34th Annual Student Research Conference
O'o for Unaccompanied Flute: A Musical Depiction of the Final Days of the Moho Bird
Emily K. Zuber♦
Dr. Julianna Moore, Faculty Mentor
O'o, composed by Truman Alumnus Kyle Rieger in 2020, is a composition for solo flute meant to depict the final days of the last surviving Moho bird's life. Moho birds (O'o in the Hawaiian language) went extinct in the late 20th century. The last sighting of the species was in 1987 when the final audio recording was made of a male bird's mating song. The male specimen, likely the last surviving member of the species, instinctually called out to find a female that did not exist. This composition depicts aspects of the Moho bird using extended techniques and an imitation of the bird's mating call. The formal and compositional techniques implemented by Rieger in this work and how they depict the extreme isolation of the final days of the Moho species will be discussed in this research presentation, followed by a performance of the work in its entirety.
Keywords: Music, Flute, Environmentalism, Moho Bird, Extinction, Performance
Topic(s):Music
Presentation Type: Face-to-Face Oral Presentation
Session: 402-1
Location: SUB Activities Room
Time: 3:30