for shamisen/voice and cello (2017)
premiere: Duo Yumeno, January 5, 2018
Bargemusic Here and Now Winter Festival, Brooklyn NY.
duration: 7:30
program note
Hope in one glance was commissioned by Duo Yumeno (Yoko Reikano Kimura, shamisen and voice; Hikaru Tamaki, cello) who premiered it on January 5, 2018, at Bargemusic in Brooklyn, New York. It is inspired by texts from Voices of Japan, tanka written by survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Often, the austere stillness of the shamisen floats over the lyrical and flowing cello. The ichi-sagari shamisen tuning matches the three lowest open strings of the cello, and open strings feature prominently for both sawari and resonance.
in one glance –
landscape
reduced to a blotted wasteland,
narcissus blooming heroically
in a garden
Keiko Hangui, Fukushima March 2012
一望の 荒地と化しし 汚染の地の 庭にけなけに 水仙の咲く
半杭 螢子
(福島県 2012年3月)
_______________________________________________________
not knowing how long I can live,
with not much time remaining,
dreaming of
a safe, final resting place
I sleep
Nobuko Kato, Iwate December 2011
あてど無き 余生なりせど 安住の 終の住処を 夢見て眠る
加藤 信子(岩手県 2011年12月)
（ 終の住処 ＝ ついのすみか）
_______________________________________________________
These two poems come from Voices from Japan, a collection of tanka (a traditional poetic form of 31 mora, or syllables) written in response to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and originally published in the Asahi Shinbun.
Used with permission:
Isao and Kyoko Tsujimoto , Studio for Cultural Exchange, Tokyo.
English translations by Joan Ericson, Amy Heinrich, and Laurel Rasplica Rodd.
日本からの声
文化交流工房
辻本 勇夫
辻本 京子