The Painted Bird

The Painted Bird

a composition by Cat Hope (2015 rev 2021)

For harp. Dedicated to Mary Doumany

The score for this piece is the box of ribbons that come with instructoins on how to place the ribbons on the harp. The piece is simply the pulling out of the ribbions slowly.

The harpist should take the box of ribbons and use them to construct a piece for harp. Ribbons, ties, strings and other threads are collected over months and gathered together at the request of the performer. THese are new, re-used, gifted: from moments in the composers life. The ribbons and strings are carefully chosen for the harpist, as any composer would choose their sonic materials. There is no rule for the use of these materials, the piece can be as long or short as the harpist desires. Amplification or intimate performance environments are recommended as the sounds are very soft.

The title of this piece is taken from a novel of by Czech author Jerzy Kosiński. The title describes an incident in the story where a young boy observes a professional bird catcher take one of his captured birds and paint it several colors. The bird is released to fly in search of a flock of its kin, but when it does find them, they saw it as an intruder and viciously attack the bird until it fell from the sky.

Versions have been created for:
Catherine Ashely (premiered in Perth, WA, 2015)

Mary Doumany (Melbourne) 2021
Hélène Breschand (France) 2024
Mirian Paschetta (Switzerland) 2024

This file includes photos of the ribbons for each performer, instructions and other images of the score at different stages.