Composer’s Note:

To the Bird from the Distant Land was composed in response to Hayim Nachman Bialiks poem Tothe Bird (El HaTzipor) on commission from the Atar Trio. When pianist and director Ofer Shelleyapproached me to create a piece for their upcoming Bialik program, I was particularly drawn to thispoem. Written when Bialik was just nineteen and had recently moved to Odessa, there is a strongundercurrent of homesickness for the Biblical land of Israel he imagined. The poem, addressed to abird that serves as a bridge between the distant land and his current home, is episodic variouslyreferring to the Bialiks imaginings of this distant land in both its beauty and potential difficulties,while contrasting it again and again with his current perilous situation in Ukraine. His ruminationsmove back and forth, taking flight like the winging bird he calls to, yet also crashing down on hiscurrent reality. My response to the poem became a song without words, with the flight of the birdsometimes soaring, while at other times caught in the darker net of Bialiks worry before takingwing again.