O Hototogisu!
Fragment of a Japonisme
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SKU: AP.12-0571541119
Fragment of a Japonisme. Composed by Oliver Knussen. Full Orchestra; Performance Music Ensemble; Single Titles. Faber Edition. Form: Concerto. 20th Century; Folk. Score. Faber Music #12-0571541119. Published by Faber Music (AP.12-0571541119).ISBN 9780571541119. English.
This exquisite fragment of a Japonisme---premiered in 2017 and conceived as a kind of double concerto for soprano, flute, and ensemble of 23 players---O Hototogisu! has proven to be Oliver Knussen's final work. The eight-minute piece couches seven exquisite haiku settings in richly evocative music, which incorporates signals from Japanese theater (particularly Kabuki). It concerns the Hototogisu (or Lesser Cuckoo), a bird widely invoked in Japanese haiku poetry of the 17th to 19th centuries, in which the poet listens for its arrival from the mountains both as a harbinger of summer and a voice from the land of the dead. Composed for soprano, flute, and full orchestra.