BirdHouse

Program notes

BirdHouse was commissioned and first performed as part of Ornithology, a performance art project conceived by Michael Pestel with the Carnegie Mellon University flute ensemble at the Pittsburgh Aviary (now the National Aviary) in April 2000. The piece was written specifically for that space and that occasion, inviting the human performers and the resident birds to share the same acoustic environment.

In preparation for the work, I was invited to visit the aviary several times and experience the room where the performance would take place. Among the many bird calls I heard, one in particular — from a black bird that would repeatedly circle the space — left a strong impression on me. Its call outlined a rising interval that suggested a tritone. That characteristic shape became a central motivic element in the piece.

Throughout BirdHouse there is extensive use of canons and imitative writing. I wanted to create, in sound, the sensation of a flock: a mass of moving figures that changes gradually, in subtle waves, rather than through abrupt contrasts. The individual lines constantly chase, overlap, and echo each other, as though the players were following the unpredictable trajectories of birds in flight.

I also chose to quote myself. At the time I had recently composed Malagigi, whose second movement begins with a depiction of a forest full of bird calls. That material reappears in BirdHouse, now re-contextualized inside the aviary. During the premiere, the “resident” birds joined the performance with great enthusiasm; at times their own calls and movements became part of the piece, including some black birds that kept diving over the players’ heads. Only they know what they thought we were doing.

— Efraín Amaya

Instrumentation & duration

Instrumentation: 2 piccolos, 4 flutes, 2 alto flutes, 1 bass flute
Duration: ca. 11:30 · one movement

Video

Performance of BirdHouse (YouTube):