Early in his career, Weinzweig had hesitated writing choral music, often feeling frustrated with a lack of textual clarity in choral music overall. So when he began writing his “Choral Album” of seven a capella pieces for mixed chorus, Weinzweig explains that he created his own “sound texts, rather than poems, with phonetics chosen for their rhythmic articulation values with subjects drawn from [his] time—the concrete, here and now.” In On Wings of Song, the “here and now” is Weinzweig’s proximity to nature at the family cottage near Kearney; Weinzweig notes in the score: “When birds of a feather get together—bird talk, as overheard by the composer.”
To achieve Weinzweig’s desired “conversational texture,” the choir sections sing individually, with only one brief tutti section near the end. Weinzweig assigns various birdsong fragments to each section with one to four seconds of silence between each fragment. Weinzweig’s birdsongs are as varied as those found in nature: some have a limited range while others include wide leaps; dynamics range from pianissimo to forte; and legato songs are contrasted by those with staccato and abrupt phrasing.
On Wings of Song should not be mistaken for a mystical reflection on birds, such as Messiaen might compose; Weinzweig’s humour emerges in tutti tongue clicking and lip smacking, dramatic pauses, and in the birdsong “go away.”
Written by Alexa Woloshyn