Symphony - "little bird"

Completed in June 2017, this single movement work comprises alternating sections of searching intensity & simple folksong, all of which are bird-related. The work is scored for piccolo, flute, alto flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contra-bassoon, 3 horns, 2 tenor & 1 bass trombone, tuba, harp, solo string quintet & full strings. There is extensive percussion. I have drawn upon folksong settings I have made over a long period, but the work as a whole has been composed as a single entity over three months or so.

The 45' work is one continuous movement, with three main contrasting elements: the uncertain harmonic probing from the very start recurs in developed forms throughout the symphony; interspersed into this are sections of dynamic rhythmic complexity, and three sections of bird-themed folksongs, with tonal harmony. The mood of the music reflects the poem. 

The subtitle "little bird" refers to a poem I wrote in 2009:

little bird

you, little bird
who measures out time
in swoops,        
dives,   
chattering
and song
that fills the space in which we both belong,
in which I heard
 
none of the pain -
it is the song which you and I
rehearse and improvise             
each virgined day,
we bring it on and on again
to nullify
the truth -         
that emerging from this clay
we are the same
 
dulled molecules of dust -
rehearse this scene again -                     
do not disturb
the tramp asleep,
nor restless muse
who races dawn in creative urgent lust
vaingloriously to lose
the sense of noun          
or verb -
 
your soulful song
and my manufactured phrase
come and go and multiply -
the same dulled molecules make our days:
for you to fly,
for me to sigh -
we do not stay for long -
 
you, little bird
whistling in the wind
whilst I temper time’s mortal coil
with sweet music of the mind -
in the final silence no song is heard
your song and mine mix their atoms in the soil
 
10 may 2009
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