Three Love Haiku from Thoughts of Ancient Kyoto
Judith Cody
About this work: Program notes:
In the brief, intense haiku songs forming the musical structure of this work, the sound of each word is as important as its meaning. Haiku, traditionally have seventeen syllables. There was no attempt to strictly count syllables as the music itself is, of course, considered part of the count, as it were. It is the essence of this form of ancient Japanese poetry, the thought somehow suspended in air, that I have attempted to capture
through both music and language.
Love poems, such as these, were the popular form of communication among court ladies and gentlemen in long ago palaces of Japan. This art is exemplified in Lady Murasaki's Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji," which also happens to be the first novel ever written (1000-1025 AD). -JC
Three Love Haiku
I
Red flames
from Fuju
Wake us
At dawn.
2
This new
Joy
Terrifies
Me!
3
Your kisses
Shower my face
But I
Desire
The storm.
copyright 1986, Judith Cody, all rights reserved
Version: soprano and piano
Year composed: 1986
Duration: 00:02:10
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with Keyboard
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Soprano