Song of the Eagle

Instrumentation

flute choir

Other Information

Commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the James Madison University Flute Choir, one of the oldest flute choirs in the USA, founded by Carol Kniebusch Noe. The choir recorded the work for a special CD devoted to Andrew Downes´ Flute Music in January 2000.  The first concert performances took place on 31st March and 1st April 2000 in the Wilson Hall of James Madison University, Virginia.  The UK premiere was on Sunday 13th November 2005 as part of the First National Flute Choir Day in the Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham. The performance was given by the Birmingham Flute Ensemble with American guests and augmented by students from Millikin University, Illinois and Birmingham Conservatoire, and was conducted by Carol Kniebusch Noe. The work was performed at the Convention of the US National Flute Association in New York by the Texas Woman´s University/ Brookhaven Flute Choir, directed by Pamela Youngblood, in 2009.

´It is an extraordinarily beautiful work, with moods alternating between calm reflection and wilder moments of joy.  Piccolo solos float above the lower flutes, suggesting the freedom of the eagle soaring above the vast open spaces of America.  There are amazing rhapsodic arpeggio figures in the main body of the choir.  The effect is continuous flowing sound, apparently without a moment to breathe, but the phrases are so well dovetailed between the parts that no-one has to last for more than two bars at a time.´  Alison Uren for ´PAN´ MAGAZINE