#acd200
"A Personal Geography of the Imagination...
Both suites of music on this CD are in response to very specific feelings
and historical ideas."

MR DARWIN'S DANCES
JONATHAN BESSER

Mr Darwin's dances
I composed this music after reading my Australian friend Roger McDonald's "Mr Darwin's Shooter" - I was taken on a journey on the salty decks of history through Roger's inspired language.

Precious Legacy
In 1998 a very powerful Jewish exhibition arrived in Auckland at the same time I did. The exhibition from Prague was called "Precious Legacy - treasures from the Holocaust".
I was touched equally by the household and the sacred objects; how religious practice and everyday life were so bound together.
It was an important opportunity to reflect on the enormity of feelings that the Holocaust evokes.

My people, my culture, my history, my century.

 
  Mr Darwin's dances
1 Prelude
4.22
  
2 Up the Coast
1.54
  
3 Church
1.54
  
4 Fiddle
2.30
  
5 Sail 'till the Seas Run Dry
2.58
  
6 Becalmed
5.34
  
7 Hornpipe
1.11
  
8 Refrain
1.45
  
9 Sydney Sunset
2.23
  
  Precious Legacy
 
10 Death
0.45
  
11 Chant
3.57
  
12 March
6.17
  
13 Middle East
2.54
  
14 River Prelude
2.17
  
15 River
1.48
  
16 Death II
3.00
  
17 Precious
5.26
18 Coda
3.48
 
Total Duration
55.24