Night Migrations

Lyrics by Hannah Fries

Instrumentation: SATB chorus, flute, Bb clarinet, F horn, piano, strings

Duration: 9’00”

Year: 2022

The relationship between humans and animals has always revolved around worlds unseen The night migrations of songbirds hold a special place in this pantheon of things we miss. While we sleep, these feathered flyers, the size of tennis balls, cross continents. Traveling under the cover of darkness, their maps are the moon, the stars and the earth’s magnetic fields. Hannah Fries’ evocative poetry contrasts these coexisting scenes: people slumbering down on earth, while avian highways soar above us. A poignant line, “cities curled in grief,” contextualizes her vision in the difficulties of this moment. Hannah shared with me, “I wanted to convey the sense that birds could do this remarkable thing, migrating at night, thousands of miles, despite whatever obstacles we keep throwing at them, despite whatever else is happening in the human world and that perhaps there is inspiration there, to rise above, answer to something higher, stay focused on what is good and true.”