Program Note

This composition is inspired by a legendary Adarna bird in Filipino folklore which is known for its beautiful song and powerful healing abilities. Four flights of the Adarna bird, featuring varying kinds of lyricism, are portrayed, and performed without a pause, across this 7-minute and 30-second composition.

The first brief flight is an opening invocation in the highest register of the cello. The second flight, spiritus, (Latin for “spirit” or “breathing”) starts on the open low C string, the lowest note on the cello. Lyrical and rhapsodic, it spins into animated and sparkling energy flows at times like bells glistening in the sky. The final 3-minute and 30-second flight, elegant and dreamy, is akin to a spiraling — first downward and then way upward — healing poem.

It is difficult to express how grateful I am to Alexander Hersh to whom this work is dedicated with admiration and gratitude. Collaborating with Alex is always a treasured and an exhilarating experience. His beautiful, dimensional cello playing offers me powerful healing atmospheres like that offered by the Adarna Bird.

— Augusta Read Thomas

Program Book Listing

Magical Flights of the Adarna Bird (2025)            Augusta Read Thomas (1964)

Three flights played without pause

I: INVOCATION —
MAJESTIC; BLAZING; ILLUMINATED
1 minute

II: SPIRITUS —
LYRICAL; RHAPSODIC;
ANIMATED AND SPARKLING
3 minutes

III: SPIRALING HEALING POEM —
ELEGANT; DREAMY
3 minutes and 30 seconds

To obtain examination or performance material for this
Augusta Read Thomas work, please contact Nimbus Music Publishing.