Douglas Geers
Blue Haikus
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[This exerpt is from haiku number 5: "The Soles of My Shoes Are Clean from Walking in the Rain."]
Blue Haikus is a musical homage to Jack Kerouac. My idea for the music sprang from a recording I stumbled upon entitled "Blues and Haikus", which featured Kerouac and two jazz sax players. On the recording, Kerouac recited "haikus" which he had written, and after each one the sax players would improvise 5-20 seconds of music. For my piece, I selected my five favorite of the Kerouac poems and made each of these the title of a short movement of music, ranging approximately from 1-3 minutes.
The movements are:
1. In My Medicine Cabinet, the Winter Fly Has Died of Old Age
2. Nightfall. Boy Smashing Dandelions with a Stick.
3. Blackbird--No, Bluebird!! Branch Still Jumping.
4. Well, Here I Am, 2pm. What Day Is It?
5. The Soles of My Shoes Are Clean from Walking in the Rain.
The ensemble for Blue Haikus is clarinet, trumpet, piano, percussion, and cello. Movements 1, 2, 3, and 5 of this recording are taken from a reading by members of Speculum Musicae on April 25, 1996; movement 4 is taken from a performance of the Cincinnati Contemporary Music Ensemble at The Deiterle Vocal Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 23, 1997.
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