The Fourth - Introduction

THE FOURTH INTRODUCTION Sitting at the cross roads, between instrumental and electronic forces, between natural and urban worlds, The Fourth is written in homage to the natural beauty, spiritual ethos and culture of environmental stewardship so alive in Southern Oregon.

Sonically, philosophically and thematically The Fourth is imbued with the sounds and spirit of the natural world and springs from the heart of Buddhist and Taoist thought. The Fourth helps us examine our relationship to the environment and to the deepest and most unfettered facets of the self.

THE STORY A fatal diagnosis. A few months left. The action begins.

In a kind of final gesture, our protagonists, Gus Turnwheel implores his sister Kate and her husband Michael, the assistant to an important architect to journey out of the of the city and into the jungle in search of Kate and Gus' long lost mother - a monolith from the past who's very existence falls deeper into question as they travel into the wild.

The jungle shakes off the deep-laid structures of their lives as they journey, bringing the three into a harsh awareness, where longburied tensions are made clear. Kate faces the bitter well of sadness springing from the loss of an unborn child. Against the perfection of nature's design, Michael faces his obsession as an architect; while Gus, amongst the jungle's profusion of life confronts his mortality.

EASTERN THOUGHT Drawn from the same waters as the teachings of Joseph Campbell, Osho, Gautama Buddha and Lao Tzu The Fourth thrums with an eastern energy. Like a meditation, The Fourth carries us away from the city's buzz and into the heart of the jungle.

Michael, Kate and Gus each embody a part of this spiritual deepening. The ingenious and impassioned Michael carries the torch of the mind. Deep, wise and wounded, Kate is the story's emotional heartbeat. Gus, preparing to leave his body physically carries the narrative to it's conclusion.

THE BARDO

In Tibetan mythology, once the spirit has left the body it is said to go to an in-between place lying between one death and the next incaration.

This place of terrors and trials is known as the Bardo. For our three heroes, the jungle is just such a world.

For an architecht that spends his life anylyzing and theorizing on how to craft the perfect urban environment, the thoughtless perfection of the jungle rips Michael open to a new understanding of what makes reality truly alive.

Pregnant again, Kate lives every day under a shroud of trauma left by the passing of her unborn child. Literally between death and birth, Kate must face a desperate web of emotions, let go, and make room for her next child.

Finally, Gus – pulling the story ever-deeper into the wilds – will let go of absolutely everything to face his death.

AN ENVIRONMENTAL ORCHESTERA Leaving the clamoring of the city and journeying into the jungle's deep, each scene of the opera brings us into an increasingly wild environment. Samples of these worlds are used like instruments; recordings of these environments are embedded into the musical score and the plot at the deepest level.

With great specificity and detail, these sounds treat each world precisely like an environmental instrument. They have been taken, spliced, harmonized, composed, crafted and made rhythmic. This instrument not only plays along with the musicians, not only accompanies the singers, but also immerses the audience from all four sides. It's as though we are transported into each new world and the world itself is singing!

There are melodies made from bird song... harmonies hewn from the wind... a xylophone of drip-drops as the trio travels through a cave... cars, machinery, horns, boats, bells and broken glass. The sounds of animals appear, interacting with our heroes to shape the plot.

The constant influence of these sounds creates a symbolic or poetic dialectic between the environment, music and the plot. As the three journey out of the city and come into closer contact with their deeper selves, the environmental instrument becomes increasingly wild. Like visual symbolism in a novel, each environment brings with it worlds that both interact with the characters and create a deeper layer of poetic resonance between the story and the poetic meanings of these environments.