The Slanting Sun
Year
2025
Length
11'00"
Category
Vocal
Chamber
Orchestration
Soprano, Horn, Violin, Percussion, Piano
Premiere
September 27, 2025
Juventas New Music Ensemble
Program Note
Every morning, I begin my day with a cup of sencha (gyokuro, on special occasions), shipped directly from the tea fields of Uji to my little corners of the world in Massachusetts and Vermont. Such are the wonders of the modern world! I sip the emerald liquor—grassy, saline, umami—and think about the day ahead. But sometimes my mind wanders East (or is it West?) to a country that has stirred my heart.
I’ve spent over 2 months in Japan, mostly on Honshu and Kyūshū. As I write this note, a particular afternoon in Kurokawa comes to mind (November 2017). My husband Chris and I, having walked into town and back about a half-dozen times, gazed wistfully at a persimmon tree, down a steep hillside, perched over the river. Perfect orange globes adorned the branches, like lanterns beckoning, but just too high to reach. I know, because we tried yesterday. All of a sudden, a local worker popped out of the woods, breathing heavy from running up the hill. He was carrying a long poll with a basket on the end… and eating a persimmon! I don’t recall exactly how it happened (we did not know enough Japanese, nor him English), but all of a sudden Chris and I were following him, bounding down the mountain. The sweet golden flesh melted in our mouths, as we shared a conversation of smiles.
Autumn is a festive season in Japan. In Kyoto, the air smells of burnt caramel, from street vendors roasting sweet potatoes on sticks. Lush, mossy gardens are dappled with a rainbow of yellows and reds. Many temples even stay open late into the evening for special night-time foliage viewings.
The Slanting Sun is a tribute to this special time in a country that I love. The text draws on poetry—mostly haiku—from 14 luminaries: Bashô, Buson, Chiyo-ni, Chôshû, Issa, Kigiku, Kikaku, Kotomichi, Hokushi, Môgan, Ransetsu, Sazanami, Shiki and Zuiryu. Japanese culture is particularly attuned to the seasons (the traditional calendar recognizes 72 subdivisions!) and I curated these poems into sections that map the annual journey from the end of summer to the start of winter. If you know me, then you know I use a lot of words to say what I want to say. By contrast, these miniatures are a study in the art of succinctness, painting richly evocative scenes, often with under 10 words. Of course, there is this one, from Shiki: Eating persimmons; the bell sounds, of Horyuji Temple.
Texts by Bashô, Buson, Chiyo-ni, Chôshû, Issa, Kigiku, Kikaku, Kotomichi, Hokushi, Môgan, Ransetsu, Sazanami, Shiki and Zuiryu
Just this morning,—
A single paulownia leaf
Has gently fallen.
-Issa
Relentlessly hot,—
But the wind is of autumn.
-Môgan In the dark forest, A berry drops: The sound of water. -Shiki // At Nara; The smell of chrysanthemums, The ancient images of Buddha. -Bashô The slanting sun: The shadow of a hill with a deer on it Enters the temple gate. -Buson The mountain grows darker, Taking the scarlet From the autumn leaves. -Buson The dance of the dragon-flies: A world In the setting sun. -Kigiku // I kept hanging the moon On the pine-tree, and taking it off, Gazing at it the while. -Hokushi The autumn full moon; Children sitting in a row On the verandah of the temple. -Bashô The water-fowl Pecks and shivers The moon on the waves. -Zuiryu The moon in the water; Broken and broken again, Still it is there. -Chôshû // Down from the mountain, The moon Accompanied me, And when I opened the gate, The moon too entered. -Kotomichi The bright moon: On the tatami The shadow of the pine-tree. -Kikaku // White dew on the bramble; One drop On each thorn. -Buson Peeling a pear, Sweet drops trickle down The knife. -Shiki The sparrows are flying From scarecrow To scarecrow. -Sazanami A hundred different gourds, From the mind Of one vine. -Chiyo-ni Eating persimmons; The bell sounds, Of Hôryûji Temple. -Shiki // In the far depths of the forest, The woodpecker, And the sound of the axe. -Buson It Is colder; No insect Approaches the lamp. -Shiki The rice having been reaped, The wild camomiles weaken and dwindle, Along the path. -Shiki The water becoming lower, How thin and long The legs of the scarecrow! -Buson Fallen leaves Come flying from elsewhere: Autumn is ending. -Shiki // It is deep midnight: The River of Heaven Has changed its place. -Ransetsu Leaning against the tree, Branches and leaves are few: A night of stars. -Shiki
Performance History
- September 28, 2025: Juventas New Music Ensemble, First Parish Sudbury, Sudbury, MA
- September 27, 2025: Juventas New Music Ensemble, Brattleboro Music Center, Brattleboro, VT
