The Composer’s Tale

The Starling Symphony made my reputation and my fortune. Critics called Starling a breakthrough, and so it was. There has been much speculation about where it came from, since it was unlike anything I had done up to then. Here’s how I made it: Every morning for a year I stepped outside my house and looked up at the power lines strung like a stave between two poles. Starlings perched on the wires like notes. I photographed the starlings in the stave. Later I arranged the pictures next to each other in a long line. The melody was pure creation.