and yet, and yet…

Concert Choir, 5m30s

Three haiku by the Japanese poet Issa (1763 – 1827) are set in English to a listless, ephemeral score for unaccompanied choir. The translations are by the composer, but are heavily based on those by Lewis Mackenzie.

The three poems are set in the order above in one continuous movement. Throughout, there is a textless recurring theme that turns out to be the melody given to the key line of the final poem.

Although this is an early work, my interest in intensely static textures can already be heard, this time inspired by the text of the poems.  I would go on to explore this kind of writing again in the second movement of my String Quartet and in Cold Wind in a Fallow Field.