Hummingbird

White, Jack

About the work

In my imagination a hummingbird seems both fragile and powerful. A tiny bird, with flashes of colour, managing to skilfully hold its position or dart about as quickly as it pleases. This bird’s wings beat so fast that they appear as a single image to our naked eye. The idea of moving parts making up a whole has been explored in the ensemble-work of this piece. The main melodic fragment is built up by sections, seemingly inflexible, but by the end of the piece we begin to see the differing shades of colour within each of the lines. I feel that this piece is like a slowed-down version of a hummingbird’s ascent, hopefully capturing both its mystery and majesty with its prism-like phrases.

CoMA commission 2018

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