The Conference of the Birds (2025)
(for Soprano and Five Instruments)

"Should we not risk this quest? To suffer blame
For love is better than a life of shame.
I’d rather die deceived by dreams than give
My heart to home and trade and never live."

So says the hoopoe bird, leader of all the world’s birds, as it urges its hesitant companions to set out on a long and perilous journey in search of their king, Simorgh.

The Conference of the Birds is a remarkable 12th-century poem by the Persian poet Farid Ud-Din Attar. In this allegorical tale, we follow the birds as they pass through seven valleys of trial and transformation, each bringing them closer to understanding the truth about Simorgh. When they finally reach their destination, only thirty birds remain — and they realize that Simorgh is, in fact, a mirror, showing them their own reflections.

My setting of The Conference of the Birds is based on the English translation by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis. From this vast and intricate poem, I’ve made a highly selective adaptation that still captures the heart of the birds’ journey and the transformation they undergo along the way. Even the music, like the story, travels from one place to another. Each movement introduces new material that is never repeated, while brief intermezzos between the movements return to and vary a single musical idea — creating a sense of continuity through change.

The structure of the work is as follows:

Prologue – I: The birds assemble and the hoopoe tells them of the Simorgh; II: The peacock’s excuse and the hoopoe’s answer; III: A cowardly bird protests; IV: The hoopoe describes the seven valleys of the Way; V: The birds arrive; VI: The birds discover the Simorgh; Epilogue

The theme of the mirror permeates the composition: musical lines imitate and reflect one another, and the soprano stands among the instrumentalists as if in a hall of mirrors, her voice mirrored and echoed by the ensemble. The work also draws on the distinct tonalities of traditional Persian music — the dastgah system — including the use of quarter tones.

The Conference of the Birds was written for soprano Kathrin Lorenzen and Messiaen Quartet Copenhagen, with the addition of a flute to form a so-called “Pierrot ensemble” (after Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire). The piece lasts around 35 minutes and is performed without pauses between the movements.

Britta Byström, 2025