The inspiration for this piece was drawn from the locust swarm (chartziyiya being the Arabic for locust \u2013 the native Egyptian tongue). It was one of the ten plagues from the Bible \u2013 the swarm overtook Egypt, destroying all of the food and crops. There are three distinct textures built in this piece \u2013 the opening \u2018zzz\u2019 sounds, a clear representation of the approaching swarm; the high shrilled notes, which are a reaction to the approaching swarm; and finally, the chant, which denotes the unity of the swarm in an almost ecstatic manner.

When an upward arrow is given (as shown in the performance instructions), it indicates that the particular section begins as a solo, and gradually spreads, with everyone singing by the end of the arrow. A downward arrow is the reverse of this. It may be worth thinking about how to organize sections coming in and out in this way (left to right, back to front), and possibly nominate one person from each section who starts first.

When such an arrow appears between two repeat marks (eg. In bar 44), it indicates that the singers in that section join in gradually throughout all the indicated repeats (not just the first one). Any hair-pins and crescendo\u2019s are also gradual.

Written February 2009
Revised March 2009
Duration : 4\u2019 58\u201d

- Sing an 'aah' vowel sound, at any note between the top and bottom notes of the written chord. Move your cheeks inwards and
outwards in an improvised manner, changing the sound to an 'ooh', and back to 'aah'. Also, very slowly move chromatically around
the notes within the specified range.