THE SWAN - COSMIC SYMBOL for Sheng, Harp & Orchestra
Hardly any other animal features as prominently in legends and myths as the white ‘swan’, whose
symbolism is associated with purity, beauty, light and the divine realm.
The ‘black swan’, on the other hand, represents black magic, dark waters, death or an androgynous, dual world.
The ‘swan’ myth dates back over 45,000 years to the Siberian prehistory of
humanity, where evidence has been found of a profound, yet enigmatic, knowledge of the cosmos and a
calendar system based on the constellation of the Swan: the Denisovans
in the Siberian Altai Mountains were technologically advanced, which is difficult to reconcile with the Stone Age. They carried their knowledge – that souls are reincarnated in the zodiac sign of the ‘Swan’ – to Göbekli
Tepe in Anatolia and then into ancient Egypt. The double concerto explores these mysteries with an unusual combination of soloists and mysterious timbres. At times, there are echoes of Jean Sibelius, Richard Wagner or P. I. Tchaikovsky. Commissioned for the ‘Asia – Siberia – Europe’ festival in 2026 in Krasnoyarsk (Siberia), with which I have had a friendly connection since 2016.