Shiroi Haru no Hana
Tatta ichi-in-chi saitemo (Ichin-chi dake saitemo)
Ishyo no kaori

White flower of spring
only blooming for a single day
perfumes the rest of life

This piece and text was originally planned for a concert that was to have been in honor of a recently departed friend. I am glad we have the opportunity to premiere it tonight.

Onda is a Cambridge-based trio of voice, violin, and percussion, who collaborate to extend the sonic and technical possibilities of their instruments. Tonight, they will be realizing the piece. In observance of the meaning of the text, I designed the piece to be playable only once. The piece is part of a context-specific performance practice in which the iconography of sounds created by the group develops throughout a lifetime. In other words, tonight's piece can be seen as a snapshot of a moment of that lifelong process. It is at once ephemeral and permanent.

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