Composer’s Note:

Phoenix (2019) is a song based on the epic poem The Conference of the Birds, composed during the 12th Century by the Persian poet Farid Ud-Din Attar. As an allegory for purification and the attainment of enlightenment, this literary masterpiece follows the birds of the world on their quest for the Simorgh, the sovereign king of all birds. Led by the wise Hoopoe, a real bird whose onomatopoetic song appears ephemerally throughout the piece, the birds journey through the Seven Valleys of the Way in search of the Simorgh. The Hoopoe is a mystical figure in many literary works (such as Aristophanes’ “The Birds”).

The title Phoenix refers to an abstraction of the processes of death and rebirth which one must confront in various guises during the Seven Valleys of the Way in order to sacrifice those human faults which prevent one from reaching enlightenment and to reclaim those virtues essential to the quest. Throughout the poem, the birds seek the Simorgh, losing many of their number along the Way. This is later revealed to be a pun — thirty (si) birds (morgh). The thirty birds who survive the journey find that they themselves are the Simorgh, and the metaphysical embodiment of the King which they sought.