Gardiner, Duncan (1983-2022) – A thousand cranes beat their wings

“Landscapes” program note

Classical guitarist, composer, researcher and educator Duncan Gardiner grew up in Perth, and completed their Bachelor of Performing Arts with First Class Honours at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Gardiner moved to Brisbane in 2017, and completed a Doctor of Musical Arts at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, researching into ‘Sounding a History of the Guitar in Queensland’, under the guidance of Karen Schaupp. Duncan Gardiner sadly passed away in 2022.

A thousand cranes beat their wings was originally composed as a duo for guitar and piano, and premiered by Gardiner’s ensemble the mimi duo, in 2015, and Gardiner rescored the work as a piano trio for Magellan in 2016. The title references the Japanese legend that a person who folds 1000 origami paper cranes will be granted a wish; and through the story of Hiroshima victim, Sadako Sasaki, 1000 origami paper cranes became internationally symbolical of peace, and Gardiner has inscribed this trio as ‘a prayer for peace for the victims of the 2011 Japanese tsunami and earthquake disaster; a prayer for hope for the survivors’. In an interview in July 2020, Gardiner described the emotional impact the unfolding footage of the 2011 earthquake had on them, and processing the emotions by improvising themes on a small glockenspiel, which later formed the foundation of this work. Gardiner’s duo toured the original version to Japan for the fifth anniversary of the disaster, performing the work to an audience of over 2000 at the Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall.

The work is cast in five continuous parts. Part I – Crimson against Reed Green is gentle and flowing, with the theme an imagined Japanese folksong; in Part II – In the Takeoff they are Together the drama builds, with a repeated ostinato A in the piano representing the alarms going off for the tsunami warning, and Part III – Rushing out of Water, Sky represents the tsunami waves breaking. Part IV – A Tessellating Flock. Blue Sky and Water is the climax of the piece, and the demi-semiquaver swirling motion in the piano part represents the whirlpools and submerging of the tsunami, with the well-known Sakura folk melody singing on the top of the piano texture and in the cello. The waves gradually recede, giving way to a grand Part V – The Feathery White Finale, in a major modality now, as a reprise of the first theme, and this section represents a flock of white cranes rising at sunset, as a symbol of peace and hope for survivors.