The Birds for Company (Lindude seltsis)
by Mirjam Tally
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2014
- Duration
- 6'
- Publisher
- Svensk Musik (Swedish Music Information Centre archive; PDF score sold from the work page)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Estonian composer Mirjam Tally, based in Visby on Gotland since 2006, wrote The Birds for Company for cellist Aare Tammesalu, who commissioned it and played the premiere at the Suure-Jaani Music Festival on 21 June 2014 [1][2]. Her note says the birds are "more like fantasy-birds, or cyber-birds" [2]. The writing is built from sound effects: a vertical "brush" across the covered C string with the fingers of the bow hand curled into a fist, which Tally compares to wing beats, rustling passes over all four strings, and "seagull" glissandos, an effect Tally's note connects with George Crumb's Vox Balaenae [2]. Sections marked "Molto ritmico" drive low-string rhythms in 7/16 and 5/16 with extreme bow pressure [2]. Tammesalu's recording appears on Tally's 2016 album The Voyager [3].