Études for a Dying Race is a song cycle that in the strictest sense is not comprised of musical études. Instead, the four movements are meant to act as character studies and philosophical lessons from a dead race to a dying one. Each of the four movements is characterized as a Greek god or goddess: Zeus, Athena, Hades, and Hera. These characterizations, conveying impressions of madness, nihilism, betrayal, hopefulness, and sobriety, are musically conveyed through the utilization of breath, aleatoric elements, popular and avant-garde idioms, and the contrapuntal fusion of rhythm and melody. On a basic level, motivic material is generated from an expanding double-neighbor motive, first in minor 2nds, then major 2nds, then minor 3rds, then major 3rds.
This work was composed for McKenzie Warriner over the course of several years, with a very early draft of Athena being completed as early as 2015 and being performed at the University of Manitoba that same year. However, it was significantly revised in its integration into a four-song cycle in 2017, which Warriner performed again in Winnipeg at my “Zabathon III” concert in early 2018. The entire cycle was then substantially reworked once more before taking its final form. The premiere of this version occurred at the 2019 Source Song Festival, where it was performed by Tracey Engleman and Matthew McCright at the inaugural edition of Libby Larsen’s Intergalactic Nightclub. However, Warriner again performed the Canadian premiere of the final version of this piece in her winning performance at the 47th Eckhardt-Gramatté competition in 2023. It is also featured on the 2023 Centrediscs-released album of my work “Unfinished Business.”
