Commission: Krystin O’mara
Duration: 8 minutes
Instrumentation: guitar
Program Information:
winged throat is inspired by the evening songs of the Wood Thrush that accompanied me in my month at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough NH. While at MacDowell, I indulged in the poetry of my fellow MacDowell artists, especially those that were inspired by the thrushes of MacDowell–of which an excerpt one by Alicia Ostriker caught my fancy. It is copied below with permission by the author.
“as if each note poured from its throat
an imperturbably natural thing
were designed to mock our heavy human wishes” – excerpt from “Thrush” by Alicia Ostriker
In our workshopping process, Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush” became a work we referenced, and select excerpts headline some rehearsal numbers in the work.
Premiere: May 19 2021 | Krystin O’Mara | Johns Creek, GA