, and how it affects local eco-systems.
Lisa Neher - No One Saves the Earth from Us But Us (mezzo soprano and piano, optional electronics): recording and score at LisaNeherMusic. Inspired by Greta Thunberg and dedicated to her generation and those who will follow.
Sarah Nicolls - 12 Years (solo piano with recording): listen on YouTube, contact composer by email for the score (£40). 12 movements of piano and text which charts a story through climate-related news and headlines, characters responses to the emergency situation and speeches and interviews from people like Greta Thunberg and David Wallace Wells.
Tomi Räisänen - Dive (sopranino recorder and tape). Hear recordings, view the score and order at Tomi's website. This work is inspired by a seabird, gliding in the sky. The marine bird is stalking a school of fish and skillfully plunge-dives to catch some prey. After a couple of successful attempts, it accidentally dives into an oil spill; no more flying for this unlucky seabird.
Pranav Ranjit - Memories of a Redwood Tree (solo cello): watch performance on YouTube with score, purchase from composer's website (£16). Born out of the composer's experience hiking among coast redwoods in northern California. "Their existence is under threat from logging and other commercial activities; I wrote this piece as both a celebration of their qualities and a call for their preservation."
Complete list of all solo/duo repertoire submitted coming soon
Bela Bartók - Five Hungarian Folksongs (voice and piano) - available from various publishers
Bela Bartók - Out of Doors (solo piano) - available from various publishers
Lauren Bernofsky - Among All Creatures (soprano and harp OR baritone and harp): listen, view a score sample and order at SheetMusicPlus. A setting of a poem by Scott Russell Saunders that celebrates the sanctity of nature.
Frédéric Chopin - “Raindrop” Prelude in Db; Op.28, No.15 (solo piano) - available from various publishers
Fiona T Frank - Mystical Swan in Blue (suite for solo piano). Listen on YouTube (with dance performance!) and contact the composer to request a score (£100). Fiona wrote this 7 movement sonata for piano after an extraordinary encounter at twilight with a swan on the banks of the River Wye in January 2021.
Stanley Grill - Waldminiaturen (solo piano). Listen on YouTube Music (track 11 onwards) and download a copy at Stan's website (free, donations welcome). As I sat down to write these 15 miniatures, I imagined myself walking through a forest, under a canopy of trees, birds of all kinds singing around me.
Edward Nesbit - In Antarctica (soprano and piano): listen on YouTube, view a score sample and further info, contact the composer by email to order the score. In Antarctica sets six extracts of Robert Scott's journal, starting with the journey to Antarctica on board the Terra Nova.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee (arrangements exist for many solo instruments) - available from various publishers
Kaija Saariaho - Laconisme de l'aile (solo flute): recording and score at WiseMusic. The text fragments are borrowed from Saint-John Perse's Les Oiseaux, Birds, and the title refers to birds, meaning something like 'the terseness of a wing'.
Richard Whalley - Six Songs of Old Japanese Wisdom (baritone and piano): listen on YouTube, view a score sample and order at Composers' Edition. Settings of haiku by Issa in which solace for hardship is found in nature.
Richard Whalley - Unwanted Wildness (two violins): listen on YouTube, view a score sample and order at Composers' Edition. A portrait of the weeds and wildflowers on the Ashton Canal in Manchester; plants that are often considered a nuisance, but are actually beautiful and incredibly beneficial to our wildlife / sustainability / insects.
If you have a piece you'd like to add to this list, please fill in the submission form.
