Performed by Chetham’s Contemporary Music Ensemble Chorus, and conducted by Doug Mason.
The words to my composition, “Nageki Tsutsu,” are attributed to the Japanese poet 藤原道綱母 (Michitsuna’s mother) from the late 900s, whose true name is unknown to history. She wrote about her troubled marriage. In this poem, she laments the loneliness of nights spent in solitude waiting for dawn. I experimented with quartal harmony and traditional Japanese scales, combining them with 21st-century choral writing styles influenced by composers such as Eric Whitacre and Bob Chilcott.
The text set to music is as follows:
View the score:
