The Language of Birds, composed for solo alto recorder.
- Submitting institution
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The Royal Academy of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- RAM023
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
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- Year
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The Language of Birds (2016/17) for solo alto recorder was written for Tabea Debus, who first performed the piece at King’s Place as part of the London Festival of Baroque Music. Since the premiere, it has also been performed by a number of other recorder players, including in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. The piece is an exploration of the relationship between pitched and unpitched material, the use of extended techniques, and the combination of concisely and freely notated music to explore the virtuosity of the solo player and to underpin a narrative (relating to bird song) within the freer temporal frame that a solo piece allows. The composition of the piece required detailed collaboration with Tabea Debus.
This piece has functioned as a compositional crucible, in which concepts of virtuosity are developed in a focussed and concentrated manner. Such developments have consequently become worked into the instrumental writing of subsequent compositions. For example, in Volvelles (2019/20) for solo clarinet and electronics, the compositional ideas from The Language of the Birds are utilised through the expansion of the solo clarinet’s material using Ableton software and heard through quadraphonic playback that the soloist then imitates and develops acoustically as the piece unfolds. Other compositions that draw upon these ideas include The Book of Ingenious Devices (concerto no. 2 for piano and orchestra, first performed by the BBSO with Oliver Knussen and Huw Watkins), Scenes from the Life of Viscount Medardo (Horn and piano and horn and ensemble, first performed by Richard Watkins and Joseph Havlat, Richard Watkins and Red Note Ensemble), Short Stories (for solo piano, first performed by George Fu) and Spoor for solo guitar (2020).
The Language of Birds is here submitted alone because it is in this piece that the research enquiry resides.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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