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Abstract

In The Sea Around Us, Rachel Carson describes the slow accumulation of sediments on the deep sea floor, proceeding over hundres of millions of years to form vast mountains of particulate materials — silt, volcanic dust, meteoric elements, miniscule shells and skeletons — at the bottom of the oceans. For Carson, the sediments form "a sort of epic poem of the earth," an inscription of all that has happened in the geologic and climatic history of our planet. The Book of the Sediments stems from these images; not as depiction, but rather as a contemplation of the interactions between the momentary and the vast, and of endless process as a form of saying

Publication Type:	Composition
Additional Information:	© CC-BY Newton Armstrong 2022. The Book of the Sediments was commissioned by Juliet Fraser as part of the Carson Commissions (2021-23).
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music M Music and Books on Music > MT Musical instruction and study
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Performing Arts

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