This facinating work paints the image of Cassandra Miller’s home through the dictation and manipulation of bird song native to her local forests on the west coast of Canada. Recordings of local brids were slowed to an extreme, revealing melodies that are then compositionally manipulated.

In this movement ‘Veery’, the melody comes from the slowed call of a Veery thrush. This melody is introduced using scratching sounds and microtones by the first violin. The next section sees two teams, violin I and viola, and violin II and cello, recount this melody at different speeds, like two birds calling to eachother in the forest. At the end of the movement, the two birds then sing together as one.

Aestus Quartet

Leda Mileto - Violin I

Christopher Karwacinski - Violin II

Beth Willett - Viola

Clara Hope Simpson - Cello