Crown of Hummingbirds (2023)

for SSAATTBB chorus & orchestra
2(II=picc).2.2(II=bcl).2(II=cbsn)
4.2.2.btrbn.1-timp.perc(2)-harp-pno-strings
13 minutes

Score and Recording Available Upon Request

Libretto by Safiya Sinclair
Commissioned by the Cincinnati May Festival

WORLD PREMIERE
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra & May Festival Chorus
James Conlon, conductor
Robert Porco, chorus director
Louis Langrée, CSO music director
Cincinnati Music Hall, Cincinnati, OH
May 25, 2023

Crown of Hummingbirds
by Safiya Sinclair

From darkness we came,
in search of colour, in search of another
reaching for meaning from the mud.

O love, a lost girl outdreaming
out loneliness, starlight we trace
to the golden river of family.

O life, a tender woman, the bright wind speaking:
No one is ever lost. No one is ever lost.
Together, we will gather. Where love still

blossoms breath from wonder,
each voice a sky opening,
a crown of hummingbirds.

Mother. Sister. Brother. Father

They sing our names.
They sing our names.
They sing us home!

Program Note

Crown of Hummingbirds reveals the power of love, community, family, and connection in the face of death, isolation, and destruction. The music opens in a dark, chaotic realm, with voices emerging from a murky haze, striving towards color and light. The orchestra threatens to engulf the choir while the singers are fervently “reaching for meaning,” banding together in unified harmonies. As the choir perseveres, the music subsides, revealing a lone, meandering harp. The women’s voices sing of a new life, where wonder, beauty, and creativity take root and flourish. “Starlight,” evoked with vibraphone, piano, harp, soft winds, and pizzicati strings, is associated with the vibrancy of the imagination, the capacity for love, and the pathway towards connection. The voices intertwine and swell, conveying the movement and growth of the “golden river of family.” As the poem moves towards the line “No one is ever lost,” the music shifts towards a sense of sparse isolation, then suddenly returns to the darkness of the opening material, consumed by the depth of loss. Faced with the resolve and unity of the choir, the orchestra ultimately transforms from a foreboding mass to a realm of brightness and light, swirling and soaring like a bird in flight while the singers deliver the poem’s final stanza. The orchestra fades once more to reveal the choir standing on its own, suggesting the intimate and vulnerable nature of love, hope, and belonging.