Program Notes with Score Video 

Climate Change takes many forms – melting ice caps and rising sea levels, bleached coral reefs and loss of vital habitat, volatile and violent weather events, etc. – but here in the American Southwest, the most notable symptom is prolonged drought!  Much of the weather here is spelled with capital letters – HEAT, THUNDERSTORMS, HABOOBS (DUSTSTORMS) – but we are used to that.  Solar power was made for the desert, which has about 330-40 sunny days per year, so we can keep cool. 

But there is not much you can do about running out of water.  Runoff from the Rockies and other mountains is shrinking drastically and water levels in dams are reaching the point where they are no longer functional as power sources.  Already heavily used ground water resources are shrinking, and when they are gone, that’s it.

Though there is much that can be done to curtail usage, the handwriting is on the wall.  Most of the time, my wife and I live in Northern Arizona.  We are off the grid and make our own power, but we must have water and propane delivered.  There are only three commercial wells within twenty miles, and they are drilled to levels of around 1000 feet.  There is nothing like having to haul your own water to make you aware of your consumption!  Nevertheless, more people keep moving to the area and that aquifer will not last forever.

When societies run out of a major resource like water, they break down.  There are whole housing developments in California that have been abandoned.  People don’t want to go, they will hang on until the very end (there are still tribes of people in the Sahara), but at some point they must leave.  They become refugees. Most are not prepared to leave everything and go somewhere else, either financially or emotionally.

This music is about them. It is about stress that is present whether there is a crisis or not.  It is about deciding there is nothing worth striving for.  It is about deciding to not have children.  The first movement is about experiencing a social structure that is unraveling.  The second movement is about the rose garden that cannot handle 120º no matter how much shade, water, and care you provide.  Some people get mad, some people look for political change or vengeance, some people are positive enough to try to make a difference, but for me, I am mostly just sad.