Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Featuring dense and slow-moving harmonies Thomas Bedggood’s ‘The Sunburnt Snow’ for choir and string quartet is set to sombre words by poet and climate activist, E. Wen Wong.
Take me to Sunraysia as the decade turns
for five crowned cold dipped grapes
taste pale skin on soil skin of eschar corrupted wounds
burn cracked earth as Via Sacra
Gap toothed
the sun filters through my mouth tastes bitter coal,
longing for sweet sultanas
Summer in Sunraysia
Take me to erasure of the Murray, Darling
pull cotton right over my eyes
miss the theft of Barkandji blood from Brachio cephalic veins
generations stolen from these Menindee lands
We are leaving a new decade in our cubbie holes of red mineral dust,
black carbon impurities,
grit rises to our eyes and teeth
Tell me if you see the end of the street
Black summer the magpies call like sirens
sequin feathers of canaries in coal mines
burn infernos sun-burnt country
wide black land for me
Take me across the Tasman to the salmon
snow nude skin of the Southern Alps helpless
to wipe foundation from its face
To slip brindle light cow hideaway from its nape.
The dust has plastered bitters over alabaster
ice in silence we drink these cocktails under
blood moons and amber skies.
Performed by the Jubilate Singers, conductor Philip Norman, at The Piano, 24 August 2025. With Grace Stainthorpe and Stephanie Buzzard (violins), Philippa Lodge (viola), and James Donaldson (cello).
Audio recorded by Alex van den Broek. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
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Learn more about the composers and performers of music from Aotearoa New Zealand on our website (sounz.org.nz), or by following us on Facebook (@SOUNZnz), Instagram (@sounz_nz), or TikTok (@sounz_nz).
#nzmusic
Featuring dense and slow-moving harmonies Thomas Bedggood’s ‘The Sunburnt Snow’ for choir and string quartet is set to sombre words by poet and climate activist, E. Wen Wong.
Take me to Sunraysia as the decade turns
for five crowned cold dipped grapes
taste pale skin on soil skin of eschar corrupted wounds
burn cracked earth as Via Sacra
Gap toothed
the sun filters through my mouth tastes bitter coal,
longing for sweet sultanas
Summer in Sunraysia
Take me to erasure of the Murray, Darling
pull cotton right over my eyes
miss the theft of Barkandji blood from Brachio cephalic veins
generations stolen from these Menindee lands
We are leaving a new decade in our cubbie holes of red mineral dust,
black carbon impurities,
grit rises to our eyes and teeth
Tell me if you see the end of the street
Black summer the magpies call like sirens
sequin feathers of canaries in coal mines
burn infernos sun-burnt country
wide black land for me
Take me across the Tasman to the salmon
snow nude skin of the Southern Alps helpless
to wipe foundation from its face
To slip brindle light cow hideaway from its nape.
The dust has plastered bitters over alabaster
ice in silence we drink these cocktails under
blood moons and amber skies.
Performed by the Jubilate Singers, conductor Philip Norman, at The Piano, 24 August 2025. With Grace Stainthorpe and Stephanie Buzzard (violins), Philippa Lodge (viola), and James Donaldson (cello).
Audio recorded by Alex van den Broek. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
--
Learn more about the composers and performers of music from Aotearoa New Zealand on our website (sounz.org.nz), or by following us on Facebook (@SOUNZnz), Instagram (@sounz_nz), or TikTok (@sounz_nz).
#nzmusic
