Last evening we had the opportunity to collaborate with artist Michael Lease in his event: ‘So Long (not Goodbye).’
The music piece was conceived in four parts:
1. “Sound Piece” by Joshua Quarles –an interpretation of swift flight activity. Originally composed for Hope Ginsburg’s Sponge HQ opening as an interpretation of bee activity.
2. “The Sky and Country” by Joshua Quarles and Jonathan Vassar” –a meditation on nature.
3. ”Turn” by Joshua Quarles and Jonathan Vassar –a meditation on twilight. Theme taken from “The Heron and The Hummingbird.”
4. “A Slow Song for Swifts” by Chris Edwards –a lullaby and so long.
Each summer, Chimney Swifts (Chaetura Pelagica), tiny insectivores that spends their entire day aloft, come to Richmond to eat, breed, and collectively roost in our city’s chimneys…. These little birds, affectionately referred to as “flying cigars,” are seen at sunset swooping and flitting, emitting high pitched chatters over their chosen stack, until twilight when they begin to drop one by one into the chimney for the night. A Slow Song for Swifts was written to coincide with one of the last evenings the Swifts will roost in Richmond before they migrate south for the winter.”
This even took place on Monday October 4, 2010 from 6:30pm – 7:30pm at Grace and Adams streets in downtown Richmond. A fond farewell was bid to the city’s Chimney Swifts before migration south for the winter.
Preceding the performance Mary Elfner, a local environmental scientist with the National Audubon Society, spoke about the habitat, nesting, and migration behaviors of Chimney Swifts.
Refer to The Richmond Scene page for photographs, video, etc.
[...] ‘The Heron and The Hummingbird,’ (which we’d played a portion of for ‘A Slow Song for Swifts‘) and ‘The Wreck of The St. James,’ about the 1852 fire of the Steam Boat on Lake [...]
[...] has an openness that, to me personally, brings to mind the band’s performance of ‘A Slow Song for Swifts‘ for Michael Lease’s ‘So Long (Not Goodbye)’ last fall, and the film [...]