2022 The University of Manchester UK
collaboration w interdisciplinary poet, Estelle Allen
The poem, comprising of three haikus & one katuata, takes direct inspiration from Matsuo Bashō’s mastery of association & inference, working closely with techniques of verbal linking (mono-zuke) & atmospheric association (nioi-zuke) to reflect on the role & pervasiveness of historical trauma in the subconscious mind. Musically, the careful assigning of selected scales & modes to the poem’s word groupings reinterprets Bashō’s technique of content-based connection, allowing text & sound to collaboratively enliven the contrasts so beautifully embedded within Estelle’s poem.
Visually, the score’s illustrative markings offer a bridge between text & sound. In contrast to the original poem, it is now the light that pervades the score’s darkness, effacing the boundaries between past & present as they coalesce in the murk of the subconscious.
[soprano, alto 1, alto 2]