Bird Songs Fill The Air At Two Manhattan Spaces
Updated: 08/03/2012 03:17 PM
By: Stephanie Simon
If birds chirping outside your window is music to your ear - that is, if you can hear birds outside your window - some cool art happenings inspired by our feathered friends may be something to check out this month. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.
Whether you're a bird lover or just a culture vulture it's time to spread your wings and enjoy some of the many new bird inspired events around the city. The first is a sound installation at the Park Avenue Armory called "The Murder of Crows" by husband and wife team George Bures Miller and Janet Cardiff.
"Ninety-eight speakers. Sound coming at you from all over the place: Crows above you. An orchestra all around you," says Bures Miller.
"It's a completely surround sound piece so that the sound moves around you. There's a choir that marches pass you, marching bands," adds Cardiff.
There's not much to see but Armory President Rebecca Robertson says it's still very scary and moving.
"You hear all the affects around you, you feel like you're actually living in a movie, in a film. But it has that fractured sensibility of a nightmare," Robertson says.
Visitors should know the piece is very loud, and it's also very dark.
Lincoln Center Artistic Director Jane Moss says she found the audio installation to be so moving, she decided to give this year's "Mostly Mozart Festival" a bird song theme. They will screen the documentary "Winged Migration", hold a panel discussion on birds and music and The International Contemporary Ensemble will perform several works inspired by birds.
"Composers are fascinated by birds because is it music? Is it music? Is it God's music? And there's some way in which they just represent nature and that's very powerful inspiration for composers," Moss says.
For more information, visit www.armoryonpark.org and www.mostlymozart.org.
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