wingbeat uses the flight formations of migratory birds as a model for listening and collectively maintaining energy. To conserve energy for long distance flights, birds fly in V formations, stagger their wingbeats, and react quickly to each other. Musicians are prompted to create sonic representations of this organically rhythmic phenomenon. The buildup of wingbeats earns moments of soaring, and sometimes flight is interrupted. The series of text cues aims to challenge and facilitate the project of sonic togetherness.
This piece is inspired by the feeling of watching videos of starlings flocks on the internet when I was 12. I spent a while researching the patterns and very complex communication behind their beautiful flocking patterns while writing this music. I was pretty staggered at the complexity of their communication amongst up to 750,000 birds. Apart from protecting itself from predators, these shapes also happen as an act of joy, a natural want to move and dance. A lot of the material in this piece comes directly and indirectly from these shapes. I’ve always been and still am very scared of birds but I really love watching them from afar.
This piece revolves around mimicking the motions of birds in a flock – individual variations moving together towards the same direction. While there’s a beginning and end to the piece, everything cycles back on itself much like birds migrating and returning home. The paths of the flock as a whole remain largely the same, but the movement of each individual varies slightly each time
Réfréner attempts to construct methods of group interaction and listening that enable improvisation across different rhythmic textures while retaining a core melodic character. It is inspired by my ongoing research into the social and geographic movements that shaped the genesis of swing in America in the early twentieth century. The title comes from the etymology of the word “riff”- a shortening of refrain, from the French Réfréner. It was commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble for Biophony 2021.
“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
