The four songs of Songs of Discovery and Loss celebrate the achievements of human discovery while reflecting on the heavy price we pay for them. The first and third movements set extracts of Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. In the first movement, ‘Distance does not exist’, the Baltimore Gun Club are planning to send a projectile to the moon, and express hubristic confidence in their ability to do so. By the third movement, ‘The weather suddenly changed’, the mood has become darker. The gases produced by launching the projectile towards the moon have disturbed the atmosphere and caused the sky to become covered in clouds – an event that has obvious resonances with the present day. The texts of the second and fourth movements are taken from the diary of Captain Scott. ‘The long mild twilight’ is an account of a peaceful scene at base camp on Cape Evans, Antarctica, in April 1911, as Scott and his team prepared for their attempt to reach the South Pole. ‘Tomorrow last chance’ sets an extract from the very end of the diary in March 1912, as Scott and his remaining companions, having successfully reached the South Pole, understand that they will be unable to make it back to the safety of base camp.