Commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Mirage? was composed during the winter months of 2009. It was a time when the world was entering an economic downturn which has often been compared with the Great Depression of the 1930s. This dark period was preceded by years of greed, selfishness, political and economic opportunism and plain disregard for basic human rights all over the world which necessitated the present period of cleansing and testing so we can hopefully reclaim our humanity and faith through the trials and tribulations of today's economic and geopolitical crucible. Looking back at the previous period of careless and callous accumulation of wealth by the few at the expense of many, one wonders if the exorbitant lifestyle which we, the residents of the developed nations, managed to sustain for several decades at the expense of the developing world and the underprivileged among us, was real or a mirage; sweet, lovely and seductive, but a mirage none the less. The unmistakable connection between the years preceding the present crisis and the "roaring twenties" accounts for the particular musical styles used in the composition and the question mark in the title.
The music of Mirage? is permeated by a sense of sadness, and at one point, of despair. It is lamenting the loss of something pleasurable that could not be held on to; of a way of living that less fortunate generations in our post-apocalyptic future may find hard to believe as possible and relegate instead to the domains of myth and legend, like the myths and legends of lost continents and civilizations of our distant past that are still pounding at the threshold of our collective memory. Were they mirages too or are we failing the same test over and over again, destroying ourselves and others in the process while blotting our legacy in the collective memory of humankind? I don't know if the music of Mirage? answers any of these questions, but these were the questions that led to its being. Perhaps there is still hope, that is hope for human solutions before God and nature take matters into their own hand, but during the days of composing this work that too seemed like a mirage.
(Mirage?) is marvellous, and rarely have I seen a modern composition so successful with audiences. It is a veritable tour de force!
