POLDEN: Athrotaxing Lane for Viola and Piano

Athrotaxing Lane – Elegy for a rainforest

Angela Polden

Duration 8:15 minutes approx.
Download includes digital score and parts

The work, for solo viola and piano, is named after the Tasmanian rainforest tree, Athrotaxis selaginoides, the King Billy Pine, in honour of the dedicatee, Wiliam Lane who is widely recognised as a prince of the viola.

Recurring motifs are used across the four movements to develop moods of brooding darkness through to playful bliss, confident maturity to triumphal jubilance and uses the metaphor of a tree’s growth to parallel personal development and which is both a journey and an identity.

The dedication is accompanied by two passages from scripture:
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream…” Jeremiah 17: 7-8 NIV
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power … to grasp how wide and long and deep is the love of Christ.” Ephesians 3: 17-18 NIV

It is a sad fact of Tasmanian life that the particular patch of old-growth rainforest which provided inspiration has been cleared and Athrotaxing lane is now subtitled, Elegy for a rainforest.