The title of this piece, “the hoopoe,” comes from the bird that plays the main character in The Conference of the Birds (1177) by the Persian writer Farid ud-Din Attar (ca 1130-ca 1240). I composed this piece for Terri Hron’s project Bird on a Wire II: Flocking Patterns. The sonic material is derived from a recording of bass recorder that I had made for a different project. It is a free improvisation that is transcribed and which the player must reinterpret, creating a pastiche of herself. The hoopoe and twenty other solo birds accompany her throughout, in a search for truth according to the Persian poet. The electroacoustic part is triggered and articulated live and the octophonic spatialisation is done in real-time.

[xi-11]

Premiere

• June 14, 2011, Terri Hron, recorder; Juan Parra Cancino, diffusion • EMS11 — sforzando!: Concert 1, Greenwich House Music School, New York City (New York, USA)