Andrew Thomas The Narrow Road to the Deep North 12 Haiku Without Words

This work for solo piano was commissioned in 2008 by Duo Noveau to follow two of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte in a series of concerts in Scotland during 2009. The work takes its inspiration from the poetic style and structure of Matsuo Bashō’s travel sketch The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Within this work Bashō (1644 – 1694) visited twelve regions of Japan and employed a flexible and cyclical structure of haiku (a poetic form of 5-7-5 syllables) and waka (5-7-5-7-7). The journey from one location to the next is dealt with by a seamless transition of poetry that transformed the strict structure of haiku and waka into a new art form. My music revolves around the opening Eb and the goal of the work is to take this note on a ‘journey’ through twelve different sound-worlds and situations. Just as in the Bashō, each of the first six destinations is then used as the basis for one of the six destinations that form the journey home. This, married with the smooth transitions between each location, created an organic, cyclical nature to the work. Each of the twelve destinations takes the form of a song, or haiku, without words, sometimes with a specific text in mind, sometimes simply a melody. Aside from where specifically marked the pedal should be used sparingly. Slanted pedal markings indicate a gradual releasing of the pedal over the given duration. In the event of a piano that is not fitted with a third pedal the performer is at liberty to find a suitable method of sustaining the relevant pitches (or creating the effect there of).