Fury
A song cycle
set to eight paintings
In the early 2010s, after suffering a great personal tragedy, my father, Stephen Hutchings, created a series of storm paintings called Fury, each eight foot square. The paintings depicted landscapes in moments of heightened reverie, some in anticipation of an onslaught, some in the depths of a storm's iconic grandeur, some in the beautiful afterwards when a storm has passed but the world is still electric. They remain my favourite paintings my father has ever made.
In 2014, I wrote a song cycle in response to these paintings. The songs were performed along side an exhibition of the work at the Whyte Museum for the Canadian Rockies. Since then, I have returned to the songs again and again. In 2018, a revised version of the song cycle was performed at the Beaverbrook in Fredericton. Now, in 2023, I return to the work for a third time with the aim of recording the songs.
The appeal of returning to the work over and over stems from my love of the paintings themselves, but also from the relevance of the subject matter. What started as a reflection on an emotional response to personal tragedy has grown to become an allegory for contemporary life in the midst of the impending doom of climate change and cultural upheaval and uncertainty.
