Requested and premiered by the Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Peter Rutenberg, Director, Zipper Auditorium, Colburn School, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2000.

Score available from the composer. P.O. Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

        Score       $25.00

Program notes and performance history:

River of Stars is a literal translation of the Japanese word 'amanogawa', commonly known in the English-speaking world as the Milky Way.  It was written at the request of Peter Rutenberg for the Los Angeles Chamber Singers, and subsequently premiered by them at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, April 1, 2000.  I have always wished to write a poly-textual motet in the manner of the 13th century French composers, and the juxtaposition of this archaic European style with contemporary texts by Japanese women proved too delicious for me to pass up. Though I knew going in that it might be hard to pull off, I decided I had to try, and the opportunity to write for Peter’s crack chamber choir seemed to provide the perfect opportunity.

Most of the texts were written by the celebrated 19th century Japanese poet Akiko Yosano, one of the first women in Japan to write in an explicitly erotic manner.  Most of the rest of the texts were written by women of our time, all highly influenced by Akiko’s pioneering example.  Most of the poems take the form of the tanka, short poems akin to haiku, which are arranged in lines with the syllable pattern: 5 – 7 – 5 – 7 – 5.  Normally the poems subdivide into two parts, the first three lines forming the first, the last two, the second.   I arranged the poems into two groups, the "tenor "group, and the "motetus"  group.  The poems of the tenor group are simple in style and ethereal  in tone, centering on images of the moon, temple bells, heart -beats, and koto-strikes.  The motetus texts are arranged in three parts in a semi-narrative fashion, and are intended to depict the symbolic passing of time.  The texts of part one are full of Narcissistic adoration and anticipation for a night of love.  Those of Part Two express passion and ecstasy, while the texts of Part Three are given to reflection and melancholy.  The work ends with a reprise of music heard at the end of Part One.  Though the actual score is structurally more intricate than this brief explanation reveals, I leave that to the listener to discover.  The work is dedicated to "me beloved wife Chika."
 

Part One

         Tenor:

         the moon is full                               tsuki wa saerushi
         the night is very still                       yo wa shin shin to
         my heart beats                                kokoro bososa yo
         like a bell                                        kane no koe

         Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth            Anonymous

        Duplum:

 immersed in my hot                        yuami sura
 bath, like a lovely lily                     izumi no soko no
 growing in a spring                        sayuri-bana
 my twenty-year-old body—            hatachi no natsu o
 so beautiful, so sublime                  utsukushi to minu

 Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko   Yosano Akiko
 Matsui Gibson

        Triplum:

 gently, I open the                            chibusa osae
 door to eternal                                shinpi no tobari
 mystery, the flowers                        soto kerinu
 of my breasts, cupped                     kokonaru hana no
 offered with both my hands            kurenai zo koki

 Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko   Yosano Akiko
 Matsui Gibson

        Quadruplum:

 tell them                                          hanshin ni
 she is enjoying the view                  usukurenai no
 of the moon                                     usumono no
 a pink gossamer robe                     koromo matoite
 barely covering her body                tsuki miru to ie

Trans. by Makoto Ueda                  Yosano Akiko

 

Refrain

        Tenor:

 amidst the notes                               koto no ne ni
 of my koto is another                       kyosho no oto no
 deep mysterious tone,                       uchi majiru
 a sound that comes from                  kono ayashisa mo
 within my own breast                       mune no hibiki zo

 Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth              Yosano Akiko

         Duplum:

I finger the                                        erimoto no
lace on my collar                              resu o ijiru
until night, when you                        hanabira o
turn over my petals                           anata ga mekutte
                                                          kureru yoru made

Translated by Leza Lowitz, Miyuki  Hayashi Amari
Aoyama, and Akemi Tomioka
 

Part Two

                      in bright spring sunshine                 haru no hi o
                      adoring lovers recline                      koi ni taru yoru
                      against a white wall                         shira-kaba zo
                      a lonely stranger watches                uki wa tabi no ko
                      dusk enters the wisteria                   fuji tasogaruru

 Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko     Yosano Akiko
 Matsui Gibson

          Tenor:

 I saw a young girl                              orakani
 naked                                                 kurokise mi sete
 steering a boat                                   isanayuku
 across an open sea                            kami ho no mi no
 it was only the moon                         akatsuki tsukiyo
 of a summer night

 Trans. By Glenn Hughes and             Yosano Akiko
 Yozan T. Iwasaki

           Duplum:

 I hold your head tight                       anata no atama wo watashi no
 between my thighs and press            mata ni shikkari hasami
 against your mouth and                    anata no kuchi ni watashio tsuyoku
 float away forever in                        oshishitsukeru to, watashi wa
 an orchid boat                                  ran no hana no fune ni notte
 on the river of heaven                      tokoshie ni tengoku no kawa wo
                                                           tadayotte yuku

 Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth              Marichiko

            Triplum:

 the peony in her hair                         kasashitaru
 flared up, setting the ocean              botan hi to nari
 on fire                                                umi moenu
 the dream of a woman                      omoi midaruru
 whose thoughts are in a frenzy         hito no ko no yume

 Trans. By Makoto Ueda                   Yosano Akiko

             Quadruplum:

 warm wine                                        kuchi utsusareshi
 from his mouth                                 nuruki wain ga
 to mine                                             hita hita to
 lapping against me                           ware wo kumanaku
 radiating through me                       hakkoh saseru

 Trans. by Leza Lowitz, Miyuki          Matsudaira Meiko
 Aoyama, and Akemi Tomioka

 
Part Three

 feeling that                                        nanitonaku
 you were waiting for me,                  kimi ni mataruru
 I went out into the                             kokochi shite
 flowering fields
 and found -                                        ideshi hana  no no
 the new moon                                    yuzukuyo kana

 Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko      Yosano Akiko
 Matsui Gibson

 the river of stars                                 amanogawa
 begins to part high                             soine no toko no
 in the Milky Way while                       tobari-goshi ni
 through the curtains of our bed         hoshi no wakare o
 I lied awake and watched                  sukashi miru kana

 Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko       Yosano Akiko
 Matsui Gibson

    Refrain

           Tenor:

 the moon is full                                   tsuki wa saerushi
 the night is very still                           yo wa shin shin to
 my heart beats                                    kokoro bososa yo
 like a bell                                            kane no koe

 Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth               Anonymous

  Duplum:

 amidst the notes                                 koto no ne ni
 of my koto is another                         kyosho no oto no
 deep mysterious tone,                         uchi majiru
 a sound that comes from                    kono ayashisa mo
 within my own breast                         mune no hibiki zo

 Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth                Yosano Akiko

Special thanks to Toshie Marra, librarian in the East Asian Library at UCLA, for helping to locate the original Japanese texts for several of the poems, and to Chika Kawahara, and Maki Tauchi, for their invaluable help in translating and locating several of the poems.