Dawn Interlude is a short French horn solo extracted my song cycle Songs for the Shadowland (for soprano, winds and piano). This piece is not only a commentary on Oodgeroo Noonucal’s poem Dawn Wail for the Dead but also, in its own way, a personal gesture of sorrow for past wrongs perpetrated against Indigenous Australians.

The use of descending glissandi, the use of stopped notes and a ‘natural horn’ quarter-tone harmonic emphasize the mournful nature of the piece.