Leviathan is the first movement of a  major new work I have been developing over a few years, inspired by whaling in Victor Harbor, South Australia.

While living on the Fleurieu Peninsula during the pandemic, I became interested in the region’s whaling history, from frenzied slaughter and near extinction, to 100 years of empty bay, to the gradual return of whales with the area declared a sanctuary. These events outlined an arc of HOPE, something I craved in the early pandemic. Now, as the algal bloom has spread in the South Australian seas, the themes of ocean-based devastation and hope have taken on a new and urgent proximity for this music.

This first movement evokes an industrial age world of whalers and sea, creating the experience of whalers in a small boat hunting a whale, against a background of the industrial age, where whale oil was used to lubricate machinery of the factories.

I’ve assembled libretto from a range of nineteenth century writers to express the relationship between the “Captains Of Industry”, the primal call to the ocean, and the danger and horror of a whale hunt. Like young soldiers going to war, the men adventure out with a sense of noble honour, to find and hunt their whale but learn they are not heroes but agents of destruction and slaughter, “demons” in the libretto.

To make a work that feels masculine, powerful and dramatic, I’ve taken musical inspiration from heavy metal band Manowar, Russian male voice choral music, Orff’s Catulli Carmina and some atmospheric media compositions. Leviathan is scored for four solo baritones, male voice chamber choir, bass drum, cymbals and other percussion and percussive sound effects. Through singing, shouting, chanting and movement the singers evoke men working together in factories, whaling boats and the colonial complex of the British Empire.

I’m thrilled that this work will be premiered by some of South Australia’s finest musical artists, set amongst the whale bones and marble resonance of the SA Museum’s foyer. It’s been a joy workshopping with the soloists, Andrew the percussionist and the South Australian choir Festival Statesmen Chorus. I’m grateful to Chamber Music Adelaide who have provided support through various projects, for the larger work so far.

Jodie