Listen to The White Parrot at billanderton.uk/compositions.html
The music for The White Parrot (El Loro Blanco) was inspired by an old Spanish fairy tale whose origins can be traced further east, to the Orient and ultimately to an even older tale from the Indian subcontinent. Its motifs have travelled across distance and through centuries, evolving as they passed from one culture to another before arriving in their Spanish form.
The story is a complex one, with several interacting characters whose actions reveal considerable psychological depth. My original intention was to write a series of short pieces, each portraying one of the principal characters. In the end, the idea developed into two movements: Garden of Dreams (Jardín de los Sueños) and The White Parrot, the central figure in the story.
Much of the action takes place in a magical garden containing several precious treasures: a silver fountain, an oak bearing silver acorns, and a magnificent white parrot which observes everything around it and speaks only the truth. Each treasure is fiercely protected, and anyone attempting to steal one faces extraordinary danger.
To capture the parrot, an adventurer must wait until it has fallen asleep on its revolving pedestal. Attempt the task even a moment too early, however, and the intruder is turned to stone. The story follows a prince and princess as they undertake this seemingly impossible quest.
Garden of Dreams (Jardín de los Sueños)
The first movement falls into three sections: Portal, Flow and Meditation.
Portal, or gateway, begins tentatively, molto tranquillo. A simple rising and falling semitone on a solo bassoon immediately suggests the exotic and mysterious nature of the garden. The bassoon begins and returns to D, the keynote of the Phrygian Dominant, or 'Andalusian', scale, whose distinctive character provides much of the Spanish and Arabic flavour of the music.
A long sustained chord gradually builds the atmosphere of the garden before leading into Flow, evoking the presence of water and the silver fountain. This section uses the Dorian mode on A, a significant key for the following movement, giving the music a sense of openness and continuous movement. The section eventually reaches a climax in the Aeolian, or natural minor, mode on D.
In the final section, Meditation, a solo violin emerges before the music gradually returns to the long sustained chord with which the movement began, bringing the journey through the garden to a conclusion on a unifying note of enlightenment.
The White Parrot (El Loro Blanco)
The second movement is more explicitly programmatic, telling the story of the central character and the adventurer who attempts to capture it.
It begins as an adventurer enters the garden with trepidation, represented by the cellos' opening ostinato. He is gradually lured deeper into the enchanted garden, where a lush orchestral theme reveals its seductive beauty. Pizzicatos in the upper strings suggest him creeping into a clearing, where the white parrot sits upon its revolving pedestal.
The adventurer approaches quietly and cautiously in an Adagio section. But his attempt fails: disaster strikes and he is turned to stone, represented by the dissonant crash of an open fifth chord.
For a while, the garden returns to normal and the parrot continues to chatter, apparently unconcerned that another intruder has been halted in his tracks.
A further slow section follows, in which a solo flute dreamily evokes the garden's frozen victims. The music uses the Lydian mode on D, giving the passage a suspended and otherworldly quality.
The main orchestral theme eventually returns, but now in the remote key of F minor, creating an uneasy atmosphere. We learn that the unfortunate adventurer was the Prince. His sister, the Princess, arrives to find him and makes her own attempt.
The movement concludes in a final flurry of action. This time, the Princess approaches the parrot at precisely the right moment. She succeeds in capturing it, breaking the spell and releasing the frozen figures. The garden is restored.
