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>> OVERVIEW - A DAY OF QUIET GLADNESS - RECORDINGS

"a day of quiet gladness-
Mount Fuji is veiled
in misty rain"
-Basho

"quietening the mind
deep in the forest
water drips"
-Hosha

"summer twilight
a woman’s song
mingles with the bath water"
-Donegan

"a note from the bell-
a cry from the water fowl-
and the night darkens"
-Issa

"all night long
the sound of the waterfall
a remembered dream"
-Hardy

Background
The initial idea for this event came from a twin love of haiku poetry and extended musical performance.

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, usually three lines long with a total of seventeen syllables. Haiku poetry is able to capture a moment in time, mood or insight with a clarity and poignancy that can sometimes be lost or distilled in longer verse. It is an intensely human response to nature and the world around us.

Extended musical performance, ‘music marathon’, as this form of activity is sometimes described, is a discipline sadly neglected in much of modern western musical practice. Not so in sacred music around the globe however, where performances often last for hours if not days (the ceremonies of Mahayana Buddhism, Japanese No Theatre, Malian ceremonial drumming, and the shamanistic rituals of the Native American, Mongolian and Siberian peoples are just a few examples of extended musical disciplines found in other traditions).

Plan
My plan is to simultaneously present these two disciplines: haiku and extended performance. I hope to achieve a reappraisal of how we think of music, in particular, and also to introduce the audience to the timeless quality of haiku, where a simple three-line structure can create such a subtle emotional impact that its effect can be felt throughout the whole day, with the mind returning to muse upon the poem again and again.

Which haiku?
I have selected haiku from the excellent collection, Haiku Poetry: Ancient & Modern, edited by poet Jackie Hardy. I have deliberately chosen haiku that feature music, or natural sound, or the absence of either, as their subject material.

The setting
The work should be presented in as public a situation as possible. The poetry will be displayed on boards around the performance space, with the piano tucked away into a corner if possible, so as not to place too much emphasis on its importance in the proceedings. The audience should feel comfortable about reading the poems and walking around the display at their leisure, and listening to the music as one listens to the sound of a stream or a waterfall – as an ongoing phenomenon, the beginning of which one was not present to witness, nor will one be there at its ending, except by chance in either case.

The music
The music will be taken from my collected pieces for solo piano (1997 – date). These pieces will be expanded as necessary to fit the performance schedule.

Performance times
Starting as early as possible in the morning, continuing through to as late as possible, with appropriate breaks as necessary.