Birdsongs and Bells – Steve Heitzeg

Composer: Steve Heitzeg

Instrumentation: Carillon

Duration: Approx. 12 minutes

Date Written: 2022

Premiered: 2022/23

Additional Information: 

I Aequa (Equality Rings, Birds Sing) [Fall]
Part I: Prelude
Part II: Dance
Dedicated to Lisa Heldke, Gustavus Adolphus College Professor of Philosophy, affiliated faculty in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and Director of Nobel Conference

Aequa in Latin is “equal”. Our commitment to equality must be all inclusive, and this movement celebrates that through the sonic reverberations of the bells.
[world premiere at Nobel Conference ‘Mental Health (In)equity and Young People”
Chad Winterfeldt, carillonneur, 12:20pm on September 28, 2022]

Glass Birds is a reference to the beautiful glass birds made by the Nordic designer
Oiva Toikka and available at Anders Bjorling’s store Swedish Kontur Imports in downtown Saint Peter
[WorldpremiereatChristmasInChristChapel December1-4,2022]

III. I saw thousands of birds carrying away the sorrows and injustices of the world
(in Memory of Ray and Florence Sponberg, co-founders of the Mayday Peace Conference, which they started in 1981) [Spring]

[World premiere at May Day Peace Conference—May 3, 2023]

IV. Birds at Dawn (dedicated to Edna Spaeth Granlund and the late Paul Granlund) [Summer]
Part I: Bird Chords
Part II: Hymn to the Birds

Edna Spaeth Granlund has been a lifelong supporter of the arts and steward of the environment. Paul Granlund was Sculptor-in-Residence at Gustavus Adolphus College from 1971 to 1996. Over 30 of his works are on campus, including sculptures on the doors and inside of Christ Chapel. His sculpture “Constellation Earth” is in the Nagasaki Peace Park, Nagasaki, Japan. [World premiere at Baccalaureate—May 27, 2023]