“To be human” program note
Stuart Greenbaum grew up in Melbourne, Victoria. He studied with Brenton Broadstock and Barry Conyngham at the University of Melbourne, and is currently Professor and Head of Composition at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Greenbaum has composed over 230 concert works across a wide range of genres, including 23 sonatas, 7 string quartets, 5 piano trios, 7 concertos, 5 symphonies and 2 operas. His style, while grounded in classical tradition, has overt links to jazz, pop and minimalism.
800 million heartbeats was originally composed in 1999 for the Melbourne-based ensemble Southbank, a quartet consisting of clarinet, bass trombone, piano and percussion, and the piano trio version was premiered in 2008 by the Yarra Trio. The title 800 million heartbeats refers to the hypothesis that the average lifespan for living creatures is approximately 800 million heartbeats (though not accurate for humans). Greenbaum describes the title as being a ‘metaphor for life, and how we think about its journey and duration’. Some works Greenbaum names as influential on 800 million heartbeats include the atmospheric introduction to Pink Floyd’s song titled Sheep (1976), and the rhythms of Steve Reich (b. 1936)’s work Tehillim (1981) and of the jazz-fusion piece First Circle (1984) by Pat Metheny (b. 1954) and Lyle Mays (1953-2020). The piece is built around a quaver ostinato consisting of 13/8 and 11/8 bars. This ostinato forms the backdrop to various voices or melodies that emerge. The atmospheric, moody texture builds and grows to an ecstatic outpouring – symbolising the times of joy in life – before returning to the ostinato and gradually fading away.
