So what’s the twist? Actually I think there are two, with the secondary one’s being that Silvestri has the bird itself speaking. Ola had asked me for several poems relating to the theme of rebirth, and I gave him this twist on the usual theme.” He has written the lyrics for a number of pieces by the Norwegian choral composer Ola Gjeilo and says of this one that “The fiery sky at sunset was an inspiration for this poem about a phoenix preparing for rebirth. Silvestri, who “specializes in providing bespoke poetry for choral composers.” Rather like a custom tailor, I guess. Silvestri)I don’t want to make the mistake of trying to pin down the meaning too strictly here otherwise I may end up sounding like something from a Hallmark card.The lyrics to this piece come from the contemporary poet Charles A. This meaning is borne out by the first verses of the original poem, words that Gjeilo did not include in his composition:Weary, I fly,Across the vast eternal sky,High in the heavens,Where awaits my destiny.Grey skies are thickening Soon now my time will come,Time to return home‘Cross the vast eternal sky.The ending of our piece and of the poem reinforce this meaning:Do not despair that I am gone away I will appear againWhen the sunset paintsFlames across the vast eternal sky!(All text copyright Charles A. Instead, it is going to plunge into the sun itself. The phoenix’s feathers are now gray where once they were red and gold (the most common colors used in descriptions), and it knows that soon it will be “born again in flame.” But-and here’s the major twist-it is not going to die on some sort of funeral pyre as is usually the case. It’s not quite clear to me what this “association” consists of except in the flame motif, and even (I’m speculating a bit here, as is not unusual) in the fact that the sun can be said to die every evening and then to be reborn each morning. We do know for sure that the phoenix is always associated with the sun, and indeed the supposed references to it in Egypt are in the city of Heliopolis, where the sun god Ra (or Helios) ruled. There’s quite a variation in the stories of this ever-renewing bird, with the word “phoenix” itself being found in ancient Greek and even, perhaps, in ancient Egyptian, although there is some fuzziness about the latter. I think we’re all vaguely aware that a phoenix is a creature who dies, usually in flames, and then rises anew from its own ashes. Ola had asked me for several poems relating to the theme of rebirth, and I gave him this twist on the usual theme.”So what’s the twist? A secondary one might be that Silvestri has built his poem around the myth of the phoenix and has the bird itself speaking.
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