Music and Haiku
by Olivia Gonzalez
An unknown author once said, "Where words fail, music speaks." This quote has been an inspiration to most musicians to create the most profound music that has been performed for hundreds of years or music that has been written in the last couple of days. In regards to haiku, music can be spoken even with no words and haiku speaks with words but both implicate a deep and impactful meaning. Music and haiku are similar in numerous ways and a logical reason is the meaning can be interpreted in different ways. Music with no words leaves the door open to numerous interpretations. Some of the composers would want the reader or listener to interpret for themselves and leave the interpretation open, but some music composers do have the story written and would like that story or interpretation to be expressed in their piece. Most of the music selection is from the classical time and there are two from the twentieth century. All of the pieces that are discussed are works without words but one is with words. This essay will entail the correlation between each haiku and compositions from famous composers. The haiku that were selected are connected by music composers and the pieces they have written.
The first haiku is from Peggy Lyles that was studied and analyzed in class. The haiku reads as,
Gershwin's lullaby
magnolia petals
ladle fireflies
Lyles, THTR , 59
In this haiku it embellishes the theme of calmness or peace because of "Lullaby" that suggests this. The second line can suggest that the beautiful magnolia petals are holding the fireflies. "Ladle" is another important phrase that can hint that the fireflies are landing on the magnolia petals. A ladle is a spoon that is used for chicken broth or a deep spoon to hold more broth. The thought I envision the fireflies are flowing around and landing on the magnolia petals for good measure. In comparison to this haiku there is a piece by Gershwin that is titled "lullaby." "Lullaby" was composed for strings but I will discuss about the piano version because as a pianist, it is easier to discuss about the details of this piece. The piece begins with a melodic phrase in the right hand that quickly descends across the keys. It is beautiful and it almost sounds equivalent to a lullaby that is usually peaceful and graceful. During the piece the melody repeats from time to time and this is a comparison to the glow of the fireflies in the haiku. Fireflies fly around and come back and land on the flowers from time to time and in the piece the melody represents this. The other comparison is Gershwin wrote an actual piece titled "lullaby." It is interesting because Peggy Lyles could have known the piece that Gershwin wrote and it made sense musically because the piece and the haiku connected well. It was as if Peggy listened to this piece and wrote this haiku from Gershwin's work. The haiku was beautiful just itself but when I listened to Gershwin's Lullaby it was as if the haiku and the piece were suppose to be in harmony together. Without the piece or the haiku they might not have completed each other.
The second haiku that has connected well is a piece from Chopin. The haiku from Anderson has warmth and meaning that connected well to the piano piece titled, "Nocturne in C sharp minor" by Chopin. The haiku from Anderson reads:
Chopin nocturne
the lower octaves warm
from the sun
The Scent of Music, Hortensia Anderson,12
The haiku talks about a specific Chopin nocturne and the second line talks about the significance in the left hand. It specifically hints at the "Nocturne in C sharp minor." A "Nocturne" which is another term for "night" but it is a piece that is inspired to evoke nighttime, or characteristics of a romantic night. Chopin was a Romantic composer and a "Nocturne" brings certain romantic and playful characteristics to the piece. In classical music, it is rare to talk about the left hand in piano music, but Anderson thought it was important to draw attention to the way it speaks. The last line connected well to the piece and it described the meaning and description of the left hand. In music, specifically in piano works, the left hand is hardly mentioned but in Chopin's music, it is equal or close to the right hand. Chopin made the left hand as beautiful in chord progression and it was the foundation of the piece, especially in "Nocturne in C sharp minor." The third line "from the sun" suggests that the warmth and the dominance in the left hand is similar to the sun which brightens the day, and the left hand can be the opposite of the term "nocturne" which shines like the sun. The left hand in "Nocturne in C Sharp minor" is played very softly and it is legato or to be played "connected", no bumps or breaths in the line of a phrase. The second line hints at the left hand, and the job of the left hand is to keep a steady tempo by playing at the lower end of the piano for most of the piece. It was interesting to read from Anderson's haiku only highlight the left hand because Chopin was known for his lyrical and breathtaking melodies in the right hand. The "Nocturne in C sharp minor" does have long, lyrical and beautiful melody but it was different to hear the perspective of the left hand. I personally learned this piece and I remember learning and perfect in a six month period. I had to practice the left hand more than I had to practice the right hand because it was difficult to play several notes in one impulse, and for it to be soft and expressive as the right hand. The haiku implies that the significance of the left hand is in comparison to the last two lines of the haiku. I thought it was new to classical music for a haiku to be about the left hand for a piano work.
Another haiku that related to music composers is a haiku about the king of the Baroque era, Bach. This haiku by William Higginson mentioned a famous classical guitar player who practice and played Bach songs for most of his life, Segovia. Higginson mentions Segovia who is from Spain and has taught or held masterclasses to students or performed mostly in Spain. The haiku below is:
Segovia: Bach
and the scent of insects
burnt in the lamp
The Scent of Music, William J. Higginson, 30
The odd idea or the last two lines do not seem to match well with Bach but it was interesting to point out the last two lines Higginson mentions were about insects. A
reason why this could make sense is Segovia is from Spain and he could be performing in Barcelona where it is tropical and uncomfortably humid. The idea that Segovia is performing and it is a warm day while are lamps or lights around an opened building that is night time. This matches well with the last two lines because it mentions a Spanish guitar player who is playing a hard arrangement of Bach from a piano work or a violin/cello work. The music aspect that ties along with this is the haiku mentions Segovia playing a piece that portrays the skills and techniques of the Bach piece. This haiku was different and seemed to not fit together but the context of this piece would be the performance area Segovia would be at. I thought this was different to write a haiku about a guitar player playing a Bach piece. The piece that went along with this is usually for piano and it was refreshing to hear a guitar player play it. Bach did not compose pieces that were made for classical guitar because Bach did not live around that area or the guitar was not famous then. Segovia is an amazing musician and performer, and to hear him play a Bach piece on guitar is quite the challenge.
