Your Recorder Community

Traditional haiku incorporates a seasonal word or topic in its three lines to evoke an image. These pieces were originally created for the 2013 Haiku North American Conference. We decided to collaborate to create new pieces for the event to express the joy found in making music in harmony with nature; Marcyn wrote haiku, and I realized her words in sound. The Village Pipers have performed these in many outdoor venues.

In some of these pieces, the poem is read before the music is played. In others, the words are incorporated into the fabric of the music. The poems can be read by a guest reader or by the players themselves.

The joy in Mockingbird reflects the playful nature of the bird’s song with little repetitions throughout.

Nighthawk imagines a sunset fading. At the end, you hear the plaintive call of the bird in the grace notes.

One can imagine the ripples from various Lotus Flower Seeds as they spread and overlap with others as the white koi swims smoothly underneath.

Rainbows mentions early music. The independent lines of each voice recall the linear compositional style of medieval music.

This Members’ Library Edition is made possible by a generous donation from Dale Neiburg, a broadcast engineer and multi-instrumentalist from Washington, DC who has played recorder since the early 90’s. Dale wanted to sponsor a piece in hopes of encouraging composers to write for recorder, either alone or with other instruments (or poets!), to help expand the repertoire and range of musical styles available to recorder players and consorts.