Midnight at Moondara

Moondarra in eastern Australia is thought to be named for an Aboriginal word meaning "plenty of rain and thunder." The opening of this work utilizes body percussion, rain stick, and timpani to evoke a summer storm with rolls of thunder and pelting rain. At midnight as the storm subsides, animals such as bats, echidnas, snakes, and kangaroos venture from their nests to hunt and forage for food and to see what the rain has brought. Various colors and articulations express how these animals might move, march, dance, soar, or swim after the storm has passed.