Symphony of the Hawai‘i Forests: Reflections on Ka Wai Ke Kumu Ola (2023) Full orchestraAdaptation Variations (2019)
for flute, clarinet, horn, percussion, violin, viola, cello
duration: 12 minutes
Program Notes
When talking about evolution, biologists often use the musical term "theme and variations" as an analogy of how a single species can evolve to become a diverse array of species over time. With Adaptation Variations, I wanted to raise awareness of Hawai'i's incredible honeycreepers (forest birds) which performed this theme and variations over many millennia, evolving from one species that flew over to Hawai'i to over 50 distinct species at one point–but now fewer than 20 still remain, many of which are critically endangered. The work starts off with a brief storm before arriving at a clear melodic theme. The rest of the work is a loose set of theme and variations that use some of the various honeycreepers' distinct features as starting points for musical inspiration: the long curved beaks of the i'iwi resulted in the glissandi section; the seed-eaters like the palila led to the percussive, rhythmic variation; the repeated notes of an 'amakihisong or the distinctive intervals that an 'apapane sings became rhythmic and intervallic motives throughout the work; and so on.