Reflecting poetry through music: R. Murray Schafer's Seventeen Haiku
In 1997, Nobuyuki Koshiba commissioned R. Murray Schafer to compose a choral work for the Utaoni choir in Japan. The resulting composition, Seventeen Haiku, featured a collection of haiku set in their original Japanese, and included works by famous poets such as Basho and Kobayashi, as well as original haiku written by some of the choir members. With help from a Japanese composer Komei Harasawa, Schafer took on the task of composing in a language he did not speak or understand. In this score, Schafer employs standard, conventional notation as well as graphic notation to express his ideas and concepts.
A traditional Japanese poem consisting of seventeen morae, haiku is revered for its simplicity and portrayal of nature, and its ability to condense such complex ideas into just a few syllables. For Schafer (2012), a composer known for his intimate relationship with nature and the environment, spending time in Japan and his study of the haiku brought him a renewed respect for simplicity and nature. Through a textual and musical analysis of Seventeen Haiku, this exhibit will explore Schafer’s text-setting techniques to discover how the Canadian composer used music to convey deeper meanings and messages in the Japanese poems. Understanding how Japanese language and culture has shaped and influenced Schafer’s compositional language opens new opportunities to explore his use of the other languages within his oeuvre and to draw some conclusions about what hidden significance they may hold.
Authors
- Kathleen Jacques
- Nathalee Jacques
Bibliography
Burgess, Jesse Hugh. 2007. “The Aesthetic Qualities of Zen Haiku in Music.” M.A., thesis. California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Miller, Rachel Marie. 2014. "The Emotional Weight of Poetic Sound: An Exploration of Phonemic Iconicity in the Haiku of Bashō." Ph.D. diss., Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Schafer, R. Murray. Patria II: Requiem for a Party Girl. MS, 1966. Library and Archives Canada.
Schafer, R. Murray. 1978. Patria No. II Requiems for the Party-Girl. Toronto: Berandol Music.
Schafer, R. Murray. 1998. Seventeen Haiku. Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions.
Schafer, R. Murray. 2012. My Life on Earth and Elsewhere. Erin, Ontario: The Porcupine’s Quill.
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