The Cuckoo and the Moon


|   UTSA Department of Music Main Page  |  UTSA Electronic Music Studio Page  |  
|  Back to David Heuser's Web Page  |   Back to Works Page  |


Hear an excerpt of this piece.

Instrumentation: SATB Chorus
Year Composed: 2004
Duration: 15 minutes
Text by: Matsuo Basho (translated by Harold G. Henderson; text is in English)
Pages: 29

Movements:
I. Clouds*
II. The Cuckoo’s Song
III. The Cuckoo
IV. Bamboo Grove
V. Where the Cuckoo Flies
VI. The Harvest Moon

*Clouds is also available as a stand alone work.

How to get it:
Available from David Heuser directly.


Texts:

I. Clouds
Clouds come from time to time
to bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the Moon.

II. The Cuckoo’s Song
As the cuckoo flies,
its singing stretches out:
upon the water lies.

III. The Cuckoo
Little gray cuckoo:
sing and sing; and fly and fly –
Oh, so much to do!

IV. Bamboo Grove
Song of the cuckoo:
in the grove of great bamboos,
moonlight seeping through.

V. Where the Cuckoo Flies
Where the cuckoo flies
till it is lost to sight – out there
a lone island lies.

VI. The Harvest Moon
Harvest moon:
around the pond I wander
and the night is gone.

Text from An Introduction to Haiku by Harold G. Henderson.
Copyright © 1958 by Harold G. Henderson.
Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.



Copyright © 2004, David Heuser
Revised - June 2004
Email any problems, questions or requests about this page to dheuser@utsa.edu
URL: http://music.utsa.edu/electron/cuckoomoon.htm