Greenbaum 4 MINUTES IN A NUCLEAR BUNKER

Stuart Greenbaum

4 Minutes in a Nuclear

Bunker

For Orchestra GRT•028 (1995)

Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd

Sydney, NSW

Instrumentation:

Piccolo

2 Flutes

2 Oboes

English Horn

2 Clarinets in Bb

Bass Clarinet

2 Bassoons

Contrabassoon

4 Horns in F

3 Trumpets in C

2 Tenor Trombones

1 Bass Trombone

Tuba

Timpani

2 Percussion:

tubular bells, crotales, large tam tam, large bass drum, glockenspiel

Harp

Piano / Celeste

Violin I

Violin II

Viola

Cello

Double Bass

The Full Score is notated in Transposed Pitch

Duration: circa 4 minutes

If this work is to be performed publicly as a live concert, permission must be secured from the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Locked Bag 5000 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

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If this work is to be streamed, synchronised or performed publicly as an opera, ballet or theatrical dramatico-musical performance, a grand rights and/or synchronisation licence must be secured from Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd.

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4 Minutes in a Nuclear Bunker (1995)

This piece is dedicated to the English novelist, Martin Amis. Living under the constant possibility of nuclear holocaust has been a theme of his novels that has stayed with me.

In this piece, I wanted to create a psycho-emotive tone-poem based on the following predicament:

News emerges of a launched nuclear missile attack. Panic spreads; people are running in different directions. Some find their way down into a bunker. Various doors are sealed. Amid the palpable adrenaline rush, these people nevertheless perform the necessary routine and duty with speed and diligence. Then they gather in a specified area and wait. This is where my piece begins. The shouting has stopped. Only heavy breathing is audible. Nobody speaks. The next three minutes represent the waiting game. It is slightly damp, cold, claustrophobic and so quiet that the head begins to hum in anticipation. This humming continues to build and distort until there is a blinding flash, visible through a narrow protected screen. The blinding light has a purity to it and brings a sense of relief. The waiting is over. But what is left? What is it like up on the surface? I imagine that I can hear distant songs of children in unrelated time and key.

Written for William Southgate and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Recorded at ABC Ferry Rd. studios, Brisbane on 15 November 1995.

Stuart Greenbaum

4 Minutes in a Nuclear Bunker