Birds (2017)

Commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival, this short song cycle sets four of the poems originally written by Alexander McCall Smith for performance alongside Saint-Saensʼ The Carnival of the Animals.

I have chosen the four that describe birds. To these, the poet has added ‘Doves in Acacia’, which reflects the 2017 festivalʼs theme of ‘forgiveness’.

Each song takes as its starting point the calls and movement of birds. The first (Birds) is an imaginary tropical soundscape. The second (Swans) describes the gliding of a swan, and the third (Cuckoo) is based entirely on the interval associated with the cuckoo – the falling third. The accompaniment of the fourth song (Doves in Acacia) is created from the notated chanting of doves, referencing African doves* in the central section. Cocks and Hens begins with the crowing of a cock, quoting a theme from my recent work The Judas Passion – the crowing of the cock as Peter betrays Christ – again, highlighting the theme of forgiveness. But this song is light hearted, and the piano clucks and struts like hens in a farmyard.

After the fifth song, the first is sung again.

Birds was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival.

The first performance was given by Kitty Whately, mezzo-soprano, and Simon Lepper, piano, at Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, on 28th July, 2017.

*blue spotted wood dove