Bamboo Grove

Instrumentation: soprano and  piano

Year: 2014

Duration: 6 minutes

Program Note:
The text of this piece comes from a poem by Michael Dickman called Wang Wei: Bamboo Grove, an allusion to the 8th century Chinese poet Wang Wei and his poem Bamboo Grove.  In Dickman’s work, the narrator of the poem sits alone in a bamboo grove listening to the sounds around him and reflecting on his thoughts.  The poem is a personal reflection on his own existence and by the end of the poem the narrator seems comfortable being alone, both in the grove itself but also in his life.  One of the things that attracted me to the poem was the vivid description of the sounds in and around the grove.  Dickman takes great care to set the scene and the ambience.  Due to this detailed portrayal of the setting, the poem evokes a very particular mood for me that I wanted to capture.  Bamboo Grove was premiered by Alexandra Porter and JJ Penna in February, 2015.