SCHMELZENDE RIESEN (MELTING GIANTS)

The Austrian Youth Band Association commissioned this piece for its youth wind band competitions back in 2011. The thoughts behinde the piece and title (which means "melting giants") describes the climate change, which is easily notable by the decline of the glaciers. In the first part of the work, we fly over a majestic and sublime glacier. The fast middle part describes the exciting sled dog ride through the wilderness above the arctic circle. But the frolic temper stops suddenly, when the influence of the climate change finally becomes visible. We hear the "elegy" of the glaciers, and only at the very end of the piece a few bars of hope for a better future can be heard.