Reise, J :: The Ghost of the Red Sea Swallow

Jay Reise s Ghost of the Red Sea Swallow, for flute and piano and premiered by Christina Jennings, is an extract from the larger work Flight of the Red Sea Swallow, something of a response to Ralph Vaughan-Williams' mini-masterpiece The Lark Ascending. Reese s Flight is more animated than The Lark - the elusive swallow seems to have inhabited more dangerous environs than the English countryside.

The story of the Red Sea swallow Hirundo perdita is a strange one. The bird is known only from one specimen, found dead in May 1984 at Sanganeb lighthouse in Sudan. A live specimen has never been definitively sited. The bird is considered by specialists most likely to be found in the Red Sea hills of Sudan or Eritrea, or possibly across the Red Sea in the coastal hills of western Saudi Arabia - if it can be found at all. Conjecture on the Red Sea swallow's habitat is also based on the slim evidence that two pale-rumped swallows were sited flying out over the Red Sea towards Saudi Arabia a short time before the discovery of the lifeless bird.