On a Bat’s Back I do Fly (2000)

Date of composition: 2000; Duration: 12’00; Commissioning body: Kokoro; Premiere performance: 1 November 2000, Poole Arts Centre, UK; Premiere performers: Mark Forkgen/Kokoro; Publisher: Eleanor Alberga

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Eleanor writes:

“The title of ‘On a Bat’s Back I do Fly’ is taken from Ariel’s song from Act Five of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’.

The work is virtuosic and especially so for the tuned percussion. However, I wanted this element to emerge as a natural expression of Ariel’s fantastic world; bright yet nocturnal and other-worldly. The harmonies and use of sustained sonorities in the piano and tuned percussion produce their own sound world, part of the mystery belonging to Ariel and The Tempest. Those who know Thomas Arne’s setting of this verse may notice the motif to which he sets “..merrily, merrily..” appearing fleetingly. I was attracted to this motif - it seemed so fixed to its words, yet this “merrily” comes from a different world, one understood by bats, cowslips and fairies and perhaps only distantly by humankind.”

Instrumentation:

Fl(Picc) Cl(Bcl) Hn Vn Vc Pf Perc