The Memory of Elephants
The Story of The Memory of Elephants
On September 21, 2024, the di.vi.sion piano trio held a concert, "Five for the Planet", the performative result of a commissioning project designed to present a discussion about climate change through music. Its intent was to use the skills and talents of musicians to bring a new perspective to the debate.
Five composers were invited to meditate on the relationships of weather to nature and the environment, and to write a piece for a combination of one to five instruments.
Melissa was one of the composers requested to contribute. The composition was named, The Memory of Elephants.
The following is her reflection on the piece for the concert.
"It is a fact that elephants are an endangered species. In my research for the text of The Memory of Elephants, I focused on both African and Asian elephants. They look a little different, but share the same problems due to climate change, and encroachment of human settlements on the elephants' territory.
The text brings several different perspectives to the task of bringing elephants to life in a concert setting. The first perspective is through a dream that I had long ago, about drawing an elephant. The next perspective is more technical and is about the state of the savannas today (land where the elephants roam through ancient corridors, which are centered around food and watering holes.) Then I move on to circus elephants and how we saw them. Finally, I turn to the ivory trade, and how we experienced it.
I want to mention two important facts about the elephant that aren't generally known. First, the elephant's dung can carry seeds for miles to freshly fertilize vegetation in a new area, thus prolonging the healthy life of the savannas. If the savannas shrink, then this healthy fertilization can't take place and humans and animals both suffer losses. Secondly, elephants have been discovered to communicate with their own kind using extremely low frequencies that emanate from the top of their forehead. We can't hear these frequencies, but they can send messages across long distances to relatives. "
Text of The Memory of Elephants
Long ago,
I dreamed I was drawing an elephant
Over and over and over again.
On a huge white sheet of parchment.
I drew rapidly with many fine lines.
As soon as she appeared completely she would disappear
Fading into the parchment...
I picked a new spot and drew again,
Trunk up, trunk down, legs running, head up, head tucked,
Funny old thing
her legs are galloping
ready to spring forward
such kindness in her massively wrinkled face.
I have made her small,
but alive on paper.
Nowadays the elephants are cramped
The African and Asian savannas are shrinking.
Villages and farmland are plastered
over the maps of their centuries-old stomping grounds.
What happens when they can no longer carry the seeds of the baobob trees
long distances
to germinate safely on fertile ground?
Elephant dung has as many precious properties as ivory!
And still,
when traveling separately,
a herd of elephants will speak to each other from across the savanna
with low sonic rumblings
too low for the human ear to hear,
Their heads vibrate with undetectable frequencies--
"Meet us in two days on the sweet spot of the fourth plain
near the two-hundred-year-old water hole --
Bring Lilly!
I love you --
No hunters on the North corridor!"
How did we ever get so many elephants to join the circus?
The largest land animal on the face of the earth!
Marching through thousands of towns across
Europe and the United States
linked trunk to tail,
The people were thrilled!
What happened to the circus elephants '
ivory tusks?
Sawed off for Barnum and Bailey.
God forbid they should defend themselves.
And what is more wonderful? The dazzling trunk or the ivory tusks?
Hard to say...
Who can forget the feel of ivory keys on a
grand piano?
Or even an upright piano?
Smooth but with a texture
those keys had a better grip
But still,
not worth the price
No, not worth the price of the life of the larger than life
Elephant.
I dreamed I was drawing an elephant
Over and over and over again.
On a huge white sheet of parchment.
I picked a new spot and drew again,
Trunk up, trunk down, legs running, head up, head tucked,
Funny old thing
her legs are galloping
ready to spring forward
such kindness in her massively wrinkled face.
I can almost hear a low rumble coming from
the top of her head...
"Meet us in two days on the
sweet spot of the fourth plain
near the two-hundred-year-old water hole --
Bring Lilly!
I love you --
I love you --
No hunters on the North corridor!"
Video
Music performed by:
Soprano Michelle Seipel and Pianist Renée Cometa Briggs
Recorded September 23, 2024
Dedicated to Renée Cometa Briggs