"Coursing Through The Still Green"
by Judith Shatin
Written for solo flute and inspired by the poetry of Wang Wei,
a Chinese poet living in the eighth century
Walking by the bank of Yellow Flower Brook
I chase a blue stream
Turning and twisting down the mountain
The path is not long
Water splashes from one stone to another
Coursing through the still green
Deep inside the pine forest
Ripples radiate from water chestnut weeds
Reeds reflect in the clear water
My heart is quiet like a still pool
I want to stay on this flat stone
And cast my fishing line forever
(The poem can be found in the book Walking to Where the River Ends by Wang Fang yu, Suzanne Graham Storer, and Mary de G. White, published in 1980 as an Archon Book of the Shoestring Press.).
"This Floating World" by Edie Hill
Written for solo flute and commissioned by flutist Linda Chatterton. Each movement was inspired by the corresponding haiku written by Basho:
I. Skylark
Midfield,
attached to nothing,
the skylark singing.
II. Harvest Moon and Tide
Harvest moon—
the tide rises
almost to my door.
III. Winter Solitude
in a world of one color,
the sound of wind
IV. Petal Shower
A petal shower
of mountain roses,
and the sound of the rapids.
V. A Wild Sea
A wild sea –and flowing out toward Sado
Island,
the Milky Way
5 haiku from THE ESSENTIAL HAIKU:
VERSIONS OF BASHO,
BUSSON & ISSA, EDITED AND WITH AN
INTRODUCTION by ROBERT HASS.
Copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass
Published by ECCO PRESS,
100 West Broad St. Hopewell,
New Jersey 08525
"Three Women" by Beth Denisch
Arranged for flute and piano from
Denisch’s song cycle One Blazing
Glance which chronicles important
moments in a woman's life, from
young girlhood to being older than a
grandmother. Each movement was
inspired by the following poems. Featuring Amanda Roberts, piano.
I. Miriam's Ballad
Inspired by Miriam’s Dance
by Rosie Rosenzweig
There is a song I hear,
Resting and rocking the warm air.
It enters me from out of old volcanic rock
As dense as the dark past;
I know it like my own blood running unseen
In the hidden chambers of my soul;
It resounds as thunder, appears as fire,
Becomes a pillar, clouds,
And wish-fulfilling stars.
With a skip and jangle, I follow
The trope, rising, swept dry bywaves.
Where I move
To the music that I am,
Have been,
And always will be.
II. Rachel's Song
Inspired by My Baby Has No Name Yet
by Kim Nam-Jo
My baby has no name yet;
like a new-born chick or a puppy,
my baby is not named yet.
What numberless texts I examined
at dawn and night and evening over again!
But not one character did I find
which is as lovely as the child.
Starry field of the sky,
or heaps of pearls in the depth.
Where can the name be found, how can I?
My baby has no name yet;
like an unnamed bluebird or white flowers
from the farthest land for the first,
I have no name for this baby of ours.
(translated by Ko Won)
III. Ruth's Dance
Inspired by Facial by Allison Joseph
Remember all the hands that loved your skin,
the soft plains of your cheeks, your jaw and
chin,
and think of them, the way they ached to
stroke
each inch, in need of all your face evokes.
Caress each wrinkle with a fingertip,
glide down the slope of nose, the curve of lip.
Each line that you embrace reveals a life
that no one else can know-each joy or strife,
each moment that your face can
map for years the
brows, the folds, the scars, the pores,
the fears,
the knowledge in your eyes, your regal head,
the selves you've painted on, then rinsed to
shed.
Be proud of all the progress you can trace
by touching every contour of your face.