A flicker
outside the window of her Bennington home inspired Vivian
Fine to depict its flight, described by ornithologist
Tory Peterson as ‘deeply undulating, produced by
several quick beats and a pause.’ Bird song is
often heard, and flight and song intermingle. The
performer’s final gesture is to lift and turn her
head and eyes, as if following an ascending trajectory
which disappears into space.
–Leone Buyse, notes to “The
Sky’s the Limit” CD
Fine returned to birdsong for an unusual piece,
The Flicker, for solo
flute or piano right hand. Her flicker sings virtuostic lines that
change continuously for this long six-page solo. One would expect
some type of reuse of material to account for the multiplicity of
pitches, but this is not the case. Fine reported that she "wrote
what I heard," which was the imagined flight and song of this active
bird.
--Heidi Von Gunden,
The Music of Vivian Fine,
Scarecrow Press, 1999
Composer’s
Note to the Score:
“The
flight is deeply undulating, produced by several quick
beats and a pause.”
–Roger Tory Peterson
Bird-song is
also heard, and flight and song intermingle.