Seed Lullabies
Commissioned Work: Wattle Sky
Words by J. O’Regan. Music by J. Twist.
This song is a lullaby for a mother singing to her baby ... to quietly reassure and give hope that ‘all will be well’ and ‘you will be safe’.
The ‘mother’ is the fully grown wattle tree, and her ‘baby’ is the seed (the MANY seeds) that she has grown and have now fallen and are safely in the soil beneath her, waiting and ready to ‘grow up’.
HEAT and warmth are required for wattle seeds to begin growing, so a summer bushfire, contained back burning and the reintroduction of indigenous cultural burning, is good for the natural bushland environment.
Often the first hint that a fire is approaching is the smoke in the distance, we sing this at the beginning of Seed Lullabies.
After singing the gentle lullaby to her young seed, the mother wattle describes what will happen … “when the fire comes, there will be flames and black smoke but be still. The red sky will rain burnt black leaves, and the air will whirl and roar as the trees burn, crack and hiss, but be still. You are bound in a hard black coat, but the heat will release you and prepare you for growth.”
Softly reassuring her young seed once again, the wattle mother continues to describe what will happen … “if the rain then finds you, GO, the fire has cleared space for you to grow and begin your upward journey into the sky, so GO!”
This song is a very dramatic lullaby that describes the conditions necessary for the growth of wattle. The life cycle of plants and animals are connected to the seasons and conditions of the natural environment.
This is an EPIC song – lots of the singing is in unison and there is repetition of phrases and melodic patterns. Learn small chunks, section by section, and develop an understanding of this story of growth for the baby seed. Clear diction and confident singing will help the listener to create images or mini movies inside their minds of this dramatic story.
