Judith Shatin

Piano Trio

Composer's Note:

To the Bird from the Distant Land was composed in response to Hayim Nachman Bialik’s poem To the Bird (El HaTzipor) on commission from the Atar Trio. When pianist and director Ofer Shelley approached me to create a piece for their upcoming Bialik program, I was particularly drawn to this poem. Written when Bialik was just nineteen and had recently moved to Odessa, there is a strong undercurrent of homesickness for the Biblical land of Israel he imagined. The poem, addressed to a bird that serves as a bridge between the distant land and his current home, is episodic – variously referring to the Bialik’s imaginings of this distant land in both its beauty and potential difficulties, while contrasting it again and again with his current perilous situation in Ukraine. His ruminations move back and forth, taking flight like the winging bird he calls to, yet also crashing down on his current reality. My response to the poem became a song without words, with the flight of the bird sometimes soaring, while at other times caught in the darker net of Bialik’s worry before taking wing again.