The next haiku hints at Bach and it reads as:
Bach Fugue—
the ordered flight
of wild geese
The Scent of Music, Jim Kacian, 33
The background or context of this haiku is a Bach Fugue. Bach composed hundreds of pieces but he composed a set of pieces that were known as fugues. Fugues are difficult piano or organ pieces that would teach the pianist and organist to master certain skills. The fugue is structured and is meant to focus on certain elements of piano skills. In Bach's pieces, the left hand and right hand are equal to each other and that is the reason why his pieces are difficult. An example from a fugue is the right hand would play a certain melody or phrase and then the left hand would play the exact or a similar melody. Throughout the piece it has a sense of structure and it is an accomplishment to master fugues on the keyboard. The relationship between the haiku is the haiku represents a haiku matches a fugue precisely specifically in the second line, "ordered flight." The second line represents the fugue in an organized structure and format of the piano work. The work I chose to this was on YouTube. It was a video and a slideshow of wild geese and in the background was a an inspired Bach work from a student that had time on his own hands. From the YouTube video and the caption entailed the student took a lot of pictures of geese and thought to write a piece that sounded much like a Fugue. It humorous because the haiku matched perfectly to the music video that I found.
Rachmaninov's piano piece
in Pogorelic's hands
a machine gun
The Scent of Music, Zoran Mimica, 43
The music idea that ties along with this is Rachmaninov is known to compose difficult pieces that are strenuous to the hands. It is quite difficult because some professional musicians cannot play his pieces because Rachmaninov can reach more than an octave (playing two notes that are eight white keys apart). Rachmaninov was known for his thirteenth octaves that barely anyone could play. Nowadays there have been parodies where two people would play his piece that was meant for one person. Aside from pieces that pianists cannot play by Rachmaninov is the musical example that represents this is, "Moments in Musicaux in E minor", which is one of his most famous pieces. In the haiku, it mentions in the last line a "machine gun", and in "Moments in Musciaux in E minor", the left hand is wicked fast and it is playing a passage continuously for almost three minutes. The last line matched this piece well because of the difficult phrases that are not only in the left hand but right hand as well. The left hand does reflect a machine gun because it accents certain beats in each measure and it is a machine gun is a perfect description. The second line mentions Pogorelic, and Pogorelic is a famous performer who is obsessed with Rachmaninov music and performs Rachmaninov music world wide. Mimica tried to envision the reader who might have seen Pogorelic play a piece by Rachmaninov and was amazed by how fast it was.
The last haiku is a simple haiku about Bob Dylan from Duhaime. It reads:
guitar and harmonica
in my car bob dylan
is still 20
The Scent of Music, Andre Duhaime, 23
I thought this was different than the rest of the music haikus that have been selected because it is a song not a work. Bob Dylan wrote songs that contained lyrics that were deep in meaning. This haiku was relatable to myself because my friend use to play Bob Dylan all of the time and he would play the song "Blowin in the Wind" and would sing it almost all of the time. One time I was in the car and he had a Baby Taylor guitar and a harmonica, then would play that song while I was driving. My friend and I listened to Bob Dylan and I loved my friend playing his music and singing. I enjoyed listening to Bob Dylan being played from my friend because I listened to the lyrics very closely. The lyrics spoke on another level unlike most songwriters. It was as if it was a professional poet speaking through a popular song. In the video, in comparison to music is there was a live video of Bob Dylan playing his guitar and harmonica performing, "Blowin in the Wind." In the video Bob Dylan looked like he was in his twenties this was performed in 1963. I thought Bob Dylan as a music composer was important to discuss because it has been fifty years that his music is still being played. Compared today people have listened to a pop song that was very popular two years ago and if it were to be played again it is not as enjoyable and it is most likely to not be played within a couple of years. Bob Dylan is influential, and I think his music would be played for a couple of hundreds of years like most classical songs.
Music moves people and a story that is worth sharing is from Benjamin Zander, an English conductor at the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. He was featured in a TED talk and it was about the importance of classical music. In his TED talk, he mentioned how he gave the same presentation to a group of 7th graders in Ireland. He played a Chopin piece, "Prelude in E minor" but before he played the Prelude he asked for the audience to think about a lost loved one and to think about them during the piece. He said one boy came up to him after the talk and said that he thought about his dead brother that was shot and killed a year ago. After he heard him played, he said that tears streamed down his face and that was the first time he actually cried for the death of his brother. The idea behind music and haiku is that there is a story to everyone, whether it is a haiku that speaks directly to you and it can bring different emotions. The idea I wanted to convey was to deepen the meaning of haiku by using music. Music can bring happiness, joy, sadness, anger, or all of these different emotions that can affect everyone. That is the beauty of both music and haiku.
Works Cited
Anderson, Hortensia. "The Scent of Music." ' t schrijverke , edited by Marlene Buitelaar, 2013, p. 12.
Duhaime, Andre. "The Scent of Music." ' t schrijverke , edited by Marlene Buitelaar, 2013, p. 23.
Higginson, William J. "The Scent of Music." ' t schrijverke , edited by Marlene Buitelaar, 2013, p. 30.
Kacian, Jim. "The Scent of Music." ' t schrijverke , edited by Marlene Buitelaar, 2013, p. 33.
Lyles, Peggy. "To Hear the Rain: Selected Haiku of Peggy Lyles." Brooks Books. 200, p. 59.
Mimica, Zoran. "The Scent of Music." ' t schrijverke , edited by Marlene Buitelaar, 2013, p. 43.
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