Wake for flute (2015)

Program Note

Wake (2015) for solo flute, was composed for Wayla Chambo, who both premiered the work and wrote the poem that inspired it. Her opening line brought to mind woodprints of Japanese mountains, so I sought to bring that world of nature and sound and time to life in the piece. The pitch material, as well as many of the extended techniques, are derived from the courtly repertoire of the Shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese flute. The simple 6-note scale is then intensified by fragmentation and development to reflect the ardent character of the poem.

There is a river swollen with new life
and fog lifting like breath across the mountain.
Still, brown, but the green time’s coming soon
and I can feel it, everything is gathering
its strength for one long spring into the sunlight.
Resurrection is a deep, glad song:
no doctrine, but a stirring in the body.
High above, grey shivers into blue,
tall branches toss and flutter, golden-frindged,
geese rising up clamoring and then we’re off
a warm, wet wind, a laughing ululating,
keening dash into a sudden stillness
in each other’s arms. I smell myself
all tangled in her hair with this wild morning.
We don’t talk about love, but her body feels like home.
I know this place. And this is holy water,
this, the long curve of her thigh, strong belly,
hair a spicy curtain, neck becoming
shoulder, collarbone and breast with no
hard lines. Her skin as soft as mine.
I drink, a thirst too deep for caution rising,
thirst that calls me back to what I need,
the sweet ache through the wildest part of me.
Drink and be whole, as if it were all this:
the morning pouring between us, we’re transparent,
I breathe her in, I will not ask, pretend
her touch is light enough to leave no mark
not falling, flying through this burning dark.
Wayla Chambo, “Wake”

Perusal Score

Wake-Watermarked

The image I have used to represent this composition is A Grove of Cherry Trees (Sakura namiki zu) by Hiroshige Andō.