year:

2022​

​

instrumentation:

2 Marimbas, electronics (sampler)

​

duration:

12'30" ca.

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commissioned by:​

Dalbergia Duo

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first performance:

34th Krakow International Festival of Composers​

​

note:

The wren is a tiny bird. It eats only a few grains; it makes its nest on a single branch; it can only fly a few feet; it takes up little space and does no harm. Its feathers are drab; it is useless to humankind, but it too receives the force of life. Ducks and geese can fly up to the clouds, yet they are shot down with arrows, for their flesh is plump. Kingfishers and peacocks must die because their feathers are beautiful. The falcon is fierce, but is kept on a tether; the parrot is intelligent, but is locked in a cage, where it is forced to repeat its master’s words. Only the little wren, worthless and unlovely, is free. […]

And more: through the gender reversal so common in folklore, the wren, though “king of the birds,” is female. 

Eliot Weinberger. An Elemental Thing, New Directions Publishing, New York 2007.