Unstartled Bird (2026)

Unaccompanied SATB with some divisi
Duration: 3’-4′

Score, texts and audio.

During Storm Darragh (December 2024) the big ash in front of the house seemed ready to rubble the house. It swayed enough to topple the stone wall by it. A nearby beech tree cleaved (see picture).

Somehow amidst this, animals shift, align and sleep. They know the tracks of the winds. They hunker down while the wind hurls barn roofs across fields. Airborne golden eagles appear stationery in a storm while all hell breaks loose. Unstartled Bird includes the call of one of my local blackbirds in Mayo, plus the soft talk that blackbirds do when they’re singing only for the nest. The title is a grateful nod to Norah McGuinness’ painting, ‘The Startled Bird’, in the National Gallery, Ireland, which features a blackbird.

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