Birds Of Haberfield

The inspiration for this work is rooted in the calls of native birds of Australia. It makes reference to how their nature calls interplay with the sounds of daily city life stemming from their surrounding civilisation and city folk, particularly those from Haberfield, New South Wales. The birds and their calls give off a very strong presence, one which the composer was able to perceive with vivid transparency. With time, it became clear which calls were warning calls, calls in response to threats from predators, calls rising from mating action as well a daily encountered calls of personal identity. What results as the composition “Birds of Haberfield” is a portrayal of specific bird calls acquired through a direct audible dictation process and treated as principal motifs, referring to the same and never failing re-exposed intervals and tones. Beside these elements stands the composer’s overall perception of sound as produced by the unification of multiple bird calls creating a vast and chaotic audible spectrum.