This Passing World

This Passing World was inspired by Ono no Komachi, who was a ninth-century Japanese court poet whose poems of longing return again and again to beauty as it fades. In her most famous poem the flowers have faded while she passed through the world, gazing at the long rains. The verb for passing through a life is the same verb for rain falling, so a lifetime and a downpour are one gesture.

This piece is in three movements, and each explores ephemerality, like light as it fades. The guitar is a natural home for the idea. Every note is a small version of Komachi’s poem: it strikes, lingers, and is quickly extinguished. The music lives in that lingering, in what is still glowing a moment after it has begun to go.

It is the first solo piece I have written for classical guitar, after many years of writing for electric guitar, and it is for my friend Leonard Ranallo.