Spin Bird

The title Spin Bird was inspired by Richard Bach’s novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull.[1] Like the bird who distances himself from the flock to practise and improve the art of flying and diving, the performer demonstrates virtuosic technique modulating at speed through all major and minor keys in a rapidly evolving passage where each note is replaced one at a time by the next note in a progressive sequence. This piece focuses on the soloist’s mastery of technique, reiterating the instrument’s symbolism as a means to self-mastery, thus allowing oneself the exhilaration of flight. We are reminded that the “power over oneself (is) better than a thousand years of power over others.”[2]

[1] Bach, R. Jonathan Livingston Seagull New York: Scribner 1970.

[2] Shah, I. ‘When Death Came to Baghdad’, Tales of The Dervishes, London: Octagon Press 1977, p.191.