Four Haiku for Flute and Marimba

Flute and Marimba, 13m

The aesthetic behind haiku poems – short but poignant works charged with nature imagery – appeals to me greatly, so I tried my hand at embodying this aesthetic in a set of little pieces.  “Proper” Japanese haiku should always be set in a specific season, so I composed a set of four, one for each.

Each piece is in its own harmonic world. Although I love the sound of Japanese music, you won’t find any specific reference to it here. Instead, I was exploring an idea I had at the time about the use of tertian harmonies (which are unusual for me) to construct contantly shifting tonal centers. And don’t bother listening for counts of five, seven, and five – that kind of literal interpretation of extramusical material doesn’t interest me.