Violin solo

A Crown of Feathers was composed in 1992 for William Barbini. It weaves its fabric around the threads of Yiddish songs, heard first in a series of lively tunes piled atop one another, then through quotations from two slow melodies-the haunting Tsvey Taybelech (Two Doves) and, finally, the popular Auf'm Pripistshok.

The quotations do not aim for literal accuracy, but are recalled through the haze of remembrance that enhaloes these moving documents of the Diaspora.

The work's title is taken from a short story by the great Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.