Among the Lemmings (2009)
(for orchestra)

Even though we now know that lemmings do not commit mass suicide (the sad and horrific truth that Disney Studios, for the ‘documentary’ ‘White Wilderness’ (Adventures in the White Wilderness) in the 1950s, hurled the animals en masse into a chasm and filmed it, only came to light a few years ago), the supposed behaviour of these northern animals has become proverbial. My work reflects the behaviour of our modern society, in which, it seems to me, through the overexploitation and destruction of our planet, the dismantling of our cultural institutions, the disregard for physical and emotional health, and the replacement of spiritual values with money and commerce, we are rushing like lemmings towards our own collective suicide. 

(Sidney Corbett)