A Winged Creature (1994) for orchestra. The title evokes a vision I had in a dream, namely, the appearance of some indefinite winged creature that was both lofty and dreadful. The dream came after reading a passage in the Bible about the antediluvian demigods, the Nephilim (in the King James Version translated from the Hebrew as 'giants', but, apparently, they should correctly be 'the fallen ones' or 'the fellers'), which were alleged to be human descendants of fallen angels. The form of the composition is a sequence of five parts that have the working titles: Invocation, Flight, Song, Dance, and Processions. One of the elements that ties it all together is the variously formed musical gesture, reminiscent of the beating of wings. The introduction contains a quotation from Stravinsky's Firebird (harmonics on the D strings). The composition was commissioned by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which premiered it with me conducting, in St Elizabeth Hall, on 9 November 1995. It was later performed several times, in 1998, thanks to the Jupiter Orchestra, London, and at the ISCM Festival, Luxembourg, in 2000.

Instrumentation: 1211-2-000-86442, Duration: 12 min.