The X-tet: Songs of The Aviary

Join Boston Baroque for an imaginative program exploring the ways composers have listened to, imitated, and been inspired by the natural world.

For centuries, birdsong has found its way into music. Long before field recordings and modern technology, composers attempted to capture the calls of cuckoos, nightingales, and other birds through instrumental music. This program brings together works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that transform birdsong into musical motifs, from the playful cuckoo calls of Biber and Schmelzer to the vivid evocations of spring in Vivaldi and Rameau’s elegant portrait of birds in conversation.

At the center of the program is the world premiere of a new work by composer Lei Liang. Inspired by the song of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a Hawaiian bird declared extinct in 1987, the piece reflects on memory, loss, and the traces that remain after a voice has disappeared. The final recording of a male Kauaʻi ʻōʻō calling for a mate that would never answer has become one of the most haunting documents of extinction in the modern era, offering a powerful point of connection between the natural world and musical expression.

Spanning more than three centuries, these works reveal how composers have drawn inspiration from birds not only as subjects for imitation but as symbols of beauty, wonder, remembrance, and change.

Join us at Sanders Theatre for a unique evening that connects Baroque masterpieces with a newly created work, inviting listeners to hear familiar sounds and the natural world itself with fresh ears.