THREE ETUDES FOR PARADISE BIRDS, for Piano（2023）

The beautiful birds known as birds of paradise live mainly in Papua New Guinea in a paradisiacal environment free from natural enemies and with plentiful sources of food. The males of the species spend their whole lives courting females. Their distinctive calls, their astonishingly attractive plumage and their intricate dances all serve to attract the females they are intent on courting.
These piano pieces are eulogies of the wonderfully scintillating lives of the birds of paradise and might be thought of as studies aimed at training in the everyday art of courtship, although this is no doubt a futile and annoying enterprise for the birds themselves!
The three pieces in this set should be played in succession. Each lasts around four minutes, making a performance duration of between twelve and thirteen minutes for the work as a whole.
(I) Singing: At the start of the piece a ‘bird call theme’ appears above trills. A motif from this theme also appears at the end of the second and third pieces. The piece consists of variations and development of the ‘bird call theme’.
(II) Form: This study retains the extravagantly designed shape of the music with its powerful impression while subjecting it to further refinement. The figurations on the white keys in the right hand and the black keys in the left hand give rise to colour and form as they separate and intermingle.
(III) Dancing: This is a dance piece at a fast tempo in 10/8 time featuring hectic alternation between metrical subdivisions of 3-3-2-2, 3-2-2-3, 2-3-3-2, 2-2-3-3, 3-2-3-2, 2-3-2-3, and 2-2-2-2 quavers. This study envisages the transcendental technical steps in which birds of paradise specialise.

I composed this work in January and February 2023 in response to a commission from the pianist Asuka Iino, whose vivid style and interpretation of these pieces rivals the colourfulness of the birds of paradise themselves.