Tribes was a part of my Graduate Diploma course. I had determined to compose a book of madrigals. As I was about to begin the course I had to go to England for a couple of weeks. The day I left Sydney was election-day at the end of a highly charged and divisive campaign; I arrived in London two days after the Brexit referendum and roughly the week Trump was inaugurated as the Republican Candidate. I decided to compose a series of songs under the banner of Tribes, using texts from the Boy Scouts Oath, a Trump speech, a little-known verse of the Australian National Anthem interlaced with some quotes from one of Australia’s more bigoted politicians, and finally the Apostles’ Creed.
