Hai-kai (2011)

Instrumentation: Unaccompanied high voice

Duration: ca. 1'30"

Movements: One movement (range: C 4 to G 5)

Program Note: Hai-kai is a setting of an aphoristic poem by Rainer Maria Rilke: "Little moths stagger quivering out of the hedge; they will die tonight and will never know that it wasn't spring." Premiered in 2012 by Maryann Kyle at the University of Southern Mississippi, it has been subsequently performed by Megan Ihnen. Hai-kai attempts to convey the fatalist spirit of Rilke's poem in a single long melodic arch.

Score Download: Click here to download the entire score of Hai-kai free of charge (PDF)