Written for the 2012 Royal Northern College of Music, Festival of Brass, the piece reflects one of the year's major talking points. For many spiritualist believers, the 21st December 2012 marks the end of the Mayan Calander - and the end of time.

 

The pre-historic Mayan civilisation was founded in Columbia, but its influences spread through South America and into Central Mexico. The Mexican region of Tortuguero, surrounded by dense forestry, is the site of a number of ancient monuments. The sixth monument contains the only remaining inscriptions by Mayan leaders in the world, which relate to the end of the 13th b'ak'tun (era), before a whole new creation of species upon the earth at the beginning of the 14th.

 

Tortuguero 6, is a musical portrait of the history of the monument. The bold opening marks its prehistoric erection by the Mayans - the more fluid passages following representing its dormant state while its surrounding fall and are taken over by thick forests and the final cataclysmic statements showing its role towards the end of the 13th b'ak'tun as the world, as we know it, comes to an end.