Flinders and Trim (2019)

Captain Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) was one of the greatest explorers of his era, the first to circumnavigate the continent and to suggest ‘Australia’ as its name. He established that Tasmania was in fact an island, and mapped much of Australia’s unknown coastline. However, one of the most engaging facts about Matthew Flinders was his affection for his cat, Trim. This fabulous feline was was named after the butler in novel Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. Trim the cat was the subject of an adoring essay written by Flinders in the eighteenth-century English tradition. The essay describes Flinders’s acquisition of this ‘super-cat’; his characteristics, nature, and many virtues. Trim spent most of his life on ships, climbing ropes, swimming in the sea, catching mice, batting an unsuspecting dog on the nose, eating food from the officers’ forks and even, on occasion, out of their mouths, and conspiring with another cat to steal a cold leg of mutton from the pantry, for which both were punished. He spent some time in England but his temperament did not suit dry land. Trim was “Flinders’s constant companion in the period of Flinders’ greatest achievements.”

Flinders and Trim (2019) is not a narrative musical composition. It does not tell a story, but it attempts to capture the essence of the ocean, friendship, companionship, humour, love and loss. The orchestral palette is used in a picturesque way in large sweeping gestures that contrast with intricate passages, a recurring “cat motif,” inspired by sailing ships and surreptitiously including a reharmonisation of the hymn Eternal Father: “Eternal Father, strong to save, whose arm has bound the restless wave, who told the mighty ocean deep its own appointed bounds to keep: O hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea.”

During the composition of this piece, we heard the shocking news of the Christchurch massacre. “Now is the hour” felt like a meagre response to this tragedy, which is repeated far too often on distant shores, seemingly from another world, but becoming all too real when these shocking events happen closer to home. Christchurch was my home town, and I grieved for it and for those who have lost loved ones.

When Matthew Flinders lost Trim, he wrote: “Thus perished my faithful intelligent Trim! The sporting, affectionate and useful companion of my voyages during four years. Never, my Trim, “to take thee all in all, shall I see thy like again.” (Matthew Flinders, Trim.)

Flinders and Trim was a finalist in the ‘Work of the Year for Large Ensemble,’ Australian Art Music Awards 2019.

Instrumentation: 2* 2* 2* 2, 4.2.3.1, tmp + 1, harp, strings min. 8.6.5.4.3

Duration: 18 minutes