Commissioning note

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Commissioned by and written for Claire Edwardes with the generous support of Creative New Zealand. Premiered in Sydney, 31 August and 1 September 2024.

 

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Programme note

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I’m so honoured that Claire asked me to write her a piece for marimba. I love the instrument, though it is a tricky one to write for in a solo context. Claire wanted me to play with polyrhythms, and I wanted to explore the marimba’s full expressive range; from lush rolls in the bass to the dry-bone, xylophonic bite of the high register. I Promise Not to Poison You xoxo is a technically-demanding piece that follows three folkloric plants in a feminist riff on poison and pleasure.

 

I. Nightshade

In European folklore, deadly nightshade (belladonna) belonged to witches; women who understood physiology and chemistry well enough to draw medicine from poison. That contradiction drew me in: pain relief and flying ointment, relief in childbirth and danger, all held within the same dark berry.

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II. Hemlock

Hemlock, rich in coniine, induces a paralysis that crawls slowly up the body until breath stops. Hildegard von Bingen wrote of its danger but also its precision: how it might soothe crushed limbs when boiled, applied, and bound. The difference between healing and harm depended entirely on who prepared it.

 

III. Crocus Sativus

People pick the delicate stigma of the crocus – a flower that blooms briefly, then vanishes – to harvest the golden threads of saffron. Women have used it for millennia: to ease pain, to lift mood, to spark desire. Crocus Sativus is a reminder that tenderness can be potent, and that desire itself is a form of knowledge.