The Giraffes got to Hamburg (2000)

It was Mia Farrow who drew André Previn’s attention to the poignantly vivid picture, in Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa, of a pair of giraffes about to be shipped from Mombasa to Hamburg. More poetic than much poetry, the text is well chosen for musical setting both in its wide-ranging imagery and its cyclic shape. It has its dangers, however, not the least being that the author’s compassionate reflections could lapse into sentimentality. The composer avoids that trap by excluding conventionally emotive gestures from both the vocal line and, until near the end, the accompaniment. This is not to say that the soprano part is inexpressive - in its multi-dimensional flexibility, far from it - but set against the oblique harmonies of the cryptic piano part it is consistently deflected from easy pathos. There is a more obviously emotive element in the alto flute part which not only reflects in its melodic line the cyclical structure of the text but also carries in its colouring an acoustic equivalent of the “graceful, patient, smoky-eyed” features of the captive animals.

The Giraffes Go to Hamburg was written for René Fleming in 2000 and first performed by her in the same year.