| 66 Times, the Voice of Pines and Cedars was written for soprano and chamber orchestra. With the exception of the last poem, all of the poems of this song cycle are taken from an English translation of Kokinshu, a collection of ancient Japanese poems from the early 10th century. The last poem was written at a later time by a Zen nun. All of the poems, however, share similar characters; they are all short depictions of nature. Furthermore, each poem represents a season within the entire seasonal cycle: it begins with Autumn, proceeds through Winter, Spring, Summer and finally returns to Autumn to complete the cycle.;The nature and subject matter of the poems have influenced the treatment of the material. Although voice and instruments have been treated with equal importance, they function differently. The instrumental ensemble has been used as the primary vehicle for depicting the scenes of the texts which are concurrently being enunciated by the voice. This "tone painting" function is similar to that of the orchestra in the symphonic poem. |
