Haiku – SATB + String Quartet + Piano + Percussion

Haiku is a meditation on the fragile play between the suffering and pleasure of living encapsulated in this 18th century Japanese poem by Kobayashi Issa, translated by Robert Hass. The choral parts move from unison to divisi across the piece, while bird-like soloists interact playfully with the percussion. The piano provides full, rich jazz-inflected chordal foundation. Haiku is excerpted from my secular liturgy “The Song Among Us.”