Haiku Music – Volume 8

Haiku Music – Volume 8

My eighth self-published haiku music album – nine musical interpretations inspired by nine haiku.

Listen free and/or support the artist. The links below display the scores.

A Clear Waterfall 4:36 a clear waterfall into the ripples fall green pine needles .. Issa	Wind Turbines Harvest Silver Fog 8:52 spring dawn wind turbines harvest silver fog .. Michael Baeyens	Brave Soldiers Dream 9:35 The summer grasses All that remains Of brave soldiers dreams .. Matsuo Basho
The Beach Waves Break Up The Plovers 7:41 Each time they roll in the beach waves break up the plovers .. Shiba Sonome	The Shore Of A River 7:13 I’m on the shore of a river on some rocky path, on a hillside my way home .. Jamie Lickfold	When I Gazed Down The Ocean 8:59 When I gazed down the ocean, I could see with amazement The countless lights that shone .. Marco Sebastiano Alessi & Talk to Transformer
Between Houses 11:38 coolness— a mountain stream splashes out between houses .. Masaoka Shiki	Night Train 5:26 night train the briefly lit lives of others .. Mark Gilfillan	Town On The Horizon – for Elijah 15:49 bursts from our guns the town on the horizon a brief vision of light .. Julien Vocance

Lizard’s Last Words

This piece was written in response to Naviarhaiku315 – ambushed by bush fire

     ambushed by bush fire,
     had we only been dragons –
     a lizard’s last words.

This haiku is by Mark Morris, a journalist with more than a decade of experience writing for major broadcasters and national publications in the UK. He runs the Twitter account Pure Land Haiku, which has a simple goal best explained in the form of its strap-line: haiku to help you relax. In addition to above, Mark also produces music under the pseudonym Pure Land Haiku Music and Journoiz.

Lizard’s Last Words was written for Flute, Clarinet, Horn, Trombone, Gong, Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass.

Lizard’s Last Words
Lizard’s Last Words – Score

Buoyantly We Go

This piece was written in response to Naviarhaiku314 – Buoyantly We Go

   Buoyantly we go
   Like the wind,
   Tasting water.

This haiku is by Taneda Santoka, a Japanese poet and mendicant Zen priest who specialised in free verse haiku. Santoka was a disciple of Ogiwara Seisensui (1884-1976), the founder of the free-style haiku which discarded the traditional use of the 5-7-5 structure.

Buoyantly We Go was written for Flute, Clarinet, Horn, Trombone, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass.

Buoyantly We Go
Buoyantly We Go – Score

Little Dragonfly Hunter

Little Dragonfly Hunter was inspired by the haiku:

my little dragonfly hunter
I wonder how far
he has gone today…

The haiku is by Chiyo-ni, who was born in 1703 and was writing about the death of her son.

I wrote the piece to be included in the album “A Last Sunset, A Celebration of Candy Lozier”. Candy was an ambient composer and founder of the Studio 4632 netlabel, which released an album of my music in 2018. A second album was scheduled to be released but she passed away before that could happen.

Little Dragonfly Hunter was written for string quartet.

Little Dragonfly Hunter
Little Dragonfly Hunter – Score

Beyond the Smoke Is Light

This piece was written in response to Naviarhaiku310 – Beyond the Smoke Is Light

     Life here was marvelous
     But we are slaughtering the world
     Watch the forests burn

From Marco Sebastiano Alessi: “Ella, the youngest daughter of SityPhoxx has been studying poetry in her English class at High School. For an assignment she had to write 5 poems in different forms. One of them was a Haiku. She knew of the Haiku musical challenge as she often comes up with titles for the music that SityPhoxx writes. She asked if the group would be interested in reading her first Haiku. The topic is very close to her heart.”

I can relate to her feelings. At her age I was contemplating the possibility that I would be forced to be given a gun and sent to the other side of the world to fight in someone else’s war. Although I was able to avoid that fate, that feeling of helplessness is still felt to a small degree nearly fifty years later.

That said, there is a real possibility of hope, and working to right wrongs can give one a sense of worth and direction. People in power tend to count on the complacency of an uncaring public, so working against that can be the key to real change.

I wanted to offer that sense of optimism in this piece.

Beyond the Smoke Is Light was written for Flute, Clarinet, Horn, Trombone, Bass Drum, Cymbals, Gong, Vibraphone, Chorus, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass.

Beyond the Smoke Is Light
Beyond the Smoke Is Light – Score

Retrograde

Retrograde was written in response to Disquiet Junto Project 0416: Time Laps
     Step 1: Record a short piece of live, improvised music.
     Step 2: Reverse the audio recorded in Step 1.
     Step 3: Record a live improvisation on top of the reversed audio that resulted from Step 2. (Do this by listening to and responding to the playback in real time.) Then flatten the two layers into one layer.
     Step 4: Reverse the combined audio (both layers flattened) resulting from Step 3.
     Step 5: Record a live improvisation on top of the reversed audio that resulted from Step 4. (Do this by listening to and responding to the playback in real time.) Then flatten the two layers into one layer.
      Step 6: Reverse the combined audio (both layers flattened) resulting from Step 5. This is your finished piece (unless you’d like to do additional layers, continuing the flip-flopping, for as many times as you’d like).

Since recording is not a possibility for me, I replaced the recording instruction with writing. The flute begins with a theme, then that theme is played in retrograde while the oboe offers its own theme. As the clarinet enters with its theme the flute repeats what it has already played and the oboe begins a retrograde of its theme. Finally the bassoon enters as the oboe replays what it has played and the clarinet plays a retrograde of its theme.

To break things up an interlude is presented, which is then played in retrograde. Following this the bassoon plays a retrograde of the clarinet’s theme, accompanied by the clarinet playing the interlude theme. This idea is repeated as the clarinet, oboe and flute play retrograde themes of other instruments and the piece finally ends.

Much easier is simply listening to the piece for what it is without the distraction of the explanation.

Retrograde was written for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon.

Retrograde
Retrograde – Score

One Push Of The Door

This piece was written in response to Naviarhaiku310 – One push of the door, a single step

     One push of the door, a single step
     And the corridor seems to stretch
     As far as the eye can see.

The haiku is by Takuboku Ishikawa, best remembered for his emphatic and introspective tanka: his poems were accepted by the one of the most important tanka journals of the early 20th century, “Myojo”, when he was only 16. Takuboku Ishikawa’s two major collections of tanka, “Ichiaku no Suna” (“A Handful of Sand”) and “Kanashiki Gangu” (“Sad Toys”), came out in 1910 and 1912. “Sad Toys” was published posthumously in June 1912, two months after he died of tubercolosis at the age of 26.

One Push Of The Door was written for three Flutes, three Clarinets and Vibraphone.

One Push Of The Door
One Push Of The Door – Score