Tsuki 2026

This five-movement piece revolves around the moon, or ‘Tsuki’ in Japanese. It draws very loosely on several haikus in which this celestial body—so prominent in the imagery of these short, dazzling poems – features prominently. The musical composition follows the imagery of the poems and draws upon it, with a touch of humour underpinning these brief flashes of inspiration. The use of quarter-tones lends a distinctive colour to the whole; here, they take the form of fragmentary insertions of Eastern modes (maqams), like snippets of memory that surface during a dreamy stroll.

“The piece was conceived so that it could be expanded to an orchestral ensemble comprising students from the first and second cycles, with whom preparatory work was carried out to generate musical gestures and reflect on how to transcribe them in ways other than through traditional notation, by drawing on pictorial gestures. These elements have been incorporated into the final score, which can be performed by a wind quintet alone or with an orchestral extension of variable size”. Zad Moultaka