O Hototogisu! is currently unavailable

About this arrangement

Orchestra SKU: AP.12-0571541119 Fragment of a Japonisme. Composed by Oliver Knussen. Full Orchestra; Performance Music Ensemble; Single Titles. Faber Edition. Form: Concerto. 20th Century; Folk. Score. Faber Music #12-0571541119. Published by Faber Music (AP.12-0571541119). ISBN 9780571541119. English.This exquisite fragment of a Japonisme---premiered in 2017 and conceived as a kind of double concerto for soprano, flute, and ensemble of 23 players---O Hototogisu! has proven to be Oliver Knussen's final work. The eight-minute piece couches seven exquisite haiku settings in richly evocative music, which incorporates signals from Japanese theater (particularly Kabuki). It concerns the Hototogisu (or Lesser Cuckoo), a bird widely invoked in Japanese haiku poetry of the 17th to 19th centuries, in which the poet listens for its arrival from the mountains both as a harbinger of summer and a voice from the land of the dead. Composed for soprano, flute, and full orchestra.