Drama

Adult Themes

Australian Premiere

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Soldier Songs - 'an opera in the form of a song cycle' - depicts that solitude of a soldier’s experience:  one isolated baritone stands alone in this piece and reflects a single vulnerability that speaks for generations.

 

But more powerfully, Soldier Songs deals with the crisis of communicable experience:  the soldiers who return from war unable to bear witness to their chaotic memories.​​

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About the music:

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David T. Little's SOLDIER SONGS features a powerful and eclectic musical score that blends elements of classical, rock, and electronic music. The composition incorporates driving rhythms, jagged electric strings, and primal drums, alongside orchestrated textures that vividly illustrate the soldier's experiences.

 

Little's versatile writing requires skilfull transitioning between hard-edged rock and complex harmonic language. The score includes minimalist chirps, Hendrix-style strings, and nods to Aaron Copland's Americana. This kaleidoscopic approach effectively conveys the emotional intensity and psychological complexity of the soldier's journey.

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About the words:

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​The libretto of Soldier Songs comes directly from interviews composer David T. Little did with family and friends who served in various combats throughout the last fifty years; soldiers with the courage to tell their story.

 

Connecting their various experiences, from childhood fascination with war to the nightmares that haunt the return to civilisation, David writes an insistent closed-mouth hum: as if the soldier were a ticking time-bomb, the stories of his experience buried just under the surface and yearning, but unable, to emerge.

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First Performance: 2006

Commissioned by Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble