Osprey Sonata

Osprey Sonata (scheduled for performance in Carey’s Secret Garden in Poole, Dorset on 16 June 2026) continues the ongoing unique collaborative research process with composer Nye Parry, investigating how the rhetorical characteristics of sonata form can be used to articulate a dialogue between pianistic material and field recordings, in a fresh artistic engagement with contemporary environmental issues. Osprey Sonata celebrates the work of the environmental charity, Birds of Poole Harbour, and their involvement in the reintroduction of new bird species (especially ospreys and white-tailed eagles) to the south coast of England. It follows Pastoral Sonata I (also with Nye Parry) which was premiered in the Milton Court Studio Theatre on May 2nd 2024.

Osprey Sonata focusses on the call of the osprey (both as recorded sound and rendered as a pianistic motif, comparable but distinct from Messiaen’s approach) The first subject presents different versions of the osprey call, while the second is suggestive of its flight. The development section is a landscape involving other birdsong (chiffchaff, song thrush, canada goose, Cetti’s warber, moor hen etc.) alongside a range of pastoral topics and musical depictions of water sounds, with field recordings from the Birds of Poole Harbour archive. Recapitulation brings us back metaphorically to the osprey’s nest. In this way, sonata form facilitates the relationship between piano material and environmental sound, with an audible sense of transition and development from instrumental musical material to field recordings. In creating a harmony between anthropophony and biophony (Krause, 2015) these collaborative sonatas emphasise our dependence on a balanced ecology, seeking what Tim Ingold has described as “a renewed humanism oriented toward the flourishing of life” (Ingold, 2026).

The premiere, in Carey’s Secret Garden, will be in a public space, adjacent to a viewing platform from which nesting ospreys may be observed.