Mixed choir
SKU:
FG.55011-348-0
Composed by Matthew
Whittall. Score. Fennica
Gehrman #55011-348-0.
Published by Fennica
Gehrman (FG.55011-348-0).
ISBN
9790550113480.
Shik
i began as a request for
a short winter-themed
piece for the
Hamalais-Osakunnan
Laulajat choir in
Helsinki. It eventually
grew into a four
seasons-type cycle on
haiku by a 20th century
Japanese monk Santoka
Taneda.
The music of
Shiki is a progression
through various states of
near-stasis. The main
impression the composer
wished to convey was the
one of absolute stillness
at the heart of each
scene, of communion with
the outer world, as if
the viewer were drawing
the landscape into him,
and at the same time
dissolving himself into
it. The voices are
treated texturally, as
well as textually, moving
on slow masses, with the
soft but precisecely
colored vowels of
Japanese creating the
basic sounds, and the
sharper consonants giving
them shape and
definition.
